Vocabulary 9

English III

Affinity

• kinship or likeness; natural connections/abilities

• Sentence: Bill Gates has an affinity for working with computers.

Agate

• marble style stone

Alleviation

• relief to pain or anguish• Sentence: The UN World food program strives

to alleviate hunger for the neediest people in the work fighting famine.

Allusion• Allusion: reference to a famous work or

person or literature

Barks

• boats or other sailing vessels

Coveted

• a wrongful desire or wish to have someone else’s object as your own

• Sentence: Rumpelstiltskin coveted the kingdom of Far Far Away.

Demeanor

• Behavior• I was extremely nervous for my first violin

lesson but Anne's calm demeanor immediately put me at ease.

• There was something about his demeanor that told me he was hiding something.

Dissever

• to divide into parts; cut up• The mother carefully started to dissever the

meat for her 2 year old.

Equivocal

• ambiguous; indefinite• Sentence: Equivocal position; the tests are

quite clear.

Inordinate

• exceeding the limits of reason• Sentence: They shut the construction site down

due to the inordinate number of worker injuries.

• Sentence: She took an inordinate number of suitcases on her trip.

Insipid

• lacking in flavor; bland; boring• Sentence: My mother-in-law’s rice is insipid. I

always have to add some salt on it.

Pertinacity

• stubbornness; persistence• Sentence: The proprietor had pertinacity and

persistence and would relentlessly push his product.

Sepulcher

• a burial vault or tomb• Sentence: After he died, Josiah was buried at

the sepulcher by the sea.

Seraphs

• member of the higher order of angels• Sentence: Seraphs are supposed to always

follow God’s commands and praise Him.

Vagary

• strange ideas• Sentence: After Bob made a fool of himself,

Sam quickly got up on stage so he could cover up the vagary.