Vocab #5

shenanigans - noun mischief; silly or high-spirited behavior; secret or dishonest activity

• Their shenanigans led them to a day of detention.

ricochet - noun a glancing rebound; verb spring back; spring away from an impact

• The bullet hit his rib and ricocheted to his lung.  

schism - noun division of a group into opposing factions; the formal separation of a church into two churches or the withdrawal of one group over doctrinal differences

• The U.S created a schism of two main political parties: the republicans and the democrats.  

eschew - verb avoid and stay away from deliberately; stay clear of

• The students eschewed from the 600 block restrooms due to pipe problems.

plethora - noun extreme excess

• Hemochromatosis is a medical issue concerning a plethora of iron in the body.

ebullient - adj. joyously unrestrained; cheerful and full of energy

• The boy was ebullient, he had gotten an “A+” on his test!

garrulous - adj. full of trivial conversation; overly talkative and chatty, mostly about unimportant things

• Angry at the garrulous students next to her, the girl trying to study for her AP Calculus AB test told them to “Please be mindful of everyone trying to study.”

harangue - noun a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion;  lengthy and aggressive speech

• The professor was red in the face as he went on a harangue about the problems faced with fossil fuels.

interdependence - noun a reciprocal relation between interdependent entities (objects or individuals or groups)

• The market economy relies on the interdependence of suppliers and consumers.

capricious - adj. determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason; changeable

• Women often blame their monthly period as a reason to their capricious manners.  

loquacious - adj. talkative; tending to talk a great deal

• He was loquacious in his AP Environmental Science class which showed in his semester grades.

ephemeral - adj. lasting a very short time; noun anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form

• Mosquitoes have the characteristic of an ephemeral insect. They live only for roughly a month.  

inchoate - adj. only partly in existence; imperfectly formed

juxtapose - verb place side by side

• The phrase “in strength and in weakness” juxtapose one another.  

perspicacious - adj. acutely insightful and wise; mentally acute or penetratingly discerning

• The perspicacious student went on with a successful career in her choice of study.

codswallop - noun nonsensical talk or writing

• Politicians often talk codswallop to distract the audience about their lack of true definite answer.

mungo - noun  reclaimed wool of poor quality and very short staple

• One can distinguish the poor from the rich by the type of cloth they used. The poor used mungo instead of silk, its more expensive counterpart.

sesquipedalian -  characterized by long words; long-winded

• My neighbors have sesquipedalian surname. They come from a long-list of Russian blood, their surname being Dykhovichny-Yolkov

wonky - adj. inclined to shake as from weakness or defect; turned or twisted toward one side

• The student made toothpick bridge was wonky; a small gust of wind would’ve caused it to tumble.

diphthong - noun a vowel sound that starts near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves toward the position for another

The “bl” in blue and black is an example of diphthong.