| astringent |
a substance or drug that contracts body tissue and slows discharge or secretion. |
| demarcate |
to set apart or separate, as if with boundaries. |
| derelict |
failing to fulfill one's responsibilities or obligations; remiss. |
| erudite |
having or showing a high level of scholarly knowledge; learned. |
| eulogy |
a spoken or written tribute, especially to honor a dead person; high praise; formal commendation. |
| fracas |
a noisy disturbance or quarrel. |
| highbrow |
one who has or pretends to have highly sophisticated intellectual and cultural interests and tastes (often used disparagingly). |
| 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. |
| kibbutz |
an Israeli farming settlement whose ownership is shared by those who live and work there. |
| linguistics |
(used with a singular verb) the scientific and historical study of the form and structure of human language. |
| modular |
designed with standardized units that may be arranged or connected in a variety of ways. |
| pedantic |
making or characterized by an excessive display of learnedness, or overly insistent on scholarly details and formalities. |
| periphrasis |
an indirect or roundabout way of phrasing something; circumlocution. |
| profligate |
totally given over to immoral and shameful pursuits; dissolute. |
| splenetic |
ill-tempered or spiteful. |