Vocabulary #1

adumbrate: to produce a faint image or resemblance of, to outline or sketch of.
Ex. If it wasn't for my family, I wouldn't have the adumbration to write a personal statement.
apotheosis: elevation or exaltation of a person to the rank of a god.
Ex. Pharaohs were usually treated to be apotheosis by high priests.
ascetic: a person who dedicates his or her life to a pursuit of contemplative ideals and practices extreme self-denial or self-mortification for religious reasons.
Ex. Monks are ascetics who like to spend their time in peaceful observations and general silence over nature.
bauble: a showy, usually cheap, ornament; trinket; gewgaw
Ex. Why don't bauble necklaces sell for more at the swap meet even if there is wide variety of them?
beguile: to influence by trickery or flattery, etc; mislead; delude
Ex. Street magicians beguile their audiences with those trickster deck of cards.
burgeon:  to grow or develop quickly, flourish
Ex. Infants burgeon the use of their voices at a really early incipient age.
complement: something that completes or makes perfect
Ex. In literature, complementary clauses make sense for a fragmented sentence
contumacious: Stubbornly perverse or rebellious; willfully and obstinately disobedient
Ex. Some kids can be contumacious; it's annoying when they don't listen to you.
curmudgeon: a bad tempered, difficult, cantankerous person
Ex. It's a good idea for a curmudgeon to take anger-management classes if he can't control himself.
didactic: intended for instruction; instructive
Ex. The professor can be very didactic when she talks about the theory of evolution.
disingenuous: lacking in frankness, candor, or sincerity; falsely or hypothetically
Ex. It's disingenuous to be at the dinner table and burp out loud.
exculpate: to clear from charge of guilt or fault; free from blame; vindicate
Ex. Prisoners living death row are rarely exculpated if their case was reviewed, therefore getting an unlikely chance of release.
faux pas: a slip or blunder in etiquette, manners, or conduct; an embarrassing social blunder or indiscretion
Ex. American manners may be a little faux pas compared to other countries manners
fulminate: to explode with a loud noise; detonate; to issue denunciations or the like
Ex. I fulminated the bubble wrap and the whole looked at me because of the loud sound.
fustian: a stout fabric of cotton and flax; pompous or pretentious talk or writing
Ex. Stephen King wrote with a fustian style of writing that really brought light into people's minds.
hauteur: haughty manner or spirit; arrogance
Ex. The nobles were hauteur toward the peasants because of how much property they owned
inhibit: to restrain, hinder, arrest, or check; limit the range or extent of; to put down by force or authority
Ex. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States wanted to inhibit the placement of missiles in Cuba by Russia.
jeremiad: a prolonged lamentation or mournful complaint
Ex. The little girl had a jeremiad over the fact of losing her doll.
opportunist: a person who practices opportunism, or the policy of adapting actions, decision, etc. to effectiveness regardless of the sacrifice of ethical principles
Ex. The Ferguson riots are happening because of opportunists who don't live in that local area.
unconscionable: not guided by conscience; unscrupulous
Ex. Sometimes people feel unconscionable when they're actually doing something wrong.