| accretion |
the process of gradual increase or growth, especially by additions from the outside. |
| aleatory |
pertaining to or depending on luck, chance, or contingency. |
| baleful |
threatening harm; full of malice; ominous. |
| baneful |
causing or leading to death, destruction, or ruin; harmful or deadly. |
| conclave |
a secret, private, or confidential meeting or gathering. |
| eruct |
to belch forth. |
| jeremiad |
a long complaint about life or one's situation; lamentation. |
| limn |
to paint or draw. |
| maverick |
a person who thinks and behaves independently, especially one who refuses to adhere to the orthodoxy of the group to which he or she belongs. |
| pandemic |
a widespread outbreak of disease that afflicts many people over different continents. |
| parvenu |
a person who has suddenly acquired wealth or status, without acquiring the tastes, manners, customs, or the like of his or her new station. |
| seminal |
of critical importance; essential. |
| tort |
in law, any civil rather than criminal harm or injury that violates the implicit duty of each citizen not to harm others, and for which one may bring a civil suit and collect compensation. |
| transpose |
to exchange the position or order of (two things). |
| travesty |
something so grotesque or inferior as to seem a parody. |