12 • Lesson 1 Word List

acolyte

(n) A person who assists in some religious services by carrying out minor duties; one who attends or assists, a follower.
The movie director’s acolytes hung on his every word.

bibulous

(adj) 1. Given to the consumption of alcoholic drinks.
Health education classes provide information about the damage that can result from an excessively bibulous lifestyle.

2. Highly absorbent.
The dentist ordered an ample supply of bibulous paper on which to place her instruments.

coalesce

(v) To grow together; to unite to form a whole.
Dissatisfied Republicans and Democrats coalesced behind the third-party candidate.

covert

(adj) Not openly acknowledged; secret.
The intelligence operation was supposed to be covert, but sophisticated technology revealed the plan.

declaim

(v) To recite something in the style of a public speech; to speak in a loud, theatrical way.
“To be or not to be,” declaimed the actor, “that is the question.”

delineate*

(v) 1. To describe vividly and in detail.
In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen delineates the social practices of late eighteenth century upper-class England.

2. To draw an outline of; to represent by drawing.
In her studio, the architect delineated her plan for the new wing of the building.

demagogue

(n) A leader who seeks power by appealing to people’s emotions and prejudices and by making false claims and promises.
During the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy was a demagogue who played on people’s fear of communism.

demagoguery (n)

encomium

(n) (plural: encomiums or encomia) An expression of warm and enthusiastic praise; a tribute.
At a dinner in his honor, the philanthropist received encomiums for his generous financial gift to the cancer center.

obdurate

(adj) 1. Resistant to persuasion; inflexible.
Despite our pleadings, Maisie remained obdurate in her determination to hike the hazardous trail.

2. Persistent in wrongdoing.
The judge reasoned that the obdurate high schooler would benefit more from focused education than from prolonged incarceration.

obduracy (n)

prescience

(n) Foresight; knowledge beforehand of events.
The ancient Greeks consulted oracles because they believed them to have the power of prescience.

prescient (adj)

protagonist*

(n) The chief character in a drama or story.
The protagonist in Shakespearean tragedy is usually a person destroyed by a character flaw such as jealousy or excessive ambition.

sedulous

(adj) Completed with careful perseverance; diligent.
Through their sedulous efforts, workers in Project HOPE delivered medicine and supplies to doctors and patients in the disaster zone.

trenchant

(adj) Expressed with vigor and penetrating insight; keenly perceptive.
The reviewer’s trenchant criticism did not please the book’s author.

utopia

(n) A place or state of perfect social and political conditions.
The utopia promised by communism failed to materialize in Eastern Europe.

utopian (adj)

valedictory

(n) A farewell address, especially one given at a graduation ceremony.
The valedictory is usually given by a student who has achieved great distinction.

(adj) Of or relating to such a farewell address.
General Lee’s valedictory remarks to the Army of Virginia were tinged with sadness.

valediction (n)