Week 10  5/30

1.      Harsh (adj.)

Meaning 1: unpleasant and difficult to accept or experience

Meaning 2: having an unpleasant or harmful effect because of great strength or force: too intense or powerful

Meaning 3: severe or cruel: not kind

Sample sentence: We've had an extremely harsh winter.

Synonyms: bitter, brutal, burdensome, cruel, excruciating, grievous,

Antonyms: easy, light, soft

 

2.      Anthropologist (n.)

Meaning: the study of human races, origins, societies, and cultures

 

3.      Petroleum (n.)

Meaning: a kind of oil that comes from below the ground and that is the source of gasoline and other products

 

4.      Cubic (adj.) (n.)

Meaning: in the shape of a cube

 

5.      Barrel (n.)

Meaning 1: a round usually wooden container with curved sides and flat ends

Meaning 2: the amount of something in a barrel

Meaning 3: the part of a gun that the bullets go through when the gun is fired

Sample sentence: The price of oil is over 30 dollars a barrel.

Synonyms: plenitude, plentitude, plenty, pot, potful, profusion, quantity, raft, reams, scads, sheaf, shipload, sight, slew, spate, stack, store, ton, truckload, volume, wad, wealth, yard

Antonyms: ace, bit, dab, dram, driblet, glimmer, handful, hint, lick, little, mite, mouthful, nip, ounce, peanuts, pinch, pittance

 

6.      Quintuple (adj.) (v.)

Meaning 1: five times bigger in size or amount

Meaning 2: having five parts or including five people or things

Meaning 3: to become five times bigger in value or number

Meaning 4: to cause (something) to become five times bigger

Sample sentence: The town's population has quintupled in the past 50 years.

 

7.      Breeze (n.) (v.)

Meaning 1: to move quickly and confidently

Meaning 2: to easily succeed at something

Sample sentence: He breezed past us without so much as a nod.

Synonyms: bowl, flow, brush, coast, cruise, drift, glide, roll, sail, skim, slide, slip, stream, sweep, whisk

Antonyms: flounder, struggle

 

8.      Microclimate (n.)

Meaning: the essentially uniform local climate of a usually small site or habitat

 

9.      Orient (n.) (adj.) (v.)

Meaning 1: to change or create (something, such as a book or a film) so that it appeals to a particular group of people or is suitable for a particular group of people

Meaning 2: to direct (someone) toward a goal

Meaning 3: to place (something) in a particular position or direction

Sample sentence: The program is intended to orient students toward a career in medicine.

Synonyms: accustom, familiarize, initiate, introduce, acquaint, orientate

 

10.  Perspective (n.)

Meaning: an optical glass (as a telescope)

Sample sentence: The elegant economy of the drawing and the wild inventiveness of such pictorial devices as the towering pitcher's mound and the impossible perspective of Snoopy's doghouse keep the repetitiveness, talkiness, and melancholy of the strip a few buoyant inches off the ground, and save it from being fey. —John Updike, New Yorker, 22 Oct. 2007

 

11.  Renewable (adj.)

Meaning 1: able to be extended for another time period: able to be renewed

Meaning 2: restored or replaced by natural processes: able to be replaced by nature

Sample sentence: Forests are renewable natural resources, but they must be treated with care.

 

12.  Pedestrian (adj.) (n.)

Meaning 1: not interesting or unusual

Meaning 2: relating to or designed for people who are walking

Meaning 3: a person who is walking in a city, along a road, etc.

Sample sentence: He lived a pedestrian life, working at the paper mill and living in his trailer.

Synonyms: tame, tedious, tiresome, tiring, uninteresting, wearisome, weary, wearying

Antonyms: absorbing, engaging, engrossing, gripping, interesting, intriguing, involving, riveting

 

13.  Pod (n.)

Meaning 1: a bit socket in a brace

Meaning 2: a straight groove or channel in the barrel of an auger

 

14.  Panel (n.) (v.)

Meaning 1: a group of people who answer questions, give advice or opinions about something, or take part in a discussion for an audience

Meaning 2: a group of people with special knowledge, skill, or experience who give advice or make decisions

Meaning 3: a group of people who are chosen to be jurors

Meaning 4: to cover (a wall, ceiling, etc.) with flat pieces of wood, glass, etc.

Sample sentence: The advisory panel has recommended that the drug be approved.

Synonyms: parley, powwow, round-robin, roundtable, seminar, symposium

 

15.  Starvation (n.)

Meaning: suffering or death caused by having nothing to eat or not enough to eat : the condition of someone who is starving

Sample sentence: Millions of people face starvation every day.

 

16.  Artificial (adj.)

Meaning 1: not natural or real: made, produced, or done to seem like something natural

Meaning 2: not happening or existing naturally: created or caused by people

Meaning 3: not sincere

Sample sentence: The country's borders are artificial, and were set with no consideration for the various ethnic groups in the region.

Synonyms: affected, assumed, bogus, contrived, factitious, fake, false, feigned, forced, mechanical, mock, plastic, pretended, pseudo, put-on, sham, simulated, spurious, strained, unnatural

Antonyms: artless, genuine, natural, spontaneous, unaffected, uncontrived, unfeigned, unforced

 

17.  Scandal (n.)

Meaning 1: an occurrence in which people are shocked and upset because of behavior that is morally or legally wrong

Meaning 2: talk about the shocking or immoral things that people have done or are believed to have done

Meaning 3: something that is shocking, upsetting, or unacceptable

Sample sentence: Government officials were caught in an embezzlement scandal.

Synonyms: dishonor, opprobrium, reflection, reproach, disgrace

Antonyms: credit, honor

 

18.  Mislead (v.)

Meaning: to cause (someone) to believe something that is not true

Sample sentence: We believe that her comments were deliberately meant to mislead the public.

Synonyms: bamboozle, beguile, bluff, buffalo, burn, catch, con, cozen, delude, dupe, fake out, fool, gaff, gammon, gull, have, have on [chiefly British], hoax, hoodwink, hornswoggle, humbug, juggle, misguide, misinform, deceive, snooker, snow, spoof, string along, sucker, suck in, take in, trick

Antonyms: undeceive

 

19.  Supervise (v.)

Meaning: to be in charge of (someone or something) : to watch and direct (someone or something)

Sample sentence: The builder supervised the construction of the house.

Synonyms: captain, handle, head, overlook, oversee, quarterback, superintend, boss

 

20.  Cripple (n.) (v.)

Meaning 1: to cause (a person or animal) to be unable to move or walk normally

Meaning 2: to make (something) unable to work normally : to cause great damage to (something)

Sample sentence: Higher taxes could cripple small businesses.

Synonyms: maim, disable, incapacitate, lame, mutilate

Antonyms: doctor, fix, mend, patch, rebuild, recondition, reconstruct, renovate, repair, revamp

 

21.  Infertility (adj.)

Meaning 1: not able to reproduce: not able to produce children, young animals, etc.

Meaning 2: not suited for raising crops: unable to support the growth of plants

Sample sentence: <only parched, infertile fields remained after months of drought>

Synonyms: barren, fruitless, impotent, sterile, unfruitful

Antonyms: fat, fertile, fruitful

 

22.  Turf (n.) (v.)

Meaning 1: the upper layer of ground that is made up of grass and plant roots

Meaning 2: a square piece of turf cut out of the ground that is used for making lawns

Meaning 3: a material that looks like grass and that is used especially to cover athletic fields

Sample sentence: Synthetic turf was installed in the playing field instead of grass.

 

23.  Prohibit (v.)

Meaning 1: to order (someone) not to use or do something

Meaning 2: to say that (something) is not allowed

Meaning 3: to make (something) impossible to do

Sample sentence: The prison's electric fence prohibits escape.

Synonyms: ban, bar, enjoin, interdict, outlaw, forbid, proscribe

Antonyms: allow, let, permit, suffer

 

24.  Cottonseed (n.)

Meaning: the seed of the cotton plant

 

25.  Foodstuff (n.)

Meaning: a substance that is used as food