| abstruse |
difficult to comprehend or understand; esoteric; arcane. |
| acclivity |
a rising slope. |
| asperity |
harshness or roughness, especially of tone or manner. |
| atonement |
the act of making reparation for a sin, crime, error, or the like. |
| foment |
to encourage the development of; instigate or foster. |
| germane |
having relevance to a given matter; pertinent; significant. |
| harbinger |
someone or something that signals or foreshadows a later arrival or occurrence; herald; forerunner. |
| humanism |
a doctrine or mode of thought that gives highest importance to human dignity, values, potentials, and achievements. |
| 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. |
| nonplus |
to cause (someone) to be unable to think of what to say, do, or decide; perplex; bewilder. |
| parsimonious |
excessively frugal; stingy. |
| pedagogy |
the act, process, or profession of teaching. |
| pneumatic |
of, using, or concerning air or other gases. |
| quadrant |
any of the four parts that result when an area is divided by two lines, real or imaginary, that intersect each other at right angles. |
| solipsism |
the self-centered habit of interpreting and judging all things exclusively according to one's own concepts of meaning and value. |