MTEL Communication and Literacy Vocabulary Study Guide

abstract - -adj.- not easy to understand; theoretical acclaim - -n.- loud approval; applause acquiesce - -v.- to agree or consent to an opinion adamant - -adj.- not yielding; firm adversary - -n.- an enemy; foe advocate - -v.- to plead in favor of advocate - -n.- supporter; defender aesthetic - -adj.- showing good taste; artiste alleviate - -v.- to lessen or make easier aloof - -adj.- distant in interest; reserved; cool altercation - -n.- controversy; dispute altruistic - -adj.- unselfish assess - -v.- to estimate the value of astute - -adj.- cunning; sly; crafy atrophy - -v.- to waste away through lack of nutrition audacious - -adj.- fearless; bold augment - -v.- to increase or add to; to make larger austere - -adj.- harsh; severe; strict authentic - -adj.- real; genuine; trustworthy authoritarian - -adj.- acting a a dictator; demanding obedience banal - -adj.- common; petty; ordinary belittle - -v.- to make small; to think lightly of benefactor - -n.- one who helps others; a donor benevolent - -adj.- kind; generous benign - -adj.- mild; harmless biased - -adj.- prejudiced; influenced; not neutral blasphemous - -adj.- irreligious; profane; impious; away from acceptable standards blithe - -adj.- happy; cheery; merry brevity - -n.- briefness; shortness candid - -adj.- honest; truthful; sincere capricious - -adj.- changeable; fickle caustic - -adj.- burning; sarcastic; harsh censor - -v.- to examine and delete objectionable material censure - -v.- to criticize or disapprove of charlatan - -n.- an imposter; fake coalesce - -v.- to combine or come together collaborate - -v.- to work together; to cooperate compatibile - -adj.- in agreement; harmonious complacent - -adj.- content; self-satisfied; smug compliant - -adj.- yielding; obedient comprehensive - -adj.- all-inclusive; complete; thorough compromise - -v.- to settle by mutual adjustment concede - -v.- to acknowledge; to admit concede - -v.- to surrender; to abandon one's position concise - -adj.- in few words; brief; condensed condescend - -v.- to consciously come down from one's position or rank condone - -v.- to overlook; to forgive conspicuous - -adj.- easy to see; noticeable consernation - -n.- amazement or terror that causes confusion consummation - -n.- the completion; finish contemporary - -adj.- living or happening at the same time; modern contempt - -n.- scorn; disrespect contrite - -adj.- regretful; sorrowful conventional - -adj.- traditional; common; routine cower - -v.- to crouch down in fear or shame defamation - -n.- any harm to a name or reputation; slander deference - -n.- a yielding to the opinion of another deliberate - -v.- to consider carefully; to weight in the mind deliberate - -adj.- intentional denounce - -v.- to speak out against; to condemn depict - -v.- to portray in words; to present a visual image deplete - -v.- to reduce; to empty depravity - -n.- moral corruption; badness deride - -v.- to ridicule; to laugh at with scorn desecrate - -v.- to violate a holy place or sanctuary detached - -adj.- separated; not interested; standing alone deter - -v.- to prevent; to discourage; to hinder didactic - -adj.- instructive didactic - -adj.- dogmatic; preachy digress - -v.- to stray from the subject; to wander from the topic diligence - -n.- hard work discerning - -adj.- distinguishing one thing from another discord - -n.- disagreement; lack of harmony discriminate - -v.- to distinguish one thing from another discriminate - -v.- to demonstrate bias discriminate - -adj.- able to distinguish disdain - -n.- intense dislike disdain - -v.- to look down upon; to scorn disparage - -v.- to belittle; to undervalue disparity - -n.- difference in form, character, or degree dispassionate - -adj.- lack of feeling; impartial disperse - -v.- to scatter; to separate disseminate - -v.- to circulate; to scatter dissent - -v.- to disagree; to differ in opinion dissonance - -n.- harsh contradiction diverse - -adj.- different; dissimilar document - -n.- official paper containing information document - -v.- to support; to substantiate or verify dogmatic - -adj.- stubborn; biased; opinionated dubious - -adj.- doubtful; uncertain; skeptical; suspicious eccentric - -adj.- odd; peculiar; strange efface - -v.- to wipe out; to erase effervescence - -n.- liveliness; spirit; enthusiasm effervescence - -n.- bubbliness egocentric - -adj.- self-centered elaboration - -n.- act of clarifying; adding details eloquence - -n.- the ability to speak well elusive - -adj.- hard to catch; difficult to understand emulate - -v.- to imitate; to copy endorse - -v.- to support; to approve of; to recommend engender - -v.- to create; to bring about enhance - -v.- to improve; to complement; to make more attractive enigma - -n.- mystery; secret; perplexity ephemeral - -adj.- temporary; brief; short-lived equivocal - -adj.- doubtful, uncertain erratic - -adj.- unpredictable; strange erroneous - -adj.- untrue; inaccurate; not correct esoteric - -adj.- incomprehensible; obscure euphony - -n.- pleasant sound exemplary - -adj.- serving as an example; outstanding exhaustive - -adj.- thorough; complete expedient - -adj.- helpful; practical; worthwhile expedite - -v.- to speed up explicit - -adj.- specific; definite extol - -v.- to praise; to commend extraneous - -adj.- irrelevant; not related; not essential facilitate - -v.- to make easier; to simplify fallacious - -adj.- misleading fanatic - -n.-enthusiastic; extremist fastidious - -adj.- fussy; hard to please fervor - -n.- passion; intensity fickle - -adj.- changeable; unpredictable fortuitous - -adj.- accidental; happening by chance; lucky frivolity - -n.- giddiness; lack of seriousness fundamental - -adj.- basic; necessary furtive - -adj.- secretive; sly futile - -adj.- worthless; unprofitable glutton - -n.- overeater grandiose - -adj.- extravagant; flamboyant gravity - -n.- seriousness guile - -n.- shyness; deceit gullible - -adj.- easily fooled hackneyed - -adj.- commonplace; trite hamper - -v.- to interfere with; to hinder haphazard - -adj.- disorganized; random hedonistic - -adj.- pleasure seeking heed - -v.- to obey; to yield to heresy - -n.- opinion contrary to popular belief hindrance - -n.- blockage; obstacle humility - -n.- lack of pride; modesty hypothetical - -adj.- assumed; uncertain illuminate - -v.- to make understandable illusory - -adj.- unreal; false; deceptive inclined - -adj.- apt to; likely to inclined - -adj.- angled incoherent - -adj.- illogical; rambling incompatible - -adj.- disagreeing; disharmonious incredulous - -adj.- unwilling to believe; skeptical indifferent - -adj.- uncovered indolent - -adj.- lazy; inactive indulgent - -adj.- lenient; patient inevitable - -adj.- sure to happen; unavoidable infamous - -adj.- having a bad reputation; notorious infer - -v.- to form an opinion; to conclude initiate - -v.- to begin; to admit into a group initiate - -n.- a person who is in the process of being admitted into a group innate - -adj.- natural inborn innocuous - -adj.- harmless; innocent innovate - -v.- to introduce a change; to depart from the old insipid - -adj.- uninteresting; bland instigate - -v.- to start; to provoke intangible - -adj.- incapable of being touched; immaterial ironic - -adj.- contradictory; inconsistent; sarcastic irrational - -adj.- not logical jeopardy - -n.- danger kindle - -v.- to ignite; to arouse languid - -adj.- weak; fatigued laud - -v.- to praise lax - -adj.- careless; irresponsible lethargic - -adj.- lazy; passive levity - -n.- sillines; lack of seriousness lucid - -adj.- shining lucid - -adj.- easily understood magnanimous - -adj.- forgiving; unselfish malicious - -adj.- spiteful; vindictive marred - -adj.- damaged meander - -v.- to wind on a course; to travel or wander aimlessly melancholy - -n.- depression; gloom meticulous - -adj.- exacting; precise minute - -adj.- extrem