| abstruse |
difficult to comprehend or understand; esoteric; arcane. |
| askance |
with distrust or suspicion. |
| castellated |
constructed with turrets and battlements like a castle. |
| cognomen |
a last name; surname. |
| constrict |
to pull or squeeze in; make smaller or more narrow; tighten. |
| divergence |
the act of separating and moving or leading in different directions. |
| epistolary |
established or continued through letters. |
| frangible |
easy to break; breakable; fragile. |
| gird |
to surround, bind, or encircle, as with a belt. |
| hypocrisy |
the practice or an instance of stating or pretending to hold beliefs or principles that one does not actually live by; insincerity. |
| invidious |
tending to arouse feelings of resentment or animosity, especially because of a slight; offensive or discriminatory. |
| modus operandi |
a method of accomplishing something; way of working. |
| obfuscate |
to make (something) seem or be difficult to understand; obscure or darken. |
| scion |
an offspring or heir. |
| vitiate |
to harm the quality of; mar; spoil. |