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acclaim
(n) [ə KLAYM] loud applause; approval. (When used as a verb, acclaim means “to applaud; to praise”) Jonas Salk won great acclaim for his medical discovery.
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admonish
(v) [ad MON ish] to advise against something; to warn; to scold gently; to urge strongly. The irate teacher admonished his students about the consequences of throwing spit-balls.
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anthropoid
(adj.) [AN thrə poyd] resembling humans. Assuming an anthropoid posture, Grendal rose onto his rear legs and burst into Herot to attack the sleeping Danes.
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bizarre
(adj.) [bi ZAR] strikingly odd in appearance or style; grotesque. I thought it rather bizarre of Mrs. Greene to will her entire fortune to her cats.
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carping
(adj.) [KAR ping] complaining, fault finding. Even though we enjoyed Cousin Hillary, her constant carping about the weather made us happy when she returned to Oregon.
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emulate
(v) [EM yə layt] to try to equal or surpass; to imitate. When they were in high school together, Dudley’s kid brother always tried to emulate him.
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hierarchy
(n) [HI ə rar kee] organization by rank, class, or grade. In the hierarchy of this company, I’m low man on the totem pole.
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judicious
(adj.) [joo DISH əs] wise; careful; showing sound judgment, prudent. Gary thought it more judicious to speak to his mother rather than father about letting him stay out till 1:00 a.m.
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plebeian
(adj.) [PLEE bee ən] coarse; vulgar. (From the Latin name for the lower classes). Despite his cultivated accent and meticulous table manners, Hortence’s plebeian humor revealed a crudeness he could not suppress.
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polyglot
(adj.) [POL ee glot] speaking many languages; (n) a mixture of languages; someone who speaks many languages. Stepping into the London Tube, the tourist was surrounded by the polyglot conversations in languages unknown to him.
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precocious
(adj.) [pri KO shəs] having or showing much more ability or knowledge than is usual at such a young age; early or prematurely ripe or developed. The precocious Mozart is said to have composed music at the age of three.
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repugnant
(adj.) [ri PUG nent] disgusting; loathsome; objectionable. The idea of eating snails was repugnant to Herbert who had too vivid memories of poisoning them in his garden.
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tenuous
(adj.) [TEN yoo əs] flimsy, weak. Under ferocious attack, the Union troops saw their tenuous hold on Little Round Top gradually weakening as the afternoon progressed.
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thwart
(v) [THWORT] to oppose directly; to baffle; to block; to frustrate. The tight defense was able to thwart a touchdown in the last thirty seconds of play.
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verbatim
(adj.) [vur BA tim] word for word; exact quotation. The court recorder read a verbatim transcription of the knave’s response after he denied admitting he had eaten the tarts.
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