Vocabulary Week 5 Gold

Vocabulary Week 5 GoldWord 1: Majestic Def: Impressively beautiful Sent: But the majestic river floated on, Out of the mist and hum of that low land Mathew Arnold

Word 2: Virtuoso Def: Someone highly skilled in the arts especially music Sent: The attraction of the virtuoso for the public is very like that of the circus for the crowd. There is always the hope that something dangerous will happen. Claude Debussy

Word 3: Juxtaposition Def: Placing two things next to each other for implicit comparison Sent: I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning Alfred N Whitehead

Word 4: Languid Def: Lacking energy and vitalitySent: Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds, Exhilarate the spirit, and restoreThe tone of languid nature. William Cowper

Word 5: Nadir Def: The lowest pointSent: As the blackness of the night recedes so does the nadir of yesterday. The child I am forgets so quickly. Sylvia Ashton-Warner

Word 6: Fecund Def: Fertile and fruitful Sent: I don't know what it is about fecundity that so appalls. I suppose it is the teeming evidence that birth and growth, which we value, are ubiquitous and blind, that life itself is so astonishingly cheap. Annie Dillard

Word 7: Cupidity Def: Strong greedy desire for money or possessions Sent: The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end. C L Lewis

Word 8: Decrepit Def: Weak or worn out from age Sent: The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down. T S Eliot

Word 9: Voracious Def: Having a huge appetite, or a big desire for something like a voracious reader Sent: There's a voracious appetite for capital at all levels in the Chinese market. It's a huge market. Steve Iger

Word 10: Exuberant Def: Full of happy enthusiasm Sent: Nothing ever succeeds which exuberant spirits have not helped to produce.Friedrich Nietzsche

Word 11: Dabble Def: To take part in or do something but not very seriously Sent: Poetry is an art, and chief of the fine art; the easiest to dabble in, the hardest in which to reach true excellence. Edmund Clarence Stedman

Word 12: Querulous Def: Habitually complaining, always feels wronged Sent: Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Word 13: Impetuous Def: Impulsive, marked by sudden and emotional reaction Sent: Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought. Thucydides

Word 14: Trepidation Def: State of anxiety and fear Sent: He, who controls his senses and 'sacrifices' himself in the 'fire of knowledge' does not have the slightest of trepidation and fear. Atharva Veda

Word 15: Satire Def: The use of irony, sarcasm and ridicule to point out the folly or make fun of something Sent: Bitter the jest when satire comes too near truth and leaves a sharp sting behind it. Publius Cornelius Tacitus

Word 16: Crepuscular Def: Active at dawn and dusk Sent: Ive been through their checkout and noted its resemblance to Hades - the crepuscular gloom, the dungeon lighting, the mile-long shuffling queue John Walsh

Word 17: Mesmerize Def: To capture the full attention of, hypnotize Sent: Once you lock eyes with her, you are mesmerized. Ever since I met her, she enchanted and inspired me. John Galiano

Word 18: Poignant Def: Profoundly touching or felt, evoking deep sadness or regret Sent: There are few sorrows, however poignant, in which a good income is of no avail. Logan Pearsall Smith

Word 19: Decapitate Def: To cut the head off Sent: It was dramatic to watch my grandmother decapitate a turkey with an ax the day before Thanksgiving. Russell Baker

Word 20: DrabDef: Not bright, dull, cheerlessSent: To be with the same person for the rest of your life just sounds so drab.