| astute |
keen in understanding and judgment; shrewd. |
| canard |
a deliberately false story or rumor, usually defamatory to someone. |
| caste |
the status conferred by the class to which one belongs. |
| cession |
the act of formally giving up or signing over, as a territory; ceding. |
| crass |
lacking in sensitivity or refinement; crude. |
| declivity |
a downward or descending slope. |
| deign |
to consider some act to be appropriate or in keeping with one's dignity; condescend. |
| derision |
mockery or ridicule. |
| extrinsic |
not inherent or essential; extraneous. |
| gnomic |
short and pithy, as an aphorism. |
| impermeable |
not permitting passage or penetration. |
| inflection |
change that occurs in the form of words to show a grammatical characteristic such as the tense of a verb, the number of a noun, or the degree of an adjective or adverb. |
| innocuous |
not capable of causing damage; harmless. |
| laureate |
one honored for achievement in a particular field or by a particular award, especially in the arts or sciences. |
| topography |
the shape of the earth's surface across an area or region. The topography of an area includes the size and location of hills and dips in the land. |