VocabularyMasterList

Jackknife (n & v)- a large pocketknife, to bend or double over like a jackknife
 * Placid** (a)- pleasantly calm or peaceful; unruffled; tranquil; serenely quiet or undisturbed: placid waters.
 * Talon** (n)- a claw, esp. of a bird of prey.
 * Offing** (n)- the more distant part of the sea seen from the shore, beyond the anchoring ground.
 * Stoke** (v)- to poke, stir up, and feed (a fire).
 * Chopper** (v)- to travel by helicopter: We choppered into midtown from the airport.
 * Tension** (n)- mental or emotional strain; intense, suppressed suspense, anxiety, or excitement.
 * Perimeter** (n)- the outermost limits
 * Skittish** (a)- restlessly or excessively lively
 * Relative** (a)- considered in relation to something else; comparative
 * Magazine** (n)- a building or place for keeping military stores, as arms, ammunition, or provisions
 * Bizarre** (a)- markedly unusual in appearance, style, or general character and often involving incongruous or unexpected elements; outrageously or whimsically strange; odd
 * Square** (a)- straightforward, direct, or unequivocal
 * Ambush** (v)- to attack from ambush
 * Tourniquet** (n)- any device for arresting bleeding by forcibly compressing a blood vessel, as a bandage tightened by twisting
 * Morphine** (n)- the most important narcotic and addictive principle of opium, obtained by extraction and crystallization and used chiefly in medicine as a pain reliever and sedative
 * Plasma** (n)- the liquid part of blood or lymph, as distinguished from the suspended elements
 * Reconnaissance** (n)- a search made for useful military information in the field, esp. by examining the ground
 * Village** (n)- a small community or group of houses in a rural area, larger than a hamlet and usually smaller than a town, and sometimes (as in parts of the U.S.) incorporated as a municipality.
 * Villain** (n)- a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel
 * Moral** (n)- principles or habits with respect to right or wrong conduct
 * Rectitude** (n)- rightness of principle or conduct; moral virtue
 * Salvage** (v)- to save from shipwreck, fire, etc
 * Absolute** (n)- something that is not dependent upon external conditions for existence or for its specific nature, size, etc
 * Allegiance** (n)- the loyalty of a citizen to his or her government or of a subject to his or her sovereign
 * Obscenity** (n)- the character or quality of being obscene; indecency; lewdness
 * Quadruple** (a)- fourfold; consisting of four parts
 * Detonate** (v)- to explode with suddenness and violence
 * Skew** (v)- to turn aside or swerve; take an oblique course
 * Surreal** (a)- having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream; unreal; fantastic
 * Ordinance** (n)- an authoritative rule or law; a decree or command
 * Symmetry** (n)- the correspondence in size, form, and arrangement of parts on opposite sides of a plane, line, or point; regularity of form or arrangement in terms of like, reciprocal, or corresponding parts
 * Implacable** (a)- not to be appeased, mollified, or pacified; inexorable
 * Peninsula** (n)- an area of land almost completely surrounded by water except for an isthmus connecting it with the mainland
 * Anarchy** (n)- political and social disorder due to the absence of governmental control
 * Civility** (n)- courtesy; politeness
 * Vapor** (n)- a visible exhalation, as fog, mist, steam, smoke, or noxious gas, diffused through or suspended in the air


 * Improbable** (adj)- not probable; unlikely to be true or to happen, //improbābilis// (Latin)
 * Trivia** (n)- not probable; unlikely to be true or to happen, //trivia// (Latin)
 * Bedlam** (n)- a scene or state of wild uproar and confusion, a popular name for the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in London
 * Mundane** (n and adj)- of or pertaining to this world or earth as contrasted with heaven; worldly; earthly, //mundānus// (Latin)
 * Warranty** (n)- an act or an instance of warranting; assurance; authorization; warrant, //warantie// (Middle English)
 * Alpha** (n and adj)- the first; beginning or being the most prominent, talented, or aggressive person in a group, //alpha// (Greek)
 * Superlatives** (n)- of the highest kind, quality, or order; surpassing all else or others; supreme; extreme, //superlātīvus// (Latin)
 * Culottes** (n)- women's trousers, usually knee-length or calf-length, cut full to resemble a skirt, (French)
 * Rear-echelon** (adj)- (in a military operation) the troops, officers, etc., removed from the combat zone and responsible for administration, matériel, etc.
 * Echelon** (n)- a level of command, authority, or rank
 * Canopy** (n)- an overhanging projection or covering, as a long canvas awning stretching from the doorway of a building to a curb.
 * Tantalize** (v)- to torment with, or as if with, the sight of something desired but out of reach; tease by arousing expectations that are repeatedly disappointed
 * Complexion** (n)- appearance; aspect; character
 * Logistics** (n)- the branch of military science and operations dealing with the procurement, supply, and maintenance of equipment, with the movement, evacuation, and hospitalization of personnel, with the provision of facilities and services, and with related matters
 * Scenario** (n)- an outline of the plot of a dramatic work, giving particulars as to the scenes, characters, situations, etc.
 * Coy** (adj)- showing reluctance, esp. when insincere or affected, to reveal one's plans or opinions, make a commitment, or take a stand
 * Quaint** (adj)- having an old-fashioned attractiveness or charm; oddly picturesque
 * Romantic** (adj)- fanciful; impractical; unrealistic
 * Adrenaline** (n)- a hormone secreted by the adrenal medulla upon stimulation by the central nervous system in response to stress, as anger or fear, and acting to increase heart rate, blood pressure, cardiac output, and carbohydrate metabolism
 * Composure** (n)- serene, self-controlled state of mind; calmness; tranquillity
 * Hygiene** (n)- a condition or practice conducive to the preservation of health, as cleanliness
 * Consequence** (n)- the effect, result, or outcome of something occurring earlier
 * Naïve** (adj)- having or showing unaffected simplicity of nature or absence of artificiality; unsophisticated; ingenuous.
 * Grungy** (adj)- ugly, run-down, or dilapidated
 * Opaque** (adj)- not transparent or translucent; impenetrable to light; not allowing light to pass through.
 * Rapture** (n)- ecstatic joy or delight; joyful ecstasy.
 * No-man’s-land** (n)- "terrain between front lines of entrenched armies," 1908, popularized in WWI; in use from at least 1320 as Nonemanneslond, an unowned waste ground outside the north wall of London, site for executions. No man (O.E. nanne mon ) was an old way of saying "nobody."
 * Silhouette** (n)- the outline or general shape of something
 * Opium** (n)- the dried, condensed juice of a poppy, Papaver somniferum, that has a narcotic, soporific, analgesic, and astringent effect and contains morphine, codeine, papaverine, and other alkaloids used in medicine in their isolated or derived forms: a narcotic substance, poisonous in large doses
 * Half-baked** (adj)- lacking mature judgment or experience; unrealistic
 * Digression** (n)- a passage or section that deviates from the central theme in speech or writing
 * Blinder** (n)- a person or thing that blinds
 * Grotesque** (adj)- dd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantastically ugly or absurd; bizarre
 * Syllable** (n)- an uninterrupted segment of speech consisting of a center of relatively great sonority with or without one or more accompanying sounds of relatively less sonority
 * Elaborate** (adj and v)- worked out with great care and nicety of detail; executed with great minuteness or to work out carefully or minutely; develop to perfectio
 * Speculate** (v)- to engage in thought or reflection; meditate
 * Endorphins** (n)- any of a group of peptides occurring in the brain and other tissues of vertebrates, and resembling opiates, that react with the brain's opiate receptors to raise the pain threshold
 * Hemisphere** (n)- half of the terrestrial globe or celestial sphere, esp. one of the halves into which the earth is divided
 * Balk** (v)- to stop, as at an obstacle, and refuse to proceed or to do something specified
 * Lamasery** (n)- a monastery of lamas
 * Utopia** (n)- an ideal place or state
 * Autonomous** (a)- self-governing; independent; subject to its own laws only.
 * Pseudo** – (n, as a hyphenated prefix placed in front of a n)- a combining form meaning “false,” “pretended,” “unreal,” used in the formation of compound words
 * facetious** (a)- not meant to be taken seriously or literally
 * Sophistication** (n)- sophisticated character, ideas, tastes, or ways as the result of education, worldly experience
 * Irony** (n)- the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning
 * Sentiment** (n)- an attitude toward something; regard; opinion
 * Eccentric** (a)- deviating from the recognized or customary character, practice, etc.; irregular; erratic; peculiar; odd
 * Talisman** (n)- anything whose presence exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings or actions
 * Invulnerable** (a)- incapable of being wounded, hurt, or damaged
 * Repellent** (n or a)- a medicine that serves to prevent or reduce swellings, tumors, etc., causing distaste or aversion; repulsive.
 * Peril** (n)- exposure to injury, loss, or destruction; grave risk; jeopardy; danger
 * Gape** (v)- to stare with open mouth, as in wonder
 * Erotic**(adj)- arousing or satisfying sexual desire


 * Agitator**- a person who stirs up others in order to upset the status quo and further a political, social, or other cause, 1730-40
 * Appositive** - directly following the noun it modifies, 1685-90
 * Arrogant** - making claims or pretensions to superior importance or rights; overbearingly assuming; insolently proud, Latin to Middle English, arrogare meaning presuming
 * Boutique**- a small shop or a small specialty department within a larger store, esp. one that sells fashionable clothes and accessories or a special selection of other merchandise, Greek to French
 * Clause** - a syntactic construction containing a subject and predicate and forming part of a sentence or constituting a whole simple sentence, Latin clausula to Middle English
 * Complement**-  a word or group of words that completes a grammatical construction in the predicate and that describes or is identified with the subject or object, Latin complēmentum meaning something that completes
 * Comprehend** - to understand the nature or meaning of; grasp with the mind; perceive, Latin comprehendere
 * Connotation** - he associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning, Middle Latin connotātiōn to Middle English connotātiōn
 * Convey**- to communicate; impart; make known, Middle English conveyen
 * Dawdle** - to waste time; idle; trifle; loiter, var. of daddle to toddle
 * Deduction**-  a process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the premises presented, so that the conclusion cannot be false if the premises are true, Latin dēductiōn meaning a leading way
 * Denotation** - the explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression, as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with it or suggested by it; the association or set of associations that a word usually elicits for most speakers of a language, as distinguished from those elicited for any individual speaker because of personal experience, Latin dēnotātiōn meaning a marking out
 * Ecology** - the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organism, Greek Ökologie
 * Esoteric** - understood by or meant for only the select few who have special knowledge or interest; reconditefluent, Greek esōterikós
 * Fluent** - spoken or written with ease, Latin fluēns meaning flowing
 * Fugitive**-  fleeting; transitory; elusive, Latin fugitīvus meaning fleeing
 * Garrulity** - the quality of being garrulous; talkativeness; loquacity, talkative, Latin garrulitās
 * Gluttony** - excessive eating and drinking, Old French glotonie
 * Guile** - insidious cunning in attaining a goal; crafty or artful deception; duplicity, Old French
 * Induction**-  the act of inducing, bringing about, or causing, Lation inductiōn
 * Infinitive** - the simple or basic form of the verb, Latin infīnītīvus meaning indefinite
 * Kinesthetic**-  the sensation of movement or strain in muscles, tendons, and joints; muscle sense, Greek kīn meaning to move, or set in motion
 * Laden** - burdened; loaded down, Old English hladan to load, draw up
 * Ligatures**-  anything that serves for binding or tying up, as a band, bandage, or cord, //ligātūra (Middle English//// à // //Latin)//
 * Modifier**-  a word, phrase, or sentence element that limits or qualifies the sense of another word, phrase, or element in the same construction
 * Parallel** - extending in the same direction, equidistant at all points, and never converging or diverging, Greek parállēlos meaning side by side
 * Provision**- something provided; a measure or other means for meeting a need, Latin prōvīsiōn meaning a forseeing
 * Rhythm**-  movement or procedure with uniform or patterned recurrence of a beat, accent, or the like, Greek rhythmós meaning to flow
 * Ruthless** - without pity or compassion; cruel; merciless, Middle English
 * Software**-  the programs used to direct the operation of a computer, as well as documentation giving instructions on how to use them
 * Staccato**-  composed of or characterized by abruptly disconnected elements; disjointed, Goth distaccare meaning detach
 * Subtle**-  fine or delicate in meaning or intent; difficult to perceive or understand, Latin subtīlis
 * Trifling** - of very little importance; trivial; insignificant, Middle English
 * Zydeco**- a blues-influenced type of Cajun dance music popular in Louisiana and Texas, and usually played on accordion, guitar, and violin, Americanism
 * Causation** (n)- the act of causing or producing (L. causa)
 * Replenish** (v)- to make full or complete again, as by supplying what is lacking (L.plenus is to fill)
 * Circumference** (n)- the outer boundary; perimeter (L. ferre means to carry)
 * Affluent** (a)- having an abundance of wealth, property, or other material goods; rich (L. affluere)
 * Valor** (n)- boldness or determination in facing great danger; especially in war; heroic courage (L. valere means to be of worth)
 * Municipal** (a)- of or pertaining to a town or city or its local gov't (L. municipalis=to take duties)
 * Spur** (n)- an offshoot road connected to a bigger road and usually heading to a house or smaller destination; a U-shaped device that slips over and straps to the heel of a boot and has a blunt pointed projection at the back for use by a mounted rider to urge a horse forward; v. to goad, impel, or urge as to action, speed or chievement (norwegian spore)
 * Viaduct** (n)- a bridge for carrying a road or railroad over a valley (L. via-way and ductus- channel)
 * Revolution** (n)- something that moves in a circular motion- from point a to a (L.volvere to roll, turn around)
 * Fatigue** (n)- weariness from bodily or mental exertion (L. fatigare-to tire)
 * Flourish** (n)- an act or instance of brandishing; an ostentatious display; a decoration or embellishment; v. to perform a showy gesture or to show something off (L. florere to bloom)
 * Shrapnel** (n)- a hollow projectile containing bullets or the like and a bursting charge, designed to explode before reaching the target, and to set free a shower of missiles (named after Henry Shrapnel 1761-1842 english army officer, its inventor)
 * Disjointed** (a)- having the joints or connections separated; disconnected; incoherent (Middle English disjointen- to destroy)
 * Tangible** (a)- capable of being touched; discernible by the touch; real or actual rather than imaginary or visionary (L. tangere-to touch)
 * Feign** (v)- to make believe; pretend (L. fingere to shape, invent)
 * Basket** **case** (n)- a person who has had all four limbs amputated; a person who is helpless or incapable of functioning normally due to stress, anxiety, etc (1915-1920 WWI-England the wounded person literally had to be carried off the field in a basket)
 * Catharsis** (n)- the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions (Gk. katharsis-cleansing)
 * Nucleus** (n)- a central part about which other parts are grouped or gathered; core (L. nucu-little nut)
 * Counterpoint** (n)- a person or thing closely resembling another; a duplicate (L. pointed or pricked against refers to sewing
 * Complicit** (a)- choosing to be involved in an illegal or questionable act (complicare- to fold together)