Vocabulary Week 1
Jan 01, 2016
Cacophony
The cacophony produced by city traffic at midday was distracting to the students taking their final exam in the nearby classroom.
Def.- noun -harsh discordance of sound; dissonance; a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds; example- a cacophony of hoots, cackles, and wails.
futile
Attempting to force-feed the sick horse was futile.
Def. - adjective - incapable of producing any result; ineffective; useless; not successful
melancholy
Marissa was in a melancholy mood all day because her pet hamster had died.
The feeling at the funeral home was melancholy.
Def. – noun / adjective - a gloomy state of mind, esp. when habitual or prolonged; depression.
arduous
Climbing Mt. Everest was an arduous task for the inexperienced climbers.
Def. - adjective - requiring great exertion; laborious; difficult: an arduous undertaking. requiring or using much energy and vigor; strenuous: making an arduous effort. hard to endure; full of hardships; severe: an arduous winter.
inundated
Craig was inundated with homework after only three days of school.
The theater was inundated with requests for tickets.
Def.- verb - to flood; cover or overspread with water; deluge. to overwhelm: To overwhelm as if with a flood; swamp:
scrutinizeThe detectives scrutinized the crime scene
before questioning the witnesses.The coach has come under the scrutiny of the
press after the team’s third loss in row.
Def. - verb- to examine in detail with careful or critical attention. To examine or observe with great care; inspect critically. to look at critically or searchingly, or in minute detail;
ambivalent
I am always ambivalent about going to Washington D.C.; I love the trip, but I will miss my family.
Def.- noun - uncertainty or fluctuation, esp. when caused by inability to make a choice or by a simultaneous desire to say or do two opposite or conflicting things.
ostracize
His friends ostracized him after his father's arrest.
Def- verb - to exclude, by general consent, from society, friendship, conversation, privileges, etc.: to banish.
ruminate
He was found in the park, ruminating over the difficult choice he had to make.
Def. - verb - to chew the cud, as a ruminant. to meditate or muse; ponder, think;To turn a matter over and over in the mind.
incredulous
Being a level-headed young man, Eric was incredulous of stories about flying saucers.
Def. - adjective - not credulous; disinclined or indisposed to believe; skeptical. indicating or showing unbelief: an incredulous smile. Skeptical; disbelieving
succumbBecause I am on a diet, I refused to succumb to
eating the cookies.
Try not to succumb to peer pressure.
Def - verb - to give way to superior force; yield: give up or give in.
juxtaposition
The twins were sleeping juxtaposition in the crib.
Def. - noun - an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast. the state of being close together or side by side.