| aleatory |
pertaining to or depending on luck, chance, or contingency. |
| baleful |
threatening harm; full of malice; ominous. |
| derelict |
failing to fulfill one's responsibilities or obligations; remiss. |
| descant |
a secondary, usually higher, melody that is played or sung at the same time as the chief melody. |
| extirpate |
to get rid of completely, as if by pulling up the roots; root out. |
| fulminate |
to vehemently denounce or criticize something. |
| humanism |
a doctrine or mode of thought that gives highest importance to human dignity, values, potentials, and achievements. |
| intransigence |
refusal to alter one's ideas or position in response to the wishes of others. |
| nostrum |
a favorite but unproven scheme or theory, offered as a remedy for social or political problems; panacea. |
| prerogative |
an exclusive right or privilege derived from one's office, position, age, citizenship, birth, or the like. |
| pungent |
sharp and strong in taste or smell. |
| reprisal |
injury inflicted in retaliation for injury received, as in war; revenge. |
| sententious |
using or marked by pompous, high-flown moralizing. |
| sepsis |
infection, especially by pus-forming bacteria in the blood or tissues. |
| sequester |
to remove into protection and isolation; seclude. |