| baneful |
causing or leading to death, destruction, or ruin; harmful or deadly. |
| cantankerous |
irritable, stubborn, and quarrelsome. |
| cognomen |
a last name; surname. |
| descant |
a secondary, usually higher, melody that is played or sung at the same time as the chief melody. |
| effrontery |
shameless impudence; insolence. |
| facetious |
not serious; humorous or frivolous. |
| imprecation |
a curse, uttered or thought of. |
| kibbutz |
an Israeli farming settlement whose ownership is shared by those who live and work there. |
| naturalism |
in literature, a method of depicting life that reflects a philosophy of determinism. |
| peroration |
the concluding part of a speech in which there is a summing up of the principal points. |
| quiescence |
a state of inaction, rest, or stillness; dormancy. |
| relict |
a plant, animal, or geological feature that has survived in a considerably changed environment. |
| schadenfreude |
(often capitalized) pleasure derived from the misfortune of others. |
| shunt |
to turn or move aside or out of the way; divert. |
| 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. |