Vocabulary #4

1.)accolade: praise or approval; a ceremonial embrace or greeting.
The girl's coach gave her some accolade in the paper after her great game.

2.)acerbity: sourness or bitterness of taste; harshness or severity of manner or expression.
The mean girls approached the new girl with acerbity.

3.)attrition: the process of wearing down by friction or gradual impairment.
There is a very low attrition, with only two people failing to complete the program over the last 25 years.

4.)bromide: a trite or commonplace remark; a tiresome or boring person; a sedative.
The substitute was quite a bromide, droning on about "back in his day".

5.)chauvinist: extravagantly patriotic; blindly devoted to a cause; or (noun) a person like that.
When the Olympics roll around a lot of chauvinists come out of hiding.

6.)chronic: continuing over a long period of time or recurring often.
The boy's chronic tardiness became a problem when his grades started slipping.

7.)expound: to explain in detail.
I needed my coach to expound the new drill we would be doing.

8.)factionalism: party strife and intrigue.
October also saw factionalism develop within the communist league.

9.)immaculate: spotless; without blemish or fault.
My room has to be immaculate before I can go to bed at night.

10.)imprecation: a curse; the act of cursing.
The bad call in the football game resulted in a lot of imprecations from the crowd.

11.)ineluctable: not able to be avoided, changed, or overcome.
College admissions are an ineluctable part of senior year.

12.)mercurial: characterized by rapid and unpredictable changes of mood; fickle or inconstant.
The assigning of homework was mercurial because the teacher was constantly changing her mind.

13.)palliate: to make less serious or severe by glossing over; to relieve without actually curing, mitigate.
The administrators wanted to palliate the issue involving their star quarterback.

14.)protocol: customs and regulations dealing with official behavior and etiquette; a type of international agreement; an official account or record.
Each employee has to meet a certain protocol.

15.)resplendent: shining or gleaming brilliantly; splendid or magnificent.
The resplendent ring looked magnificent in the sunlight.

16.)stigmatize: to brand or mark as in some way discreditable, disgraceful, or ignominious.
Stigmatized groups receive support from and learn from parents and family how to cope with hostility from society.

17.)sub rosa: in secret; confidentially; privately.
The student waited around after class to discuss her grade sub rosa.

18.)vainglory: excessive pride in and boastfulness about one's own accomplishments or qualities; a vain show or display.
There was one teammate who seemed to have a lot of vainglory.

19.)vestige: a trace or visible evidence of something that once existed but is now lost or vanished.
An old photograph is a vestige that there was a friendship between the now sworn enemies.

20.)volition: the power to choose, will, or decide; the act of choosing, willing, or deciding.
The judges had the volition on the elimination episode.