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Below the next horizontal line is an alphabetical list of uncommonly used words and their meanings, five per letter mostly, which my GCSE English, (my first language is English, by the way), teacher taught me the meaning of. They might be useful to people who play Scrabble. To go straight to a specific letter, simply click on that letter.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
ad nauseam – to the point of sickness
amoral – seemingly having no moral standards
antipathy – feeling totally opposed to something
audacity – great daring
austere – stand-offish
badinage – chat
banal (banality) – dull
belligerent – quick to get into a fight
berate - to tell somebody off and keep going on and on at them
bohemian – out of the ordinary
charisma – having an attractive personality
coerce – persuade by force
coquette – flirt
credulous – believing
camaraderie – a spirit of friendship
deranged – totally mad
deferential – exceptionally polite and submissive
derision (derisive) – scorn
diffident – shy
duplicity (duplicitous) – deliberate deceit
ebullient – exceedingly cheerful
effrontery – cheek
elucidate – clarify
enigma – mystery
euphemism – explaining something bad without saying the actual words
facade – pretend facial expression
flout – blatantly disregard
fortuitous – something that happens just at the right time
fastidious – really fussy
flamboyant – over the top
gesticulate – to use your hands while talking
gratuitous – unnecessary with a negative tone
gregarious – sociable
gauche – socially awkward
genial – pleasant
hackneyed – a cliché
harangue – to go on and on and on
heinous – exceptionally evil
Herculean – very big
hyperbole – deliberate exaggeration
idiosyncrasy – strange personal habit
immaterial – irrelevant
impropriety – something that is improper
incorrigible – impossible to correct
invective – abusive language
jaded – exhausted
jocular – cheerful
juncture – a point in time
jingoism – extreme patriotism
judicious – wise, sensible
kismet – fate
kudos – glory, prestige
kitsch – cheap, showy
kaput – broken
kosher – food that Jews are allowed to eat
laborious – something which takes a lot of effort and is boring
languid – totally lacking in energy
licentious – behaviour of a person who thinks they are allowed to do anything
litotes – deliberate understatement
lugubrious - gloomy
malleable – can be bent into shapes
maverick – somebody who does their own thing
miscreant – a bad person
misogyny – hatred of women
mollify – to appease somebody
nefarious – wicked
niggard – a miser
nonpareil – not equal
narcissism (narcissistic) – thinking you’re beautiful
nonchalant – laid back
obdurate – hard – hearted stubbornness
obstreperous – noisy, boisterous
onerous – demanding
ostensible - apparent
obsequious – very humble
panache – style, flair
prolific – something which produces a lot of something
puerile – childish, infantile
pariah – social outcast
premise – a statement that is set out and then debated
qualm – a reservation about doing something
quip – a witty saying
querulous – quick to question
quasi – sort of
quash – to stop something
rebuff – to reject somebody
refractory – deliberately stubborn
rejoinder – reply
reprobate – delinquent
resilient – determined
sagacity – wisdom
scathing – scornful
sensuous – something that relates to the senses
solicitous – concerned about someone
stoic – able to cope with the good and bad points of life
tawdry – tacky
tenacious – firm
tenuous – weak, fragile
thwart – to stop
truculent – aggressively stubborn
umbrage – offence
upbraid – to scold
unbridled – unrestricted
urbane – sophisticated
uxorious – too dependent on one’s wife
vacillate – to waver
verbose – too wordy
vitriolic – very bitter
volition - will
vulnerable – easily wounded
wheedle – to persuade by flattery
whim – sudden irrational idea
winsome – charming
wry – sarcastic humour
wrangle – to dispute, argue
xenophobia – fear of foreigners
yarmulke – a Jewish man’s skullcap
zeal – a fervent devotion
zenith – peak, pinnacle
zest – enthusiasm, flavour
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