| adulteration |
the act or process of making worse or impure by adding unnecessary or inferior ingredients. |
| baleful |
threatening harm; full of malice; ominous. |
| bereft |
deprived or stripped of something. |
| Byzantine |
characterized by complexity and intrigue. |
| epicure |
a person who has cultivated tastes, as in food or wine; connoisseur. |
| heterodox |
deviating from an officially approved belief or doctrine, especially in religion. |
| humanism |
a doctrine or mode of thought that gives highest importance to human dignity, values, potentials, and achievements. |
| incursion |
a raid or sudden invasion. |
| insouciant |
having no cares or anxieties; light-hearted; carefree. |
| intelligentsia |
the elite class of highly learned people within a society, or those who consider themselves part of such a class. |
| liminal |
of or at the threshold of a physiological or psychological response or change of state. |
| mahatma |
(sometimes capitalized) in Buddhism and theosophy, any of a class of persons revered for their wisdom and love of humanity. |
| nonpareil |
a person or thing whose excellence is unequaled; paragon. |
| quadrant |
any of the four parts that result when an area is divided by two lines, real or imaginary, that intersect each other at right angles. |
| voluble |
characterized by a steady flow of words; fluent; talkative. |