Grade 10 Rizal

Augustus G. Agustin Jr.

A
1. Abase
Cause to feel shame

Example:
She is not abased or dejected, but exalted, [Link], May

2. Aberration
A state or condition markedly different from the norm

Example:
While Tampa Bay has taken a huge nosedive a year after going 10-6, maybe that 2010 success
was an aberration.

3. Abhor
Feel hatred or disgust toward

Example:
There are sane readers who abhor gratuitous violence but love Reacher’s menacing wisecracks.

4. Abject
Most unfortunate or miserable

Example:
Mr. Jobling stood wringing his hands helplessly, his flaccid features expressive of abject despair.

5. Abrasive
Sharply disagreeable, unpleasant, or harsh
Example:
“He has always been focused, driven, demanding and, as a result, very difficult and abrasive,” Mr.
Norman said.

6. Abstain
Refrain from doing, consuming, or partaking in something

Example:
Griffin felt that he had better abstain from questioning, and let his host run on.

7. Abstract
Existing only in the mind

Example:
Presenting an abstract concept, waving our arms trying to describe it, we will lose our audience
right away.

8. Abundant
Present in great quantity

Example:
Fringing and barrier reefs are abundant throughout the archipelago, surrounding nearly every
island.

9. Accentuate
Stress or single out as important

Example:
It was a carefully studied costume; and he accentuated its eccentricity by adopting theatrical
attitudes and an air of satisfied negligence.

10. Acclimate
Get used to a certain environment
Example:
The Jets will leave Friday for Denver, the better to acclimate to the altitude and change in time
zone.

B
1. Baffle
Be a mystery or bewildering to

Example:
It baffles her physician as well, and has got doctors increasingly worried.

2. Baleful
Deadly or sinister

Example:
His glance fell on Van Bleit, pallid, red-eyed, obviously suffering, observing him with the baleful
look of some savage captive beast.

3. Balk
Refuse to proceed or comply

Example:
Congressional Republicans, particularly in the House of Representatives, have balked at raising
the debt ceiling unless it is accompanied by significant spending cuts.

4. Ballad
A narrative song with a recurrent refrain

Example:
And in the encore there was a new ballad, “Silent Treatment,” which Ms. Bryan sang gently,
backed only by Mr. Dafydd on acoustic guitar.

5. Ban
Prohibit especially by law or social pressure

Example:
That’s why gambling and wagers are heavily regulated or banned outright in nearly every country.
 6. Banal
Repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse

Example:
Not bare or messy — that might be interesting — just banal.

7. Bane
Something causing misery or death

Example:
Knee pain is the bane of many runners, sometimes causing them to give up altogether.

8. Banish
Expel, as if by official decree

Example:
He, however, was destined never to return but was proscribed and banished.

9. Banter
Converse in a playful or teasing way

Example:
Instead, they bantered, enthused, tripped over each other’s words and generally offered their
audience the warmest welcome imaginable.

10. Barbaric
Without civilizing influences

Example:
The law was immediately hailed as a victory by animal welfare groups over what they consider
to be a barbaric and outdated practice.

C
1. Cacophonous
Having an unpleasant sound

Example:
Shoppers mingle, traders peddle their wares and children play in the street, all to a cacophonous
backdrop of roaring motorbikes and honking
 2. Cadaverous
Of or relating to a corpse

Example:
These dreary, cadaverous corpses are supported in the positions which they are made to assume
by means of steel wires hidden beneath their scanty robes.

3. Calamity
An event resulting in great loss and misfortune

Example:
In that memorable calamity seventeen lives were lost and forty persons seriously injured.

4. Callow
Young and inexperienced

Example:
“Marston,” he began, “drifted into the Paris ateliers from your country, callow, morbid, painfully
young and totally inexperienced.

5. Candid
Openly straightforward and direct without secretiveness

Example:
Mr. Obama, in an unusually candid public discussion of the Central Intelligence Agency’s covert
program, said the drone strikes had not inflicted huge civilian casualties.

6. Capitulate
Surrender under agreed conditions

Example:
“Alas, no,” said Bergfeld, mournfully, “the day after the battle our brave soldiers were
surrounded by overwhelming forces and obliged to capitulate.

7. Capricious
Determined by chance or impulse rather than by necessity

Example:
She remained remote and wild, suddenly breaking off our talks and displaying, where I was
concerned, the most capricious and inexplicable moods.

8. Caricature
Represent a person with comic exaggeration

Example:
Mrs. Strong subsequently caricatured our progress by representing me very tall with an
extremely tight waistband, and Stevenson looking upward from his diminutive steed.

9. Cartographer
A person who makes maps

Example:
This monk was an excellent cartographer, or map-maker, and Christopher wished to talk with
him about the western lands.

10. Castigate

Censure severely

Example:
In particular, Kucinich castigated Obama for pursuing military intervention in Libya without
congressional authorization: President Obama moved forward without Congress approving.

D
1. Dally
Waste time

Example:
Too long already had the young General dallied, wasting [Link], Lewis

2. Dapper
Marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners

Example:
Favoring elegant, tailored suits, he was once named one of the best dressed men in America by
People magazine for his “diplomatically dapper” style.
 3. Dauntless
Invulnerable to fear or intimidation

Example:
He had dauntless courage, unwearied energy, engaging manners, boundless ambition,
unsurpassed powers of debate, and strong personal [Link], William H.

4. Dawdle
Take one’s time; proceed slowly

Example:
Being alone, she ate slowly, and deliberately dawdled over the meal, to kill [Link], Jack

5. Dearth
An insufficient quantity or number

Example:
In those arid deserts, they suffered from thirst as well as from dearth of [Link],
Æneas MacDonell

6. Debacle
A sudden and complete disaster

Example:
Meanwhile, for now, Mr. Obama has no major scandals or foreign policy [Link] York
Times (Feb 4, 2012)

7. Debilitate
Make weak

Example:
Necropsy reports told of horses that had been running with debilitating ailments: stomach ulcers,
degenerative joint diseases, pneumonia, metal screws from previous broken [Link] York
Times (Mar 27, 2012)

8. Debunk
Expose while ridiculing

Example:
Many examples show that what physicians once accepted as truth has been totally
[Link] American (Mar 25, 2011)

9. Deduce
Conclude by reasoning

Example:
These cases, extreme as they are, do not justify, in my judgment, the conclusion deduced from
[Link], Edmond

10. Defame
Charge falsely or with malicious intent

Example:
Doesn’t King know he is going to be smeared and defamed for these hearings no matter what?

E
1. Ebullient
Joyously unrestrained

Example:
The piece opened with ebullient bursts of energy and color that scampered over harmonica
drones played by one or more members.

2. Eclectic
Selecting what seems best of various styles or ideas

Example:
A former student of fine art, Mr Scruff’s eclectic selections are accompanied by animations of the
trademark “potato people” who humorously narrate his musical jomembers

3. Edible
Suitable for use as food

Example:
Nevertheless, hunger increased so much that many ventured out into woods along the river
seeking edible roots, and with some success.
 4. Edify
Make understand

Example:
Then Miss Fairbairn held one of her little discourses, with which now and then she endeavoured
to edify her pupils.

5. Efface
Remove by or as if by rubbing or erasing

Example:
Her rich beauty was wiped out as an acid-soaked sponge might efface a portrait.

6. Effervescent
Marked by high spirits or excitement

Example:
When he ran for president, Barack Obama’s effervescent campaign was about hope, optimism,
national unity, and, above all, the future.

7. Effulgent
Radiating or as if radiating light

Example:
Ere another year be passed, we hope to see its effulgent rays light up all the dark corners of our
land.

8. Egalitarian
Favoring social equality

Example:
“We are living in an egalitarian society where everyone is equal,” he said.

9. Egotistical
Having an inflated idea of one’s own importance

Example:
I have lived an entirely egotistical life, for myself alone.
 [Link]
Conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible

Example:
“His comments were so egregious, naturally advertisers will have doubts about being associated
with Limbaugh’s brand of hate,” Mr. Boehlert said in an e-mail message.