Vocabulary #5

1) Obsequious: Obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree.

They were served by obsequious waiters.

2) Beatitude: Supreme blessedness.

You can receive beatitudes from God.

3) Bete noire: A person or thing that one particularly dislikes or dreads.

Hair cuts are my sisters bête noire.

4) Bode: To announce beforehand, or predict.

I want to bode the news of my wedding before it happens.

5) Dank: Disagreeably damp, musty, and typically cold.

The room was dank and hard to live in.

6) Ecumenical: Representing a number of different Christian churches; nondenominational.

The ecumenical council agreed to let women wear hats in church.
 7) Fervid: Intensely enthusiastic or passionate, to an excessive degree.

She had such a fervid need for the new Jack Johnson CD.

8) Fetid: Smelling extremely unpleasant. His sweaty gym socks are fetid.
9) Gargantuan: Enormous.

Her birthday presents are gargantuan that they don't fit in the door.

10) Heyday: The period of a person's or thing's greatness success, popularity, or vigor.

Sarah's sophomore year was nothing but a year of heyday.

11) Incubus: Something that weighs upon or oppresses someone like a nightmare.

That movie we saw is an incubus for me.

12) Infrastructure: The basic structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.

The team wanted to build an infrastructure, but needed more people to join their efforts.

13) Inveigle: Persuade to do something by means of flattery or deception.

He was always so inveigle with his words and smooth movements.

14) Kudos: Praise and honor received for an achievement.

My teacher awarded me kudos for passing my math test.

15) Lagniappe: Something given as a bonus or extra gift.

That extra boat is a lagniappe to the jet skies they received.

16) Prolix: Using or containing too many words, tediously lengthy.

The book is a long prolix with no real meaning.

17) Protégé: A person who is guided by an older more experienced person.

Luke is a protégé to Yoda in Star Wars.

18) Prototype: A first model of something.

The first Ford car invented was a prototype to improve upon.

19) Sycophant: A person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain
an advantage.

I am a sycophant to my coach, so I get more playing time in the game.

20) Tautology: The saying of the same thing twice in different words.


My English teacher uses tautology when he really wants us to understand something.

21) Truckle: To submit or behave obediently.

My cat will soon truckle to me after I teach him how.