| abut |
to adjoin or press against; be next to; border on. |
| banal |
lacking originality or liveliness; disappointingly ordinary; commonplace; trite. |
| cloture |
in U.S. parliamentary procedure, a method of ending debate and causing an immediate vote on the matter being discussed. |
| cognoscente |
someone who has exceptional knowledge in a given area, especially of fashion, literature, or the fine arts; connoisseur. |
| deracinate |
to pull up by or as if by the roots; uproot; isolate; exile. |
| deter |
to stop or discourage from some action by creating doubt or fear. |
| engender |
to create or give rise to. |
| 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. |
| lapidary |
an expert on or dealer in gemstones. |
| munificent |
having or showing great generosity. |
| neologism |
a new word, phrase, or usage. |
| peremptory |
not permitting refusal or disobedience. |
| quondam |
having been in the past; former. |
| reconnaissance |
the act or process of examining an area, especially to gain militarily useful information. |
| scabrous |
characterized by a rough or scaly surface, as the leaf of a plant. |