Barron 3500 list 17

V. burden. Some people encumber themselves with too much luggage when they take short trips.

N. fond statement. Your gifts and endearments cannot make me forget your earlier insolence.

ADJ. prevailing among a specific group of people or in a specific area or country. This disease is endemic in this part of the world; more than 80 percent of the population are at one time or another affected by it.

V. approve; support. Everyone waited to see which one of the rival candidates for the city council the mayor would endorse. (secondary meaning) endorsement, N.

ADJ. lasting; surviving. Keats believed in the enduring power of great art, which would outlast its creators' brief lives.

V. invigorate; make forceful and active. Rather than exhausting Maggie, dancing energized her.

V. weaken. She was slow to recover from her illness; even a short walk to the window would enervate her.

V. to admit to the rights of citizenship (especially the right to vote). Although Blacks were enfranchised shortly after the Civil War, women did not receive the right to vote until 1920.

V. attract; hire; pledge oneself; confront. "Your case has engaged my interest, my lord," said Holmes. "You may engage my services."

ADJ. charming; attractive. Everyone liked Nancy's pleasant manners and engaging personality.

V. cause; produce. To receive praise for real accomplishments engenders self-confidence in a child.

V. occupy fully. John was so engrossed in his studies that he did not hear his mother call.

V. increase; improve. You can enhance your chances of being admitted to the college of your choice by learning to write well; an excellent essay can enhance any application.

N. puzzle; mystery. "What do women want?" asked Dr. Sigmund Freud. Their behavior was an enigma to him.

ADJ. obscure; puzzling. Many have sought to fathom the enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa.

N. ill will; hatred. At Camp David, President Carter labored to bring an end to the enmity that prevented the peaceful coexistence of Egypt and Israel.

N. boredom. The monotonous routine of hospital life induced a feeling of ennui that made him moody and irritable.

N. hugeness (in a bad sense). He did not realize the enormity of his crime until he saw what suffering he had caused.

V. please intensely. The audience was enraptured by the freshness of the voices and the excellent orchestration.

V. settle comfortably. Now that their children were ensconced safely in the private school, the jet-setting parents decided to leave for Europe.

N. group of (supporting) players; organic unity; costume. As a dancer with the Oakland Ballet, Benjamin enjoyed being part of the ensemble. Having acted with one another for well over a decade, the cast members have developed a true sense of ensemble: They work together seamlessly. Mitzi wore a charming two-piece ensemble designed by Donna Karan.

V. require; necessitate; involve. Building a collegelevel vocabulary will entail some work on your part.

ADJ. full of initiative. By coming up with fresh ways to market the company's products, Mike proved himself to be an enterprising businessman.

V. capture; enslave. From the moment he saw her picture, he was enthralled by her beauty.

V. lure; attract; tempt. She always tried to entice her baby brother into mischief.

N. right to claim something; right to benefits. While Bill was entitled to use a company car while he worked for the firm, the company's lawyers questioned his entitlement to the vehicle once he'd quit his job.

N. real being. As soon as the Charter was adopted, the United Nations became an entity and had to be considered as a factor in world diplomacy.

N. study of insects. Kent found entomology the most annoying part of his biology course; studying insects bugged him.

N. group of attendants; retinue. Surrounded by the members of his entourage, the mayor hurried into city hall, shouting a brusque "No comment!" to the reporters lining the steps.

V. put under a spell; carry away with emotion. Shafts of sunlight on a wall could entrance her and leave her spellbound.

V. plead; ask earnestly. She entreated her father to let her stay out till midnight.

N. businessman; contractor. Opponents of our present tax program argue that it discourages entrepreneurs from trying new fields of business activity.

V. list; mention one by one. Huck hung his head in shame as Miss Watson enumerated his many flaws.

V. speak distinctly. Stop mumbling! How will people understand you if you do not enunciate?

N. long period of time; an age. It has taken eons for our civilization to develop.

ADJ. short-lived; fleeting. The mayfly is an ephemeral creature: its adult life lasts little more than a day.

N. long heroic poem, or similar work of art. Kurosawa's film Seven Samurai is an epic portraying the struggle of seven warriors to destroy a band of robbers. alsoADJ.

N. connoisseur of food and drink. Epicures frequent this restaurant because it features exotic wines and dishes. epicurean,ADJ.

N. witty thought or saying, usually short. Poor Richard's epigrams made Benjamin Franklin famous.

N. short speech at conclusion of dramatic work. The audience was so disappointed in the play that many did not remain to hear the epilogue.

ADJ. loosely connected; divided into incidents. Though he tried to follow the plot of Gravity's Rainbow, John found the novel too episodic; he enjoyed individual passages, but had trouble following the work as a whole.

ADJ. consisting of letters. Mark Harris's Wake Up, Stupid! is a modern epistolary novel that uses letters, telegrams, and newspaper clippings to tell the hero's story. The movie You've Got Mail tells a story using e-mail; does that make it an e-pistolary movie? epistle, N.

N. inscription in memory of a dead person. In his will, he dictated the epitaph he wanted placed on his tombstone.

N. word or phrase characteristically used to describe a person or thing. So many kings of France were named Charles that you could tell them apart only by their epithets: Charles the Wise was someone far different from Charles the Fat.

N. perfect example or embodiment. Singing "I am the very model of a modern Major-General," in The Pirates of Penzance, Major-General Stanley proclaimed himself the epitome of an officer and a gentleman.

N. period of time. The glacial epoch lasted for thousands of years.

ADJ. tranquil; steady; uniform. After the hot summers and cold winters of New England, he found the climate of the West Indies equable and pleasant.

N. calmness of temperament; composure. Even the inevitable strains of caring for an ailing mother did not disturb Bea's equanimity.

N. rider on horseback. These paths in the park are reserved for equestrians and their steeds. alsoADJ.

N. balance. After the divorce, he needed some time to regain his equilibrium.

ADJ. resembling a horse. His long, bony face had an equine look to it.

N. period of equal days and nights; the beginning of Spring and Autumn. The vernal equinox is usually marked by heavy rainstorms.

ADJ. fair; impartial. I am seeking an equitable solution to this dispute, one that will be fair and acceptable to both sides.

N. fairness; justice. Our courts guarantee equity to all.

ADJ. ambiguous; intentionally misleading. Rejecting the candidate's equivocal comments on tax reform, the reporters pressed him to state clearly where he stood on the issue. equivocate,V.

V. lie; mislead; attempt to conceal the truth. The audience saw through his attempts to equivocate on the subject under discussion and ridiculed his remarks.

V. eat away. The limestone was eroded by the dripping water until only a thin shell remained. erosion, N.

ADJ. pertaining to passionate love. The erotic passages in this novel should be removed as they are merely pornographic.

ADJ. odd; unpredictable. Investors become anxious when the stock market appears erratic.

ADJ. mistaken; wrong. I thought my answer was correct, but it was erroneous.

ADJ. learned; scholarly. Though his fellow students thought him erudite, Paul knew he would have to spend many years in serious study before he could consider himself a scholar.

N. prank; flighty conduct. The headmaster could not regard this latest escapade as a boyish joke and expelled the young man.

N. avoiding reality by diverting oneself with amusements. Before you criticize her constant reading as mere escapism, note how greatly her vocabulary has improved since she began spending her days buried in books.

V. avoid. Hoping to present himself to his girlfriend as a totally reformed character, he tried to eschew all the vices, especially chewing tobacco and drinking bathtub gin.

ADJ. hard to understand; known only to the chosen few. The New Yorker short stories often include esoteric allusions to obscure people and events: the implication is, if you are in the in-crowd, you'll get the reference; if you come from Cleveland, you won't.

N. Spying. In order to maintain its power, the government developed a system of espionage that penetrated every household.

V. adopt; support. She was always ready to espouse a worthy cause.

V. respect; value. Jill esteemed Jack's taste in music, but she deplored his taste in clothes.

ADJ. separated; alienated. The estranged wife sought a divorce. estrangement, N.

ADJ. light; heavenly; unusually refined. In Shakespeare's The Tempest, the spirit Ariel is an ethereal creature, too airy and unearthly for our mortal world.

ADJ. relating to races. Intolerance between ethnic groups is deplorable and usually is based on lack of information.

N. underlying character of a culture, group, etc. Seeing how tenderly ordinary Spaniards treated her small daughter made author Barbara Kingsolver aware of how greatly children were valued in the Spanish ethos.

N. study of word parts. A knowledge of etymology can help you on many English tests: if you know what the roots and prefixes mean, you can determine the meanings of unfamiliar words.