| affectation |
falseness or superficiality of appearance or behavior; pretense. |
| credential |
something that entitles one to confidence, credit, privilege, or authority. |
| detriment |
harm, injury, or loss. |
| discourse |
verbal communication; conversation. |
| faction |
a group or party within, and often at odds with, a larger organization. |
| imminent |
about to happen or likely to happen soon. |
| inaccessible |
hard or impossible to reach, approach, or attain. |
| junta |
a small group, often of military officers, acting as the rulers of a nation, especially provisionally after the overthrow of a previous government. |
| melodrama |
behavior or events, in reality or fiction, with similarly exaggerated features or effects. |
| mercurial |
volatile in temper; changeable; fickle. |
| monolithic |
large, unyielding, and without diversity. |
| predecessor |
a person who holds a position or job before another person. |
| preoccupy |
to absorb the entire time or attention of. |
| sophistry |
a subtle, deceptive method of reasoning or arguing, involving statements that sound plausible but are actually false or fallacious. |
| stalemate |
any situation in which a further action, offer, or the like is impossible or unlikely; deadlock. |