| asperity |
harshness or roughness, especially of tone or manner. |
| barrage |
a great number of things coming one after another very quickly. |
| bellicose |
easily incited to quarrel or fight; belligerent. |
| berate |
to reproach or scold severely. |
| caparison |
decorative trappings to cover a horse's saddle or harness. |
| conclave |
a secret, private, or confidential meeting or gathering. |
| cynosure |
a thing or person that is the center of attention and admiration. |
| eulogy |
a spoken or written tribute, especially to honor a dead person; high praise; formal commendation. |
| froward |
unwilling to agree or obey; stubborn; perverse. |
| gloaming |
late evening; dusk; twilight. |
| intelligentsia |
the elite class of highly learned people within a society, or those who consider themselves part of such a class. |
| linguistics |
(used with a singular verb) the scientific and historical study of the form and structure of human language. |
| modus operandi |
a method of accomplishing something; way of working. |
| rebarbative |
tending to irritate or repel; forbidding or unattractive. |
| recondite |
involving profound concepts and complexities; not easily understood. |