Vocabulary #3

1.)apostate: one who forsakes his/her religion, party, or cause.
When the candidate switched his campaign slogan people saw it as apostate.

2.)bravado: a display of false or assumed courage.
The batter approached the plate with such bravado that you couldn't even tell he was nervous.

3.)consensus: a collective or general agreement of opinion, feeling, or thinking.
The team came to a consensus on what kind of jersey they wanted.

4.)constrict: to make smaller or narrower, draw together, squeeze; to stop or cause to falter.
Volleyball really constricts my homework time. 

5.)dichotomy: a division into two contradictory or mutually exclusive parts; a branching or forking in an ancestral line. 
Our basis for the case studies is that this division mirrors a perceived dichotomy between left-and right-brained modes of cognitive processing.

6.)effusive: highly demonstrative; unrestrained.
The child's effusive behavior was probably due to the lack of parental guidance.

7.)euphoria: a feeling of great happiness or well-being, often with no objective basis.
People who run marathons have been known to be in a state of euphoria after crossing the finish line.

8.)gothic: characterized by or emphasizing a gloomy setting and grotesque or violent events; such a literary or artistic style; a type of medieval architecture.
Old Irish castles tend to have a gothic style.

9.)impasse: a dead end; a position from which there is no escape; a problem to which there is no solution
After attempting every cure she found on the internet the girl determined that her cracked phone was impasse.

10.)lugubrious: sad, mournful, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree
The students seemed to be lugubrious after coming back to school from winter break.

11.)metamorphosis: a complete transformation, as if by magic.
The boy seemed to have had a metamorphosis when he grew six inches over the summer.

12.)mystique: an aura or attitude of mystery or veneration surrounding something or someone.
The quiet girl who seemed to know everything about everyone had a mystique about her.

13.)non sequitur: an inference or conclusion that does not follow logically from the facts or premises.
After arguing for a while the two came to a non sequitur.

14.)parlous: full of danger or risk, perilous.
The parlous climb only attracted a few risk takers.

15.)punctilio: a minute detail of conduct or procedure; an instant of time.
No mission should ever be compromised by diplomatic punctilio.

16.)quagmire: a difficult or entrapping situation; soft, soggy mud or slush.
The girl's web of white lies turned out to be a quagmire for her.

17.)quixotic: extravagantly or romantically idealistic; visionary without regard to practical considerations.
The girl was quixotic when it came to believing in love at first sight.

18.)raconteur: a person who tells stories and anecdotes with great skill.
An orator can also be a raconteur.

19.)sine qua non: an essential or indispensable element or condition.
The terms and conditions is usually seen as sine qua non.

20.)vendetta: a prolonged feud, often between two families, characterized by retaliatory acts of revenge; any act of motivated vengeance.
The Capulets and the Montagues had a serious vendetta.