favorite word?

[Niantiel]

Misanthropic.

 

[LoneStar1989]

My favorite word is INCANDESCENT... sigh... something happens inside me when I say it =D

 

[Mouse]

Loved.

 

[Solivagant]

I have so many! =D


I'll start with A:

Abaft - to the rear of; aft of

Aberrant - departing from the right, normal, or usual course; deviating from the ordinary, usual, or normal type; atypical; abnormal

Abet - to encourage or support by aid or approval, usually in wrongdoing

Abrade - to scrape off

Abscond - to depart secretly

Abstemious - temperate; abstinent; refraining from indulgence

Accretion - an increase by natural growth or by gradual external addition

Acedia - (Latin) spiritual torpor and apathy; ennui; want of interest in life; boredom; one of the 7 deadly sins

Acerbic (wit) - sour or bitter

Acme - the highest point of something

Acrimonious - bitter and sharp in language or tone; rancorous

Adage - a traditional saying that expresses a common experience or observation, whose truth or value has been proved through long use

Adamo - (Latin) to fall in love with

Addle - to make or become confused; mentally confused; muddled

Adroitness - (repartee); cleverness; sleight; quick, skillful, or adept in action or thought under pressing conditions

Adulation - servile flattery; exaggerated and hypocritical praise; excessive flattery or admiration

Adumbrative - vague; give a sketchy outline of; prefigure indistinctly; foreshadow; disclose partially or guardedly; overshadow; shadow or obscure

Adventive - not native and usually not yet well established, as exotic plants or animals

Adytum - a sacred place that the public is forbidden to enter; an inner shrine

Aegis - protection; support; sponsorship; auspices

Aesopian - conveying meaning by hint, euphemism, innuendo, or the like

Aesthete - (or esthete) a person who has or claims to have refined sensitivity toward the beauties of art or nature

Afflatus - a strong creative impulse, especially as a result of divine inspiration; divine guidance and motivation imparted directly; inspiration

Aghast - struck by shock, terror, or amazement

Agog - in eager desire; highly excited by eagerness, curiosity, anticipation, etc.

Ahoka - (from Japanese "aho" and "doaho", "idiot/moron"): "What the hell/fresia?!"

Akimbo - with hand on hip and elbow bent outward

Alacrity - cheerful willingness; liveliness and eagerness; speed or quickness; celerity

Alate - having wings; winged

Amalgamate - to combine a mixture of diverse elements into a unified or integrated whole; unite

Ambisinister - clumsy or unskillful with both hands

Ambrosial - exceptionally pleasing to taste or smell; especially delicious or fragrant

Ambsace - the smallest amount or distance

Anacoluthia - lack of grammatical sequence or coherence, esp. in a sentence

Anagnorisis - the Greek word for 'recognition' or 'discovery', the turning point in a drama at which a character (usually the protagonist) recognizes the true state of affairs, having previously been in error or ignorance

Anahme nape - (Lakota) secret escape

Anamnesis - the recollection or remembrance of the past

Anathema - one who is cursed or damned; one who is greatly reviled, loathed, or shunned; a denunciation invoking a wish or threat of evil or injury; an object of extreme dislike

Anergia - abnormal lack of energy

Angelos - messenger

Animadvert - to comment unfavorably or critically

Anneal - to toughen or temper

Anoesis - a state of mind consisting of pure sensation or emotion without cognitive content

Anomaly - deviation or departure from the normal or common order, form, or rule; one that is peculiar, irregular, abnormal, or difficult to classify

Anomie - a sense of loneliness and anxiety; a lack of social norms, normlessness

Anthropocentric - regarding the human being as the central fact of the universe

Antipathy - a strong feeling of repugnance or enmity; an object of aversion

Aoristic - indefinite, indeterminate

Aphorism - a short pithy instructive saying; a tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion; an adage

Aphotic - lightless; dark

Aplomb - confidence; coolness

Apodictic - necessarily true or logically certain

Apophenia - the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data; the perception of or belief in connectedness among unrelated phenomena; believing to see a difference or meaning when the given result is attributable to chance

Aporia - difficulty determining the truth of an idea due to equally valid arguments for and against it; an irresolvable internal contradiction; the expression of doubt or perplexity

Appetence - intense desire; strong natural craving; appetite

Apposite - of striking appropriateness and relevance to a situation or subject; apt; pertinent

Apricity - The sun's warmth on a cold winter day

A priori - not based on prior study or examination; conceived beforehand

Aqueous - watery; consisting of water, like water, or containing water

Arch - cunning, crafty, sly

Arrearage - the state of being behind in the fulfillment of obligations or of being overdue in payment; a payment owed

Asinine - devoid of intelligence; utterly foolish, silly, or foolish; of, relating to, or resembling an ass

Askance - with suspicion, mistrust, or disapproval

Assay - to examine or analyze

Assiduous - diligent; unceasing; persistent; marked by careful unremitting attention or persistent effort

Ataraxia - a state of freedom from emotional disturbance and anxiety

Athazagoraphobia - The fear of forgetting, being forgotten or ignored, or being replaced

Aureate - characterized by an ornate style of writing or speaking

Autocrat - a ruler who has absolute power; someone who insists on complete obedience from others; an imperious or domineering person; a tyrant

Autodidact - one who is self-taught

Autoschediastical - something that is improvised or extemporized

Aver - to assert as true

Axiom - a self-evident or universally recognized truth; maxim; a saying that is widely accepted on its own merits

 

[Solivagant]

B:

Backchat - light teasing repartee

Badinage - light, playful banter

Bailiwick - a person's specific area of knowledge, authority, interest, skill, or work

Baleful - menacing or harmful; threatening evil

Bandersnatch - an imaginary wild animal of fierce disposition

Befuddle - to confuse; perplex

Bellicose - inclined and eager to fight; aggressively hostile

Bellwether - a person or thing that assumes leadership; a person or thing that shows the existence or direction of a trend; a leader or leading indicator

Belphegor - the demon of sloth

Berate - scold, censure severely or angrily

Bespoke - custom-made

Bibliophage - an ardent reader; a bookworm

Billingsgate - coarse or vulgar abusive language

Birr - force; energy; vigor

Blandishment - flattering speech or action

Bleb - a bubble

Bleeding edge - the most advanced stage of a technology, art, etc., usually experimental and risky

Blithe - lacking thought or consideration, heedless; lighthearted in disposition, cheerful

Bluestocking - a woman with considerable scholarly, literary, or intellectual ability

Bobbery - a disturbance or a brawl

Boscage - a mass of trees or shrubs

Braird - to sprout; appear above the ground

Bravura - a musical piece requiring great skill and spirited performance

Brobdingnagian - gigantic, enormous

Brogue - any strong regional accent

Brouhaha - turmoil or commotion; uproar; confusion

Brumal - wintry

Brume - fog, mist

Bugbear - a persistent problem or source of annoyance; a real or imaginary source of fright or fear; a bugaboo

Byzantine - complex or intricate

 

[Solivagant]

C:

Cachinnate - to laugh loudly or immoderately

Caliginous - dark, misty, and gloomy

Calvous - lacking all or most of the hair on the head; bald

Canard - a false or baseless, usually harmful story, report, or rumor

Candlewaster - philosopher; bookworm; one who consumes candles by being up late for study

Canny - careful; cautious; prudent

Canticle - a song, poem, or hymn especially of praise

Capitulate - surrender under agreed conditions

Carrean - to go at full speed, especially in a reckless way; to lean to one side while in motion; sway

Carte blanche - (French) unconditional authority; full power to do as one wishes; (not preceded by the word "a")

Catachresis - misuse or strained use of words in error or for rhetorical effect

Catawampus - off-center; askew; awry

Cater-cousin - an intimate friend

Catholic (adj.) - universal, widespread; broad-minded, liberal

Catoptromancy - divination using a mirror

Cause celebre - (French) any controversial issue, person, or event that attracts great public attention

Caveat - a warning or caution

Celerity - swiftness of action or motion; speed

Celtari - (Old High German) gaited horse (amble)

Centripetal - moving or directed toward the center

Cerebral - characterized by the use of the intellect rather than intuition or instinct

Chatoyant - changing in luster or color

Chicanery - trickery or deception by quibbling or sophistry; the use of clever but tricky talk or action to deceive, evade, etc., as in legal dealings

Chichi - affectedly trendy

Chilling effect - a discouraging or deterring effect, especially one resulting from a restrictive regulation

Chimerical - created by or as if by a wildly fanciful imagination; highly improbable; given to unrealistic fantasies; dreamlike, phantasmal

Chortle - to utter, or express with, a snorting, exultant laugh or chuckle

Churlish - boorish or rude

Chutzpa (or chutzpah) - shameless boldness; nerve, audacity; (In "The Joys of Yiddish", Leo Rosten defines chutzpanik as "the man who shouts 'Help! Help!' while beating you up".)

Cimmerian - very dark; gloomy; deep

Circuitous - roundabout; not direct

Circumspect - watchful and discreet; cautious; prudent

Claque - a group of insincere flatterers; a group hired to applaud an act or performer

Clinquant - glittering, tinsel-like; tinsel

Collogue - to confer secretly

Collop - a small slice of meat

Compendious - containing or stating briefly and concisely all the essentials; succinct; compendium - a short, complete summary; an abstract; a list or collection of various items

Compunction - a strong uneasiness caused by a sense of guilt; a sting of conscience or a pang of doubt aroused by wrongdoing or the prospect of wrongdoing

Concatenate - to connect or link in a series or chain

Conciliate - to overcome the distrust or hostility of; placate; win over

Concinnity - harmony in the arrangement or interarrangement of parts with respect to a whole; studied elegance and facility in style of expression

Concupiscible - worthy of being desired

Confute - to refute conclusively

Conglobate - to form into a ball

Connubial - of or pertaining to marriage

Consanguineous - related by blood; descended from the same ancestor

Contumelious - exhibiting contumely, rudeness or contemptuousness arising from arrogance; insolent; disdainful; shameful; disgraceful

Copse - a thicket of small trees or bushes; a small wood

Corpulent - fat

Cortege - a procession, especially a ceremonial one

Corybantic - frenzied; agitated; unrestrained

Cosher - to treat with special fondness

Cosmogony - a theory or story of the origin and development of the universe

Cosset - to treat with excessive indulgence; to pamper

Cozen - to mislead by means of a petty trick, fraud, or misrepresentation; to persuade or induce to do something by cajoling or wheedling; to obtain by deceit or persuasion

Crepitate - to make a crackling sound; crackle

Cull - something picked out from others, especially something rejected because of inferior quality; to remove rejected members or parts from; to select, gather, or collect

Cupidity - avarice or covetousness; excessive desire, especially to possess something

 

[Solivagant]

D:

Daedal - skillful; artistic; ingenious

Darkle - to grow dark, gloomy, etc.

Deadpan - marked by or accomplished with a careful pretense of seriousness or calm detachment

Decendent - a dead person

Decrypt - to decode or decipher

Defenestrate - to throw out of a window

Degage - unconstrained; easy, as in manner or style

Deipnosophist - a person who is a good conversationalist at the dinner table

Delineate - to portray in words or represent pictorially; to describe with precision; to trace the outline of; to reduce to a line

Delitescent - hidden; concealed; latent

Demagogue - a leader who obtains power by means of appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace

Demotic - of or pertaining to the common people; popular

Denouement - the final resolution of a plot

Derelict - in a very poor condition as a result of disuse and neglect; a person without a home, job, or property; deserted by an owner or keeper; abandoned; run-down; dilapidated; neglectful of duty or obligation; remiss

Desideratum - something desired

Desinence - a termination or ending, as the final line of a verse

Desultory - hit-or-miss; having no set plan; haphazard or random; moving or jumping from one thing to another; disconnected; lacking in consistency, method, purpose, or visible order

Deucedly - devilishly; damnably

Diablerie - deviltry; reckless mischief; extreme cruelty; wickedness; evil magic, sorcery, witchcraft

Diaphanous - allowing light to pass through

Dichotomy - division or classification into two usually contradictory parts or opinions; being twofold

Dilatory - given to, or marked by, procrastination or delay

Dipsomania - an irresistible, typically periodic craving for alcoholic drink

Discombobulated - thrown into a state of confusion

Disembarrass - to rid or relieve of something embarrassing, annoying, entangling, perplexing, or burdensome; a freeing from impeding or superfluous matter; to free from something bothersome or encumbering

Disinter - exhume; to bring something hidden to light

Divagate - to wander; stray

Dithyrambic - wildly enthusiastic

Dogged - persistent in effort; stubbornly determined

Doki-doki - (Japanese) the sound of a heartbeat

Dorsal - situated on the back

Double-dealing - duplicitous or deceitful; treacherous

Double Entendre/Adianoeta - a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways; often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué, inappropriate, or ironic

Druthers - one's own way, choice, or preference

Dudgeon - a state or fit of intense indignation

Dulcet - pleasant to the ear; melodious; sweet

 

[Solivagant]

E:

Echelon - a level of command, authority, or rank

Eclat - showy or elaborate display; brilliance of success, reputation, etc.

Ectype - a reproduction; copy

Edifice - a building, organization, or system, especially a large or imposing one

Educe - to draw forth or bring out, as something potential or latent

Efface - to cause to disappear by rubbing out, striking out, etc.

Effervescent - bubbling; full of joyful, unrestrained high spirits; ebullient

Effloresce - to burst into blossom; bloom

Effulgent - shining forth brilliantly or brightly; gleaming, radiant; refulgent

Effluvium - a slight or invisible exhalation or vapor, esp. one that is disagreeable

Eidolon - a phantom; an apparition; an image of an ideal

Eisegesis - an interpretation that expresses the interpreter's own ideas, bias, or the like, rather than the meaning of the text

Ejecta - ejected matter

Elan - dash, vivacity, or verve

Eleemosynary - charitable; relating to charity

Elegiac - relating to the mourning or remembering of the dead

Elide - to suppress; omit; ignore; pass over

Ellipsis - pl. Ellipses; omission or suppression of parts of words or sentences; the omission of a word or phrase necessary for a complete syntactical construction but not necessary for understanding; ex: "..."; a mark or series of marks (... or * * * , for example) used in writing or printing to indicate an omission, especially of letters or words; from Latin ellipsis, Greek elleipsis, elleipein, "to fall short"

Elucidate - to make lucid or clear; explain

Emend - to free from faults or errors; correct

Enantiodromia - the changing of something into its opposite; a principle stating that the superabundance of any force inevitably produces its opposite, equivalent to the principle of equilibrium in the natural world, in that any extreme is opposed by the system in order to restore balance

Enceinte - pregnant

Encomium - warm, glowing praise; a formal expression of praise; a tribute; panegyric

Endemic - belonging exclusively or confined to a particular place

Entelechy - a realization or actuality as opposed to a potentiality

Entente cordiale - a friendly understanding

Epicene - having the characteristics of both the male and the female

Equivocate - to be deliberately ambiguous or unclear

Erren - (Latin) wandering

Erubescent - becoming red or reddish; blushing

Eschatological - regarding last, or final, matters, often of a theological nature

Eschew - to shun, avoid

Esprit - liveliness of mind or spirit; sprightliness

Estivate - to spend the summer, as at a specific place or in a certain activity

Ethereal - characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; intangible; highly refined; delicate; heavenly; not of this world; spiritual

Evanesce - to dissipate or disappear like vapor; to pass out of sight either gradually or suddenly

Eventide - evening

Excogitate - to consider or think something out carefully and thoroughly; ruminate

Excursus - a digression from the main topic, as in a discussion or literary work; a detailed discussion of some topic or point in a book

Execrate - to declare to be hateful or abhorrent; to feel loathing for; to invoke a curse on

Expectorate - to spit

Expletive - curse

Expostulate - to reason earnestly with someone against something that person intends to do or has done

 

[Solivagant]

F:

Factotum - a person employed to do all kinds of work

Fain - gladly; willingly

Fanfaronade - empty boasting; bluster

Fanzine - a magazine, especially one produced by amateurs, by and for enthusiasts of a subject

Farouche - sullenly unsociable or shy; wild or disorderly

Fascicle - small bundle

Fatuity - complacent stupidity; something foolish

Feckless - lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective; careless and irresponsible, not fit to assume responsibility

Feint - a pretended attack aimed at one place or point to distract from the real target; to make or deceive with a feint

Felo-de-se - one who deliberately puts an end to his own existence, or loses his life while engaged in the commission of an unlawful or malicious act; a suicide

Felonious - wicked; base; villainous

Ferly - something unusual, strange, or causing wonder or terror

Ferret - to search out, discover, or bring to light

Fetial - concerned with declarations of war and treaties of peace

Fey - possessing or displaying a strange and otherworldly aspect or quality

Fiat - from Latin ("Let it be done."); an authoritative or arbitrary decree, sanction, or order, especially by a person or group that has absolute authority

Fletcherize - to chew slowly and thoroughly

Foible - idiosyncrasy; shortcoming; a minor weakness or failing of character; slight flaw or defect; the weaker section of a sword blade, between the middle and point

Folie a deux - (French) the sharing of delusional ideas by two people who are closely associated

Foofaraw - excessive or flashy ornamentation; also, a fuss over a trivial matter

Footle - to act or talk in a foolish or silly way

Founder - to sink, collapse; to fail utterly

Frabjous - wonderful, elegant, superb, or delicious

Fractious - hard to manage, unruly

Frenetic - wildly excited or active; frantic; frenzied; excessively agitated; distraught with fear, anger, or other violent emotion

Frondescence - leafage; foliage

Fugacious - lasting but a short time

Fulgent - shining brightly; dazzling; radiant

Fungible - interchangeable

Fusillade - a rapid outburst or barrage

Fusty - having a stale smell; moldy; musty

 

[Solivagant]

G:

Gadfly - a person who persistently annoys or stirs up others, especially with provocative criticism

Gaffer - an old man

Gallimaufry - a confused or miscellaneous mixture; medley; a stew or hash; olio, salmagundi

Gallows humor - humor that treats serious, frightening, or painful subject matter in a light or satirical way

Galoot - an awkward, eccentric, or foolish person

Galvanize - to stimulate, stir, startle into sudden activity

Gambit - a maneuver by which someone tries to gain an advantage; ploy

Gammon - to deceive

Garrulous - given to excessive and often trivial talk; tiresomely talkative; wordy and rambling; chatty; full of trivial conversation

Gasconade - extravagant boasting; boastful talk

Gastronome - a lover of good food and drink

Gelid - very cold; icy

Genius - guardian angel

Geodesy - a branch of mathematics that deals with the position of geographical points, and the shape and dimensions of the earth

Germane - relevant and appropriate

Gerontocracy - a government consisting of elders

Gerrymander - the dividing of an area into election districts so as to give one political party a majority in many districts while reducing the strength of the other

Gest - a notable deed or exploit

Gestalt - a unified whole; a pattern or configuration that has unique properties that cannot be derived by a simple summation of its component parts

Gibbous - used to describe a heavenly body that is convex at both edges, such as the moon when it is more than half full

Gimmel - a ring consisting of a series of interlocking rings

Glabrous - having a surface without hair or down

Glace - ice placed in a drink to cool it

Glom - to steal; to glom onto, to grab or get hold of, either literally or figuratively

Glossolalia - incomprehensible speech; speaking in tongues

Gnathic - pertaining to the jaw

Gnosis - knowledge of spiritual matters; mystical knowledge

Golem - a figure artificially constructed in the form of a human being and endowed with life

Googol(plex) - a googol is 10 to the 100th power (which is 1 followed by 100 zeros), larger than the number of elementary particles in the universe, which amount to only 10 to the 80th power; googolplex for 10 to the power of googol (1 followed by 10 to the power of 100 zeros)

Gossamer - a fine, filmy cobweb; any thin, light fabric, especially one used for veils

Gray duck - an odd or eccentric person

Gratuitous - without apparent reason or cause; given, done, or obtained without charge; free, voluntary

Gravamen - the part of an accusation weighing most heavily against the accused

Gravitas - high seriousness

Grimalkin - a cat, usually old and often female; an ill-tempered old woman

Grimcrackery - cheap, showy, useless ornaments, trinkets, etc.

Gulosity - greediness or gluttony

Gyre - a ring or circle

 

[Solivagant]

H:

Hagiography - biased, uncritical praise of a person, especially by a biographer; a biography that idealizes its subject

Halcyon - calm, peaceful, tranquil; happy, joyful, carefree, undisturbed

Hamartia - tragic flaw; error or failure; the false step that leads the protagonist in a tragedy to his or her downfall

Harbinger - one that indicates or foreshadows what is to come; a presager

Harridan - a scolding, vicious woman

Hebetude - dullness of mind; mental lethargy

Hegemony - leadership, domination, or predominant influence

Hellacious - formidably difficult; distasteful and repellent; nasty, remarkable, unbelievable, unusual, astonishing

Hermeneutics - the art or science of critical interpretation, especially of a religious text; exegesis is the actually explanation or analysis of the text

Herpetology - the branch of zoology dealing with reptiles and amphibians

Heterotelic - having the purpose of its existence or occurrence apart from itself

Hiemal - of or pertaining to winter; wintry

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia - the fear of long words

Hiraeth - Homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. A Welsh word that has no direct English translation. The University of Wales, Lampeter attempts to define it as homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. It is a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, and the earnest desire for the past. Hiraeth bears considerable similarities with the Portuguese concept of saudade (a key theme in Fado music), Galician morriña and Romanian dor.

Hirsute - very hairy

Histrionic - overly dramatic or emotional in behavior or speech

Hoary - tedious from familiarity, stale; aged, ancient, so old as to inspire veneration; gray or white with or as if with age

Hobson jobson - the alteration of a word borrowed from a foreign language to accord more closely with the linguistic patterns of the borrowing language

Hodgepodge - a mixture of dissimilar ingredients; a jumble; odds and ends

Hogmanay - a gift given on New Year's Eve

Hokum - something apparently impressive or legitimate but actually untrue or insincere; nonsense; a message that seems to convey no meaning

Holus-bolus - all at once; altogether

Homologate - to approve; confirm or ratify

Hoodoo - bad luck, one that brings bad luck; to affect with a charm or curse

Hotchpot - the bringing together of shares or properties in order to divide them equally

Hotdog - to perform daring stunts or ostentatious maneuvers to attract attention

Hugger-mugger - secret haste

Hyaline - glassy or transparent

Hypnagogic - inducing sleep; of or pertaining to drowsiness

 

[Solivagant]

I:

Iatric - medical; describing or relating to a physician or medicine

Idioglossia - a private form of speech invented by a child or children

Idiopathic - of unknown cause

Idoneous - appropriate; fit; suitable; apt

Imago - an idealized concept of a loved one, formed in childhood and retained unaltered in adult life

Imbrication - overlapping, as of tiles or fish scales

Imbrued - bloodstained

Immolate - to kill as a sacrificial victim, especially by fire

Incendiary - causing or capable of causing fire; an arsonist

Inculcate - to teach and impress by frequent repetition or instruction

Indelible - impossible to remove, erase, or wash away; permanent; making a mark; unable to be forgotten; memorable

Indubitably - too apparent to be doubted; unquestionable; in a manner to remove all doubt

Ineffable - incapable of being expressed; indefinable or indescribable; not to be uttered; taboo

Inimicus - (Latin) enemy

Inkhorn - affectedly or ostentatiously learned; pedantic

Inordinate - excessive, beyond normal limits; exceeding reasonable limits, immoderate; not regulated, disorderly

Insouciance - blithe lack of concern; nonchalance; carefreeness; the cheerful feeling you have when nothing is troubling you

Inveigle - to obtain by ingenuity or flattery; to lure or persuade by artful talk or clever methods

Invidious - calumnious, libelous; tending to rouse ill will, animosity, or resentment; containing or implying a slight; discriminatory; envious

Irascible - easily provoked to anger

Irenic - promoting peace

Irrefragable - impossible to refute

Isolato - a person who is spiritually isolated from or out of sympathy with his or her times or society

 

[Mouse]

Suspenders.

 

[Solivagant]

J:

Jactation - a restless tossing of the body

Jaundiced - affected with or exhibiting prejudice, as from envy or resentment

Jejunity - the quality of being jejune; uninteresting, dull; lacking maturity, childish; lacking in nutrition



K:

Katzenjammer - an alcoholic hangover; uneasiness or nervousness

Kef - a state of drowsy contentment

Kenspeckle - conspicuous; easily seen or recognized

Kibitzer - someone who volunteers unwanted advice

Knavery - unprincipled, untrustworthy, or dishonest dealing; trickery

Knucker - water dragon

 

[Solivagant]

L:

Lackadaisical - lacking spirit, liveliness, or interest; languid; dreamy

Laconic - using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise

Lacuna - an empty space or a missing part; a gap

Lagniappe - a tip; gratuity; a small gift given with a purchase to a customer, for good measure

Lave - to wash; bathe

Lassitude - a state or feeling of weariness, diminished energy, or listlessness

Lexicography - the writing or compiling of dictionaries

Lickerish - fond of and eager for choice food

Lilliputian - extremely small; tiny; diminutive

Lionize - to treat or regard as an object great interest or importance

Lithy - (Old English) be quiet and listen

Littoral - pertaining to the shore of a lake, sea, or ocean

Logomachy - an argument or debate marked by the reckless or incorrect use of words; a dispute about or concerning words

Loll - to recline or lean in a relaxed, lazy, or indolent manner; lounge

Lollop - to move forward with a bounding or leaping motion

Loquacious - talkative

Lucent - shining with a light, glowing; translucent, clear

Lucifugous - avoiding light

Lucubrate - to work, write, or study laboriously, especially at night

Lucubration - laborious work, study, thought, etc., especially at night

Lummox - a clumsy, stupid person

Lurid - causing shock or horror; gruesome; horrible in fierceness or savagery

Lyard - streaked or spotted with gray or white

 

[Solivagant]

M:

Macabre - cadaverous; suggestive of death

Machismo - exaggerated masculinity

Mahetaha - (Lakota) from within

Makebate - a person who causes contention or discord

Maladroit - marked by a lack of adroitness; inept; not skillful or adept under pressing conditions; an inept person

Malaise - a vague feeling of bodily discomfort, as at the beginning of an illness; general sense of depression or unease

Malinger - to feign illness or inability; to avoid responsibilities and duties by pretending to be ill

Malison - a curse

Mansuetude - mildness; gentleness

Mantic - of or pertaining to divination

Manumit - to free from slavery or bondage

Marcescence, Marcescent - withering but not falling off (as a dead leaf stays attached to a tree)

Maven - an expert or connoisseur

Mawkish - excessively and objectionably sentimental, esp. in a weak or maudlin way; nauseating or insipid in taste

Meme - a cultural practice or idea that is passed on by repetition, similar to the transmission of genes

Mendacity - lying, a lie

Meretricious - apparently attractive but having in reality no value or integrity; tawdrily and falsely attractive; attracting attention in a vulgar manner, tastelessly showy, gaudy, flashy; of or relating to a prostitute, having the nature of prostitution

Meritocracy - government or the holding of power by people selected on the basis of their ability, society governed by such people; a system in which the talented are chosen and moved ahead on the basis of their achievement; leadership selected on the basis of intellectual criteria

Metaphrastic - having the quality of a literary work that has been translated or changed from one form to another, as prose into verse

Metempirical - beyond or outside the field of experience

Mettle - courage and fortitude

Micromanage - to manage or control with excessive attention to minor details

Milquetoast - a very timid, unassertive, spineless person

Misanthrope, Misanthropist - one who dislikes people in general; one who hates or mistrusts humankind

Misericord - a dagger used for the mercy stroke to a wounded foe

Misology - distrust or hatred of reasoning or knowledge

Missive - a written message; a letter, esp. a long or official one

Mithridate - a confection believed to contain an antidote to every poison

Mitigate - to lessen in force or intensity, as wrath, grief, harshness, or pain; moderate

Moiety - a half, or some indefinite portion or share

Mokumoku - (Japanese) silent

Mondegreen - misread or misheard lyrics; a word or phrase resulting from a misinterpretation of a word or phrase that has been heard (ex. "Our Father which art in Heaven, Harold be thy name.")

Moniker - a nickname or alias

Mono no aware - (Japanese) the "ahness" of life/love/things

Moot - of little or no practical value or meaning; hypothetical; open to discussion or debate; doubtful; purely academic

Morass - labyrinth; marsh or bog; something that hinders, engulfs, or overwhelms

Mordancy - bitingly sarcastic; a caustic quality; irony or bitterness, as of tone

Moribund - stagnant; not growing or changing; without force or vitality; approaching death; about to die; on the verge of becoming obsolete

Morwinyon - (Elvish) a glint in the dark

Moue - a pouting grimace

Mountebank - a phony; charlatan

Moxie - vigor, pep; boldness, nerve

Mucronate - pointed; ending abruptly in a sharp point
Synonyms: Acicular, Aciculate, Aciculated; Acuminate; Cuspate, Cuspated; Cuspidate, Cuspidated

Mundify - to purge or purify

 

[Aztorak]

Apex -noun: apex; plural noun: apexes; plural noun: apices
Definition: The top or highest part of something, especially one forming a point.

I'm not sure why but I just find this particular word really cool.

 

[Solivagant]

N:

Nacreous - lustrous; pearly

Nahmana - (Lakota) spy; sly; secret

Nakama - (Japanese) having a friend who is like family but not related by blood

Nascent - coming (or having recently come) into existence; emerging; being born or beginning to develop

Natheless - nevertheless

Nebulize - to become vague, or indistinct

Nebulous - vague; confused

Nefarious - infamous by way of being extremely wicked

Neophyte - a beginner or novice

Neoterism - an innovation in language, as a new word, term, or expression

Nichtsnutz - a German word meaning a person who is good-for-nothing, a bum, a lazy person, or a ne'er-do-well; composed of the words nichts, meaning 'nothing', and nutz, meaning 'use'

Nihilism - a doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated; rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief; the belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement

Nihilophobia - the fear of nothingness

Nix - forbid, refuse, veto, command against; nothing; a water sprite of German mythology, usually in human form or half-human and half-fish

Nobble - to win a person over; to outdo or get the better of by devious means; to filch or steal; to kidnap; to diddle or swindle

Nocturne - an artistic work appropriate to the night

Noisome - offensive or disgusting, as an odor

Nonplus - at a loss; filled with bewilderment; to render utterly perplexed; puzzle completely; to put at a loss; confound

Nosh - to snack or eat between meals

Nostrum - a questionable remedy

Novation - the introduction of something new; innovation

Nugatory - trifling or worthless; ineffective

Nyctophilia, Nyctophiliac - A lover of darkness or night; Finding relaxation or comfort in the darkness

Nyctophobia - an abnormal fear of night or darkness

 

[Solivagant]

O:

Obdurate - stubborn or hardhearted

Obeah - a form of religious belief involving sorcery that originated in West Africa and is practiced in parts of the West Indies and Jamaica; also called "obi", meaning "magic"

Objurgate - to scold or rebuke severely

Obloquy - abusively detractive language or utterance, calumny; the condition of disgrace suffered as a result of abuse or vilification; ill repute

Obnubilate - to cloud over or obscure

Obscurantism - opposition to the increase and spread of knowledge

Obstreperous - noisily and stubbornly defiant; aggressively boisterous

Ocarina - an oval musical wind instrument with a mouthpiece and finger holes

Ocelot - margay; a small spotted wildcat

Offal - the edible internal parts of an animal, such as the heart, liver, and tongue

Oleaginous - oily or greasy; falsely earnest; ingratiating; unctuous

Olfactory - relating to the sense of smell

Olio - a mixture of heterogeneous elements; hodgepodge

Ombudsman - someone who investigates and resolves complaints against an institution or employer

Omnibus - a volume of reprinted works of a single author or of works related in interest or theme

Onomatopoeia - words that imitate the sound they denote

Operose - done with or involving much labor

Opprobrium - disgrace arising from exceedingly shameful conduct, ignominy; scornful reproach or contempt; a cause of shame or disgrace

Oppugn - to refuse to admit the truth, reality, value, or worth of; to oppose, contradict, or call into question; to assail by criticism, argument, or action

Opuscule - a small or minor work

Orison - a prayer

Ornithology - the branch of zoology that deals with the study of birds

Orotund - used to describe speech or writing that is inflated, pompous, or bombastic

Oubliette - (French) a place of forgetting; a dungeon with the only entrance or exit being a trap door in the ceiling

Outrance - the utmost extremity

Owl-light - dusk

 

[Solivagant]

P:

Pacean - a song of praise, joy, or thanksgiving

Pachydermatous - thick-skinned; insensitive

Padrone - a master, boss, or employer

Palinode - a withdrawal of a previous statement; a poem in which the poet retracts something said earlier in the poem

Paludal - marshy

Panacea - a remedy for all diseases, evils, or difficulties; a cure-all

Pandemonium - chaos; a state of extreme confusion and disorder; a very noisy place; wild uproar or noise

Panegyrize - to eulogize; to deliver or write a panegyric about

Pansophy - universal wisdom or knowledge

Paralipsis - the suggestion, by deliberately brief treatment of a topic, that much of significance is being omitted, as in "not to mention other faults."

Paregmenon - the juxtaposition of words that have a common derivation

Parergon - work undertaken in addition to one's principal work

Pariah - an outcast

Parlance - a manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of a language; vernacular; idiom

Parlous - dangerous or precarious

Parti pris - a preconceived attitude or opinion

Paucity - smallness or lack of quantity; scarcity; scantiness

Pauli Effect - term referring to the apparently mysterious anecdotal failure of technical equipment in the presence of certain people

Pecksniffian - hypocritically and fervently affecting kindness or high moral principles

Pecuniary - relating to or consisting of money

Pedantic - displaying one's knowledge more than is necessary; overly concerned with minute details or formal rules; presenting information in a narrow-minded or unimaginative way

Perdition - a state of final spiritual ruin; loss of the soul; damnation

Pellucid - clear in meaning, expression, or style; allowing the maximum passage of light; clear

Penumbra - an area in which something exists to a lesser or uncertain degree

Perambulate - to walk through, about, or over; traverse; to stroll

Peregrinate - to travel or journey, especially to walk on foot

Perfidy - deliberate breach of faith; calculated violation of trust; treachery

Perfunctory - done routinely and with little interest or care; casual; hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough

Peripatetic - walking or traveling about

Peripeteia - reversal of fortunes

Persnickety - overparticular; fussy

Personalia - personal details such as biographical data, reminiscences, or the like

Perspicacious - having keen mental perception and understanding; discerning

Perspicacity - shrewdness; acuteness of perception, discernment, or understanding

Perturb - to disturb greatly; make uneasy or anxious; to confuse

Petrichor - the scent of rain on dry earth

Phantasmagoria - a fantastic sequence of haphazardly associative imagery, as seen in dreams or fever; a constantly changing scene composed of numerous elements

Philomath - a lover of learning

Philter - a potion, charm, or drug supposed to cause the person taking it to fall in love

Phycology - the branch of botany that deals with algae

Physiognomy - the face or appearance

Pica - an abnormal appetite for substances that are not fit to eat

Pilule - a small pill

Plangent - beating with a loud or deep sound; plaintive; expressing or suggesting sadness

Platitude - a trite or obvious remark; a trite or banal remark or statement, especially one expressed as if it were original or significant

Platitudinarian - a person who frequently utters platitudes, or commonplace remarks

Plaudit - enthusiastic expression of praise or approval

Plenipotentiary - invested with full power

Pleonasm - the use of more words than are necessary to express an idea

Pluviophile - A lover of rain; Someone who finds joy and peace of mind during rainy days

Poltroon - a wretched coward; craven

Polysemous - having a diversity of meanings

Postprandial - happening or done after a meal

Preemptive - designed or having the power to deter or prevent an anticipated situation or occurrence

Prehensible - able to be seized or grasped

Presentiment - a feeling that something is about to happen, especially something evil; foreboding

Preternatural - that which appears outside or beside the natural; In contrast to the supernatural, preternatural phenomena are presumed to have rational explanations that are unknown.

Prevaricate - to lie; to depart from or evade the truth; prevaricator

Prink - to primp

Procellous - stormy, as the sea

Procrustean - tending to produce conformity by violent or arbitrary means

Profligacy - reckless extravagance

Profligate - a wastrel, good-for-nothing; recklessly wasteful; wildly extravagant

Prolegomenon - an introductory essay in a book

Prolix - using or containing too many words, wordy; tediously lengthy or prolonged

Proselytize - to induce someone to convert to one's own religious faith

Prosopography - a description of a person's appearance, career, personality, etc.

Prurient - having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters

Psaltery - an ancient musical instrument consisting of a flat box with strings that are plucked; from Greek "psalm", a song sung to the harp; from Greek "psallein", to pluck or play the harp

Pseudonymity - using a fictitious or pen name to conceal identity

Psionic - the study and/or practice of using the mind to induce paranormal phenomena; examples of this include telepathy, telekinesis, and other workings of the outside world through the psyche

Psyche - (Greek) soul; spirit; mind; heart; self; the mind or self as a functional entity

Psychotropic - having an altering effect on perception, emotion, or behavior

Puerile - of or characteristic of a child; belonging to childhood; juvenile; immature; childish

Pullulate - to sprout, swarm, or breed rapidly

Punctilious - precise; exact in the smallest particulars

Purloin - to take dishonestly; steal

Pusillanimous - cowardly

Pyriform - pear-shaped