Word List 2
coalesce: come together to form one mass or whole. The puddles had coalesced into a small stream.
curated: carefully chosen and thoughtfully organized or presented. individuals still desire curated news content.
stick around: remain in or near a place. I’d like to stick around and watch the game.
extravaganza: an elaborate and spectacular entertainment or production. A three-hour extravaganza of country music.
dalliance: a casual (brief) romantic or sexual relationship. Jack was not averse to an occasional dalliance with a pretty girl.
nemesis: Someone’s nemesis is a person or a thing that is very difficult from to defeat; Will Harry Potter finally defeat his nemesis, Voldemort?
conundrum: (puzzle, riddle) a confusing and difficult problem or question. He is faced with a conundrum of trying to find a job without having experience.
humdrum: dull, lacking excitement or variety. Even the most humdrum exp become enjoyable.
rupture: an instance of breaking or bursting suddenly and completely. If the main artery ruptures he could die.
tutelage: protection of a authority over someone or something guardianship. He felt privileged to be under the tutelage of an experienced actor.
laureate: a person who is honored with an award for outstanding creative or intellectual achievement. a Nobel laureate.
cordial: warm and friendly. the atmosphere was cordial and relaxed.
inadvertent: not resulting from or achieved through deliberate planning. With an inadvertent gesture, she swept the vase off the table.
vendetta: a blood feud in which the family of a murdered person seeks vengeance on the murderer or the murderer’s family. V for Vendetta.
taskmaster: a person who imposes a harsh or onerous workload on someone; Our new teacher is a harsh taskmaster.
onerous: (of a task, duty, or responsibility) involving an amount of effort or difficulty that is oppressively burdensome; he found his duties increasingly onerous.
reconnaissance: military observation of a region to locate an enemy or ascertain strategic features; an excellent aircraft for low-level reconnaissance.
prescient: having or showing knowledge of events before they take place; a prescient warning.
proposition: a statement or assertion that expresses a judgment or opinion
charred: burned and blackened
Eucharistic: (Eu•cha•ristic) relating to the Christ service, ceremony, or sacrament of the Eucharist, in which bread and wine are consecrated and consumed to commemorate the Last Super
transubstantiation: (especially in Roman Catholic Church) the conversion of the substance of the Eucharistic elements into the body and blood of Christ at consecration, only the appearances of bread and wine still remaining.
atheism: disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods
imbibe: drink, absorb or assimilate (ideas or knowledge)
percolate: (of a liquid or gas) filter gradually through a porous surface or substance
disenthrall: set free
voluptuous: curvaceous and sexually attractive (typically used of a woman)
abound: exist in large numbers or amounts
non sequitur: a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement
syphilis: a highly contagious sexually transmitted bacterial infection characterized by painless sore on the genitals, rectum or mouth
fizz: (of a liquid) produce bubbles of gas and make a hissing sound
jurisprudence: the theory or philosophy of law
reciprocal: given, felt or done in return; In Math, the reciprocal is the inverse of a number: 8 -> 1/8;
parsimony: extreme unwillingness to spend money or use resources
modus operandi: a particular way or method of doing something, especially one that is characteristic or well-established
impartial: treating all rivals or disputants equally, fair and just
embody: be an expression of or give a tangible or visible form to (an idea, quality, or feeling)
tantalize: torment or tease (someone) with the sight or promise of something that is unobtainable
devout: having or showing deep religious feeling or commitment
infinitive: the basic form of a verb, without an inflection binding it to a subject or tense
pedophile: a person who is sexually attracted to children; person with pedophilia;
ordain: make (someone) a priest or minister; confer holy orders on; appoint;
enormity: the great or extreme scale, seriousness, or extend of something perceived as bad or morally wrong
prevaricate: speak or act in an evasive way; 策应；
deplore: feel or express strong disapproval of (something)
antiquarian: relating to or dealing in antiques or rare books
inductive: characterized by inference or general laws from particular instances
basket case: originally referred to soldiers who had lost all four limbs and had to be carried by others.
predicament: a difficult, unpleasant, or embarrassing situation. And worst of all, we feel this predicament is entirely our fault and that we lack the ability to make positive changes.
impotent: unable to take effective action; helpless or powerless. We fell impotent.
fester: (of a negative feeling or a problem) become worse or more intense. (of food or garbage) become rotten and offensive to the senses. If we allow regret to fester, however, reliving our past blunders and choices over and over
impersonate: pretend to be (another person) as entertainment or in order to deceive someone.
tweak: improve (mechanism or system) by making fine adjustment.
overhaul: take apart in order to examine it and repair it if necessary.
ordeal: a painful or horrific experience. in the midst of their ordeal.
epiphany: a moment of sudden revelation or insight. in the midst of their ordeal they experienced extraordinarily rich epiphanies in response to such simple events as hearing the song of a bird in the forest, completing a hard task
conceivable: capable of being imagined or grasped mentally. as anything else we can conceivably imagine.
parturient: about to give birth; in labor; a woman in labor;
forfeit: lose or be deprived of (property or right or privilege) as a penalty for wrongdoing. who let instinct rather than reflection dictate actions, forfeited the right to be accepted as a member of the community.
omnipotent: (of a deity) having unlimited power, able to do anything;
desultory: lacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm; or by diffusing it in desultory, random movements.
delinquent: showing a tendency to commit crime;
caravan: a vehicle equipped for living in, typically a trailer towed by a car and used when traveling for recreation;
pomade: a scented ointment or oil applied to the hair.
emphatic: showing or giving emphasis; expressing something forcibly and clearly; the children were emphatic that they would like to repeat the experience.
stigma: a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality or person. the stigma of having gone to prison will always be with me.
conducive: making a certain situation or outcome likely or possible. Once conditions conducive to happiness have been arranged, they should be nurtured continuously.
immediate family: A person’s closest relatives, including their spouse, parents, siblings, and children.
obstinate: refusing to change one’s opinion or chosen course of action; stubborn.
adulation: obsequious flattery; excessive admiration or praise.
autocratic: relating to a ruler who has absolute power;
coercion: the practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats. An autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates.
churn out: produce something in large quantities. Don’t just churn our code.
allegory: a story, poem or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. Bike-shedding is an allegory by ..;
snob: snob is a pejorative term for a person who believes there is a correlation between social status and human worth. Her mother was a snob and wanted a lawyer as a son-in-law; Don’t be a language snob.
wiry: (of a person) lean, tough, and sinewy, thin but strong.
sinewy: having strong and lean muscles, or being tough and difficult to cut or chew.
sinew: a piece of tough fibrous tissue uniting muscle to bone or bone to bone; a tendon or ligament;
incomparable: without an equal in quality or extent; matchless. This great church is an incomparable work of art.
zenith: the time at which something is most powerful or successful. Under Justinian, the Byzantine Empire reached its zenith of influence.
aristocracy: the highest class in certain societies, especially those holding hereditary titles or offices. Come from the Greek word aristokratia, which means “rule by the best”.
excruciating: intensely painful; agonizing; extremely painful;
complacent: showing smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one’s achievements.
same as ever
apt: appropriate or suitable in circumstances; With a large enough sample, any outrageous thing is apt to happen,
reversion: a return to a previous state; Reversion to the mean is one of the most common stories in history.
surfeit: an excessive amount of something; History reveals no instances of a conqueror being surfeited by conquests.
fluke: an unlikely chance occurrence, especially a surprising piece of luck; It was a complete fluke, a random and thoughtless bit of dumb luck that became the most important decision of my life.
calamity: a disaster; an event causing great and often sudden damage or distress; Study history, and the calamity that followed the booming in 1920s, late 1990s….
embellishment: a decorative detail or feature added to something to make it more attractive; And all these suffer from misinterpretation, incompleteness, embellishment, lying, and selective memory.
stratify: form or arrange into strata (stratum; layer); arrange or classify; By the early 1980s, the postwar togetherness that dominated the 1950s and ’60s gave way to more stratified growth, where many people plodded along while a few grew exponentially wealthier.
candid: frank; truthful and straightforward; We should be less than candid at this grave moment if we did not recognize the great disparity between…
destitute: penniless; without the basic necessities of life; They can make a celebrity feel miserable and a destitute family feel amazing.
savant: a very learned or talented person, especially one distinguished in a particular field of science or the arts; He was as close to a flying savant as they come.
callus: a thickening of or a hard thickened area on skin or bark; In meetings he would chew calluses off his hands and spit the dead skin across the table.
trove: a store of valuable or delightful things; John once purchased a trove of Isaac Newton’s original papers at auction.
stash: store safely and secretly; Many had never been seen before, as they had been stashed away at Cambridge for centuries.
egotistical: excessively conceited (excessively proud of oneself) or absorbed in oneself; self-centered; The kind of person who thinks normal constraints don’t apply to them — not in an egotistical way, but in a genuine, believe-it-in-your-bones way.
hyperbole: exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally; …colonizing Mars is not the kind of mindset that worries about the downside of hyperbole.
untenable: indefensible; (especially of a position or view) not able to be maintained or defended against attack or objection; …humanity is a computer simulation is not the kind of person worried about making untenable promises to shareholders.
moxie: force of character, determination, or nerve; You don’t run for president in your forties unless you have a certain moxie.
gradation: a scale or a series of successive changes, stages, or degrees; Probability is about nuance and gradation.
jostle: push, elbow, or bump against (someone) roughly, typically in a crowd; …to be dogged by that frightening sense of insecurity which comes from being jostled by forces — economic, political, international — beyond one’s ken.
ken: one’s range of knowledge or sight; such determination is beyond my ken.
eon: (aeon, pl-aeons, eon, pl-eons) an indefinite and very long period of time 宙; It is easy to see how evolution would make animals, over the eons, drift toward such quick elimination of doubt.
scourge: a person or thing that causes great trouble or suffering; This caused a push among economists to try to eradicate the scourge of recessions.
seminal: (of a work, event, moment, or figure) strongly influencing later developments; Minsky’s seminal theory was called the financial instability hypothesis.
on steroids: used to suggest a highly exaggerated, enhanced, or accelerated version of something; A good idea on steroids quickly becomes a terrible idea.
conversant: familiar with or knowledgeable about something; full stack developers need to be conversant with how to design, structure, and test projects...
rapport: a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well. She was able to establish a good rapport with the children.
hedonistic: engaged in the pursuit of pleasure, sensually self-indulgent; Despite his hedonistic lifestyle, he kept in great shape. He wastes his little income on hedonistic pursuits.
rate-buster: An employee who is highly productive and exceeds the formally agreed rate of output for the particular task; No one likes the rate-buster because the rate-buster makes them look bad and establishes a new standard and norm. The rate-buster makes the 2x people around them uncomfortable.
linchpin: a person or thing vital to an enterprise or organization. He is the linchpin of the team.
fiduciary: involving trust, especially with regard to the relationship between a trustee and a beneficiary. the company has a fiduciary duty to shareholders.
cushy: (of a job, task, or situation) undemanding, easy or secure. He let go of a cushy and prestigious position that had become 2x, not 10x.
cookie-cutter: denoting something mass-produced or lacking any distinguishing characteristics. He’s living by example, not offering broad and cookie-cutter theory or products.
avid: having or showing a keen interest in or enthusiasm for something. keen, eager; He’s an avid tennis player and wants to play in college.
guild: a medieval association of craftsmen or merchants, often having considerable power; an association of people for mutual aid or the pursuit of a common goal
rugged: having or requiring toughness and determination. austere, tough
individualist: a person who is independent and self-reliant. a rugged individualist driven to succeed
distinguished: successful, authoritative and commanding great respect; Marcus sprang from a distinguished enough family.
glean: extract (information) from various sources; and his early adolescence we know little more than can be gleaned from the Meditations.
falconry: the sport hunting with falcons or other birds of prey; but also he loved boxing, wrestling, running and falconry.
rudiment: the first principles of (a subject); basics; from whom he would have mastered the rudiments of reading and writing.
courtier: a person who attends a royal court as a companion or adviser to the king or queen; Marcus’s spoken and written Greek would have been as fluent as the French of a nineteenth-century Russian aristocrat or the Chinese of a Heian Japanese courtier.
chariot: a two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle used in ancient warfare and racing. Not to support this side or that in chariot-racing, this fighter or that in the games.
slander: the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person’s reputation. To do my own work, mind my own business, and have no time for slanderers.
conjure: call upon (a spirit or ghost) to appear, by means of a magic; they hoped to conjure up the spirit of their dead friend.
incantation: /ˌinˌkanˈtāSH(ə)n/: a series of words said as a magical spell or charm; an incantation to raise the dead.
exorcism: the expulsion or attempted expulsion of a supposed evil spirit from a person or a place; Not to be taken in by conjurors and hoodoo artists with their talk about incantations and exorcism and all the rest of them.
sermon: a talk on a religious or moral subject, especially one given during a church service and based on a passage from the Bible; (informal) a long a tedious piece of admonition (reprimand, rebuke, reproach, admonishment, reproof); a lecture; Not to write treatises on abstract questions, or deliver moralizing little sermons.
admonish: warn or reprimand someone firmly; reprimand; rebuke; scold; reprove; she admonished me for appearing at breakfast unshaven.
belles-lettres: /ˌbelˈletrə/: essays, particularly on literary and artistic criticism, written and read primarily for their aesthetic effect. To steer clear of oratory, poetry and belle lettres.
stroll: walk in a leisurely way; Not to dress up just to stroll around the house, or things like that.
conciliatory: intended or likely to placate or pacify; And to behave in a conciliatory way when people who have angered or annoyed us want to make up.
placate: make (someone) less angry or hostile; they attempted to placate the students with promises.
fleeting: lasting for a very short time; hoping to get a fleeting glimpse of a whale underwater; Independence and unvarying reliability, and to pay attention to nothing, no matter how fleetingly, except the logos.
pretension: the use of affectation to impress; ostentatiousness; To praise without bombast; to display expertise without pretension.
affectation: /ˌaˌfekˈtāSH(ə)n/: behavior, speech, or writing that is artificial and designed to impress; the affectation of a man who measures every word for effect. A man who has never left his state but speaks with a British accent is exhibiting affectation.
ostentatious: characterized by vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress or attract notice; showy; books that people buy and display ostentatiously but never actually finish.
obtrusive: noticeable or prominent in an unwelcome or intrusive way; or make other contribution to the discussion — and insert the right expression, unobtrusively.
malice: the intention or desire to do evil; ill will; I bear no malice to anybody.
hypocrisy: /həˈpäkrəsē/: the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform; pretense; his target was the hypocrisy of suburban life.
ruthlessness: the quality of lacking pity or compassion for others; To recognize the malice, cunning, and hypocrisy that power produces, and the peculiar ruthlessness often shown by people from “good families”.
grudge: (noun) a persistent feeling of ill will or resentment resulting from a past insult or injury; she held a grudge against her former boss.
grudging: given, granted, or allowed only reluctantly or resentfully; reluctant (unwilling, hesitant); a grudging apology.
feign: pretend to be affected by (a feeling, state, or injury); To show your teachers ungrudging respect, and your children unfeigned love.
whining: the making of a long, high-pitched cry or sound; Doing your job without whining.
apprehensive: anxious or fearful that something bad or unpleasant will happen; anxious; he felt apprehensive about going home.
aback: to be very surprised or shocked, usually in taken aback; Never taken aback or apprehensive;
at a loss: puzzled or uncertain what to think, say, or do. she became popular, and was at a loss to know why.
obsequious: obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree; Neither rash nor hesitant—or bewildered, or at a loss. Not obsequious—but not aggressive or paranoid either.
servile: /ˈsərv(ə)l,ˈsərˌvīl/: having or showing an excessive willingness to serve or please others. he bowed his head in a servile manner.
patronize: treat in a way that is apparently kind or helpful but that betrays a feeling of superiority; That no one could ever have felt patronized by him—or in a position to patronize him.
indifference: lack of interest, concern, or sympathy; Compassion. Unwavering adherence to decisions, once he’d reached them. Indifference to superficial honors. Hard work. Persistence.
dogged: having or showing tenacity and grim persistence; His dogged determination to treat people as they deserved.
altruism: the belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern fro the well-being of others; some may choose to work with vulnerable elderly people out of altruism.
permeate: (verb) spread throughout (something); pervade; If federal law permeated matters at the state level…
lesion: a region in an organ or tissue which has suffered damage through injury or disease, such as a wound.
acclamation: loud and enthusiastic approval, typically to welcome or honor someone or something; His restrictions on acclamations — and all attempts to flatter him.
stewardship: the job of supervising or taking care of something, such as an organization or property; His constant devotion to the empire’s needs. His stewardship of the treasury. steward: (n | v): a person who (v): supervise arrangements or keep order at;
demagoguery: political activity or practices that seek support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument; 煽动; Demagoguery about China is hardly new to presidential campaigns, but the latest rhetoric is particularly irresponsible.
curry favor: ingratiate oneself with someone through obsequious behavior; a wimpish attempt to curry favor with the new bosses
ingratiate: bring oneself into favor with someone by flattering or trying to please them. a social climber who had tried to ingratiate herself with the city gentry.
wimpish: (informal): weak and cowardly or unadventurous; she was too wimpy to say what she really thought.
pander: gratify or indulge (an immoral or distasteful desire, need, or habit or a person with such a desire); newspapers are pandering to people’s baser instincts. baser: morally low; his attitude to men: no demagoguery, no currying favor, no pandering.
fad: an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived and without basis in the object’s qualities; a craze; Always sober, always steady, and never vulgar or a prey to fads.
glib: (of words or the person speaking them) fluent and voluble but insincere and shallow; 油嘴滑舌; she was careful not to let the answer sound too glib; No one ever called him glib, or shameless, or pedantic.
pedantic: /pəˈdan(t)ik/: of or like a pedant(/ˈped(ə)nt/: a person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning); many of the essays are long, dense, and too pedantic to hold great appeal.
denigrate: /ˈdenəˌɡrāt/: criticize unfairly; disparage; defame, attack someone’s reputation; there is a tendency to denigrate the poor; His respect for people who practiced philosophy — at least, those who were sincere about it. But without denigrating the others — or listening to them.
disparage: /dəˈsperij/: (v) regard or represent as being of little worth; he never missed an opportunity to disparage his competitors.
hypochondriac: /ˌhīpōˈkändrēˌak/: a person who is abnormally anxious about their health; His willingness to take care of himself. Not a hypochondriac or obsessed with his appearance, but not ignoring things either. hypochondria: unfounded belief that one is sick;
yield the floor: when they have finished speaking; his willingness to yield the floor to experts.
go off on a tangent: to suddenly start talking or thinking about a completely new subject; Not prone to go off on tangents, or pulled in all directions, but sticking with the same old places and the same old things.
migraine: a recurrent throbbing headache that typically affects one side of the head and is often accompanied by nausea and disturbed vision; The way he could have one of his migraines and then go right back to what he was doing — fresh and at the top of his game.
throbbing: beating with a strong, regular rhythm; pulsating; the war drums throbbed.
abstain: restrain oneself from doing or enjoying something; he knew how to enjoy and abstain from things that most people find it hard to abstain from and all too easy to enjoy.
indomitable: impossible to subdue or defeat; a woman of indomitable spirit; Strength, perseverance, self-control in both areas: the mark of a soul in readiness — indomitable.
renounce: formally declare one’s abandonment of (a claim, right, or possession). … emphasizes the importance of renouncing certain desires or habits that we might be addicted to, especially when these are commonly regarded as good or desirable by the majority (the mob).
eschew: deliberately avoid using; abstain from. … suggests that true greatness of soul is achieved not by pursuing what everyone else finds desirable, but rather by rising above these common desires. This might involve eschewing materialism, fame, or other societal measures of success in favor of deeper, more meaningful virtues like wisdom, justice, and self-discipline.
disdain: consider to be unworthy of one’s consideration. … suggests that in order to stand out and maintain greatness of soul, one must learn to disdain (or regard as unimportant) those things that the majority consider highly desirable.
snub: rebuff, ignore, or spurn disdainfully. This is not about snubbing these things out of arrogance, but about recognizing that such desires often lead to a superficial and unfulfilling life.