Verbal Advantage – Level 05 Review Test

Cultivated means refined and educated through study and training, showing skill and good taste: a cultivated mind. Judicious means showing good judgment, facile means easy or superficial, and eccentric means odd or unconventional.

Mischievous has three syllables, with the stress on the first: MIS-chi-vus. Not mis-CHEE-vee-us: there is no extra 'ee' syllable in the word, so this four-syllable form is a common mispronunciation.

Superfluous (more than is needed, unnecessary) is stressed on the second syllable: soo-PUR-floo-us. Putting the stress on su- or flu- is a common mistake.

Voluble means talking fluently and at length. Glib (fluent, smooth-talking) is a synonym, while laconic (using few words) and reticent (reserved, reluctant to speak) are antonyms. The other groups each contain two synonyms (verbose, garrulous, loquacious, effusive) and only one antonym (taciturn or terse).

Transitory means lasting only a short time. Transient, ephemeral and evanescent all share this meaning. Itinerant means travelling from place to place (an itinerant preacher). It is about moving around, not about being short-lived.

Greek philein means to love. Philanthropy is love of humankind (anthropos, human being), and philharmonic literally means loving harmony. Not to give: philanthropy often involves giving, but the root itself means love.

Lethargy is a state of sluggishness, drowsiness or indifference. Apathy fits this meaning, but acquiescence means quiet acceptance or agreement without protest, so it is not a synonym. Torpor, stupefaction, lassitude, languor, somnolence and sluggishness all describe a dull, inactive state.

Pugnacious (eager to fight, combative) comes from Latin pugnare, to fight, which is related to pugnus, fist. So the original idea is fighting with the fists. Compare pugilist, a boxer.

A quidnunc (Latin 'what now?') is a busybody or gossip who always wants to know the latest news. Officious means meddlesome, pushing into other people's business, so a quidnunc is an officious person. Not incorrigible, which means impossible to reform.

Accolade comes from the ceremony of making someone a knight, in which the king embraced the man around the neck (Latin collum, neck) or touched his shoulder with a sword. Today it means an award or expression of praise: The film won every accolade.

Vernacular language is the everyday, familiar speech of ordinary people. It is common and familiar and can be perfectly grammatical, but it is never scholarly, because scholarly language is formal and learned.

Jovial (cheerful, good-humoured) comes from Jove, another name for Jupiter. People born under the planet Jupiter were believed to be happy. Judgment, justice and juxtapose have different Latin roots.

Medium comes from Latin, and its Latin plural is media: The media are reporting the story. Medias is always wrong. Mediums is used only for psychics who contact spirits, or sometimes for artists' materials.

Ebullient (bubbling over with enthusiasm) is usually pronounced i-BUHL-yint, with the stress on the second syllable. The -lient part is said as one syllable, yint. Forms stressed on the first syllable, such as EB-yuh-lint, are incorrect.

Impervious means not allowing anything, such as light or water, to pass through: impenetrable. Diaphanous means so thin that light passes through it, transparent (a diaphanous veil), so it is the antonym. Opaque is close to a synonym. Obfuscated means made unclear.

Chimerical means imaginary, wildly fanciful or absurd. It comes from the Chimera, a monster of Greek myth. Droll means amusing in an odd way, auspicious means favourable, and prodigious means enormous or amazing.

Latin ponere means to put, place. To posit is to put forward an idea as true. To juxtapose is to place things side by side (juxta, beside). Compare position and deposit.

After a preposition such as between or for, use object pronouns: me, him, her. So for Mary and me is correct and for Mary and I is wrong. To check, drop the other person: you would say This is for me, never This is for I.

An auspex (from avis, bird, and specere, to look) foretold the future by watching the flight of birds. So auspicious came to mean showing favourable signs: an auspicious start.

To promulgate is to make something known publicly or spread it widely. To bruit (usually bruit about) means to spread a report or rumour, so it is a synonym. Expostulate means to protest or argue against, and adjudicate means to judge officially.

Latin nomen means name. Nomenclature is a system of names used in a particular field, such as the nomenclature of botany. Compare nominate and nominal.

Satiety is the state of being filled or gratified beyond the point of desire, so it means excessive gratification. It comes from Latin satis, enough (compare satiate, satisfy). Not unquenchable desire, which is the opposite idea.

Beguile means to deceive or trick, and also to charm or enchant. All the words in the other sets fit one of these senses (dupe, cozen, enthrall, enchant...). Obfuscate means to make unclear or confusing, so it is not a synonym.

Latin plenus means full. Replete means filled or well supplied (a book replete with examples). A plenary session is one attended by all members, a full meeting. Compare plenty.

To preclude is to prevent something from happening or make it impossible. To engender is to produce or cause something, so it is the antonym. Obviate (to make unnecessary) and forestall (to prevent in advance) are close to synonyms, and cull means to select or pick out.

Both words now mean to criticize or scold severely, but in earlier times they were used of corporal punishment, that is, beating someone. Not religious purification: their Latin root castus means pure, but the words themselves referred to punishment.

A colloquialism is an informal expression from everyday speech, such as gonna or hang out, so it is a vernacular expression. An idiosyncrasy is a personal peculiarity, and obfuscation is the act of making something unclear.

Latin facere means to make or do. Facile originally meant easy to do, and facilitate means to make easier. Compare factory and manufacture. Not to simplify, which is only a later meaning of words such as facilitate.

Genial and convivial both mean friendly, cheerful and sociable. Each of the other pairs contains opposites: aloof/affable, gregarious/solitary, reserved/jovial.

Eschew (to avoid deliberately) is traditionally pronounced es-CHOO, like chew. es-SHOO and e-SKYOO are common but nonstandard variants.

Gargantuan (enormous) comes from Gargantua, the giant with a huge appetite in Rabelais's satirical romance Gargantua and Pantagruel. Not Brobdingnagian: that word also means gigantic, but it comes from Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

In Gulliver's Travels, Brobdingnag is the land of giants, so Brobdingnagian means gigantic. Not gargantuan, which comes from Rabelais. Herculean comes from the Greek hero Hercules.

Idiosyncratic means peculiar to one person, distinctive or quirky. Quirky, distinctive and peculiar are synonyms. Habitual only means done regularly by habit, and a habit need not be unusual or personal.

Approbation means approval or praise. Acclamation (loud, enthusiastic approval) is the synonym. Repudiation, disavowal and abjuration all mean rejecting or renouncing something, which is closer to the opposite.