Fifty difficult words with meanings and examples

 

50 Difficult Words with Meanings and Examples

Abnegation: Renouncing a belief or doctrine

Example: “I believe in the abnegation of political power”

Aggrandize : enhance power, wealth or status

Example: It was an action intended to aggrandize the Frankish dynasty.

Alacrity : Eagerness

Example: He accepted the invitation with alacrity.

Anachronistic : misplaced chronologically

Example: He is rebelling against the anachronistic morality of his parents.

Archetypal : quintessential of a certain kind

Example: She is the archetypal country doctor.

Ascetic : one who practices self-denial as part of spiritual discipline

Example: She has adopted an ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and manual labour.

Beguile : influence someone in a deceptive way

Example: He beguiled the voters with his good looks.

Blandishment : intentional flattery for persuasion

Example: The blandishments of the travel brochure.

Cajole : persuade by flattery or coaxing

Example: He hoped to cajole her into selling the house.

Callous : disregard for others

Example: Her callous comments about the murder made me shiver.

Camaraderie : a sense of solidarity arising out of familiarity and sociability

Example: I like the enforced camaraderie of office life.

Circumlocution : expressing someone in an indirect way.

Example: His admission came after years of circumlocution.

Clamor : proclaim something noisily

Example: The questions rose to a clamour in the meeting.

Cognizant : awareness or realization

Example: Politicians must be cognizant of the political boundaries within which they work.

Construe : interpret or assign meaning

Example: His words could hardly be construed as an apology.

Convivial : enjoyable atmosphere or jovial company

Example: It is a convivial cocktail party.

Demagogue : a political leader who uses rhetoric to appeal to prejudices and desires of ordinary citizens

Example: The minister is a gifted demagogue with particular skill in manipulating the press.

Denigrate : belittle someone

Example: There are many doom and gloom merchants who denigrate their own country.

Didactic : instructive with a moral intent

Example: It is a didactic novel that set out to expose social injustice.

Disparate : of a distinct kind

Example: They inhabit disparate worlds of thought.

 

Eclectic : deriving the best ideas and styles from a diverse range of sources

Example: My university is offering an eclectic mix of courses.

Egregious : reprehensible or outrageously bad

Example: It is an egregious abuse of copyright.

Embezzlement : misappropriation of funds

Example: He has charges of fraud and embezzlement.

Enervate : lacking in vitality or mentally/ morally drained

Example: The weather has an enervating heat today.

Ephemeral : lasting for a short duration

Example: Fads are ephemeral: new ones regularly drive out the old.

Equanimity : maintaining composure in stressful situations

Example: He accepted both the good and the bad with equanimity.

Fatuous : devoid of intelligence

Example: It was a fatuous comment.

Gratuitous : uncalled for or unwarranted

Example: Gratuitous violence was reported.

Iconoclast : someone who criticizes or attacks cherished ideas and beliefs

Example: His son Gegnesius in 722 was taken to Constantinople, where he won over to his opinions the iconoclast emperor, Leo the Isaurian.

Idiosyncratic : something peculiar to an individual

Example: He emerged as one of the great, idiosyncratic talents of the nineties.

Incumbent :something that is morally binding

Example: The government realized that it was incumbent on them to act.

Inveterate : habitual

Example: She is an inveterate gambler.

Libertarian : someone who cherishes ideas of free will

Example: He is studying libertarian philosophy.

Licentious : someone who is promiscuous

Example: The ruler’s tyrannical and licentious behaviour.

Largess : Kindness or Generosity in bestowing gifts or money

Example: The king can’t bestow these costly jewels with such largess

Multifarious : multifaceted or diverse

Example: The university offers multifarious activities.

Obdurate : being stubborn and refusing to change one’s opinion

Example: I argued this point with him, but he was obdurate.

Ostracism : excluding a person or certain section from society by majority consent

Example: “I argued this point with him, but he was obdurate”

Pejorative : showing disapproval

Example: Permissiveness is used almost universally as a pejorative term.

Pertinacious : someone who is stubbornly unyielding

Example: She worked with a pertinacious resistance to interruptions.

Phlegmatic : expressing little or no emotion

Example: He portrays the phlegmatic British character on the show.

Promulgate : to broadcast or announce

Example: These objectives have to be promulgated within the organization.

Quotidian : something that is of daily occurrence

Example: The car sped noisily off through the quotidian traffic.

Recalcitrant : resistant to authority

Example: A class of recalcitrant fifteen-year-olds raided the store.

Sanctimonious : pretense of being morally pious to exhibit moral superiority

Example: What happened to all the sanctimonious talk about putting his family first?

Solipsism : the philosophical theory that only the self-existence is known and all that exists

Example: We cannot avoid the popularity of solipsism mentality.

Travesty : distorting facts or imitation

Example: The absurdly lenient sentence is a travesty of justice.

Ubiquitous : omnipresent or existing everywhere

Example: His ubiquitous influence was felt by all the family.

Vicissitude : an unwelcome or unpleasant change in circumstances or fortune

Example: Her husband’s sharp vicissitudes of fortune.

Vociferous : something or someone who is offensively/ conspicuously loud.

Example: He was a vociferous opponent of the takeover.

20 More Words

Abject : Experienced or present to the maximum degree

“The result plunged her into abject misery”

Abscond : Leave hurriedly and secretly

“After her secret was revealed she absconded from the party”

Bereft : Deprived of or lacking“

The house bereft of colours and painting”

Calumny : The making of false and defamatory statements about someone in order to damage their reputation

“He doesn’t seem like a person who would spread a calumny of others”

Capitulate : Cease to resist an opponent or an unwelcome demand

“Our forces were prepared to capitulate enemies”

Umbrage : Annoyance or offence

“She took umbrage of his rude comment.”

Emollient : Having the quality of softening or soothing the skin

“I prefer using an emollient shampoo over others”

Dirge : A lament for the dead, especially one forming part of a funeral rite

“When Rachel sang a dirge for her father, everyone had teary eyes”

Dispel : make doubt disappear

“The calmness of the morning dispel Ross’s disappointment”

Epistolary : In the form of letters

“My grandparent’s college times epistolary collection is very interesting.”

Exacerbate : To make a situation, a bad feeling or a problem worse

Example: According to a survey stress can cause or exacerbate health conditions the humans.

Forbearance : Self-control, Patience, Tolerance

Example: Without forbearance, Ray wouldn’t have cleared his house loan.

Gourmand: A person who likes and enjoys eating food

Example: If you are a dessert gourmand, then you must try Kentucky Cholocalate Pie.

Heterogeneous : Diverse in content or character

Example: I gave him heterogeneous ideas for his master’s thesis topics.

Impecunious : Having less money or no money at all

Example: After buying a new house, Sam was so impecunious that he couldn’t even afford Christmas cards.

Pellucid : Clear, Easy to understand, comprehensible

Example: His pellucid explanation on why he wants to leave the job made higher authorities release him without any conditions.

Philanthropic : An organisation or person promoting the welfare of others

Example: Because of the financial aid received by the philanthropic bodies, Kate managed to complete her higher education.

Protean : Frequently changing, Trending, Versatile

Example: Vicky Kaushal is a protean actor who is capable of performing any kind of role.

Spurious : Illegitimate, False

Example: They made spurious claims of accidents just to get the insurance funds.