Vocabulary #5

Acumen - keen insight, shrewdness
Ex: The boss was known for his financial acumen, and how quickly he was able to make those decisions.

Adjudicate - make a formal judgment or decision about a problem or disputed matter
Ex: The judge adjudicated that the accused criminal was not mentally sane to stand trial.

Anachronism - a thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists
Ex. My grandmother is an ancachronism in a sense, always wearing clothes from her time period, looking absolutely ridiculous compared to others on the street.

Apocryphal - of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true
Ex. Her apocryphal story turned out later to be false, just as we secretly suspected.

Disparity - a great difference
Ex. There is a vast disparity in the many members of the secret club, from farmers to politicians.

Dissimulate - conceal or disguise (one's thoughts, feelings, or character)
Ex. When you want to dissimulate how you're really feeling about someone, it is helpful to act the EXACT opposite way of how you really want to act towards them.

Empirical - derived from or guided by experience or experiment.
Ex. All of her empirical decisions were derived from all of the experiments she witnessed.

Flamboyant - tending to attract attention because of their exuberance, confidence, and stylishness
Ex. Tammy, the most popular girl in school, was known for constant flirtatiousness and flamboyant style of clothing, which attracted looks from all the boys at school.

Fulsome - complimentary or flattering to an excessive degree
Ex. The foreigners were fulsome in their gratitude, almost embarrassingly so.

Immolate - kill or offer as a sacrifice, esp. by burning.
Ex. The lamb was to be immolated at tonight's ritual, as an offering to the gods.

Imperceptible - impossible to perceive
Ex. The new shower curtains we had hung made it imperceptible to see the person in the shower.

Lackey - a servant
Ex. We always used to treat her as our personal lackey: making her carry around our stuff, fetch us anything we wanted, and act as the scapegoat.

Liaison - communication or cooperation that facilitates a close working relationship between people or organizations
Ex. Officer Ziva David acted as liaison between the federal agency NCIS and her own father's agency Massad.

Monolithic - very large and characterless
Ex. The unimpressive, monolithic monument did not seem to have any unique story about it. It was practically purposeless.

Mot juste - the exact, appropriate word
Ex. During a heated moment, curse words just happen to be mot juste to the argument.

Nihilism - the rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless; extreme skepticism, according to which nothing in the world has a real existence
Ex. I am surrounded by constant nihilism: all of the people just refuse to believe there's a purpose in life.

Patrician - belonging to or characteristic of the aristocracy
Ex. You could tell she came from royalty: the patrician style of walking, with her head high, barely looking at the people around her.

Propitiate - win or regain the favor of (a god, spirit, or person) by doing something that pleases them
Ex. The goal of all the villagers was to constantly propitiate the gods. They always found some way, every day, to try and please them.

Sic - to incite to attack, or to attack
Ex. I immediately yelled to my dog "SIC 'EM GUS" after spotting the intruder.

Sublimate - divert or modify (an instinctual impulse) into a culturally higher or socially more acceptable activity
Ex. We tried to sublimate our younger brother so the popular kids would stop making fun of his weird habits, but nothing we did worked.