| aleatory |
pertaining to or depending on luck, chance, or contingency. |
| attenuate |
to cause to be thin, rarefied, or fine. |
| cantankerous |
irritable, stubborn, and quarrelsome. |
| colloquialism |
a word or phrase typically used in conversational, informal, or regional speech or writing, hence sometimes considered inappropriate in formal writing. |
| credulous |
disposed to believe, especially on scanty evidence; gullible. |
| dissimulate |
to hide one's true feelings, intentions, or the like by pretense or hypocrisy. |
| ensconce |
to position (oneself) firmly or comfortably. |
| guttural |
articulated in the back of the mouth; velar. |
| hagiography |
an admiring and uncritical biography of anyone. |
| ineluctable |
impossible to be avoided; inescapable. |
| raffish |
carelessly unconventional or disreputable, sometimes appealingly so. |
| symbiosis |
a close association, usually a mutually beneficial relationship, between two dissimilar organisms. |
| triage |
a system of determining priority of medical treatment, on the basis of need, chances of survival, and the like, to victims on a battlefield or in a hospital emergency ward. |
| veneration |
a feeling of great respect; awe; reverence. |
| vouchsafe |
to grant or give with condescension or as a special favor. |