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copacetic - Very satisfactory or acceptable; fine
Usage: His smile said that everything was copacetic.
admonitory - Serving to warn.
Usage: Paying as little regard to this admonitory cough, as to the significant gesture that had preceded it, the stranger pursued his questioning.
plaintive - Expressing sorrow; mournful or melancholy.
Synonyms: mournful
Usage: A strain of plaintive music, played on stringed instruments, and flutes, recalled my attention to the hidden shrine.
endemic - Prevalent in or peculiar to a particular locality, region, or people.
Synonyms: endemical
Usage: The medical advisor spoke at length about the diseases endemic to the tropics.
reverberating - Characterized by reverberation.
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assuage - To make (something burdensome or painful) less intense or severe.
Usage: Food, however, became scarce, and I often spent the whole day searching in vain for a few acorns to assuage the pangs of hunger.
coagulate - To cause transformation of (a liquid or sol, for example) into or as if into a soft, semisolid, or solid mass.
Synonyms: clot
Usage: The medical students watched blood coagulate as part of their lesson in clotting reactions.
quaff - To swallow hurriedly or greedily or in one draught.
Usage: They quaffed their ale with gusto.
quail - To shrink back in fear; cower.
Usage: Even the bravest man would quail from the frightening story she just recounted.
prattle - To talk or chatter idly or meaninglessly.
Usage: The group of tourists on the plane wouldn't stop talking; I fell asleep listening to them prattle.
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solemnity - A trait of dignified seriousness.
Synonyms: staidness, sedateness
Usage: Do I seem to have lost my solemnity, my gravity, my poise, my dignity?
liegeman - A feudal vassal or subject.
Usage: The liegeman was expected to provide military support if his lord went to battle.
escarpment - A steep slope or long cliff that results from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.
Synonyms: scarp
Usage: The basalt cliffs of the outside were reproduced upon the inside, forming an escarpment about two hundred feet high, with a woody slope beneath it.
haversack - A bag carried over one shoulder to transport supplies, as on a hike.
Usage: She carried the heavy haversack for most of the hike.
abdication - A formal resignation and renunciation of powers.
Synonyms: stepping down
Usage: What is proposed to me would be, in fact, almost an abdication, and an abdication requires reflection.
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diffident - Showing modest reserve; lacking self-confidence.
Usage: Because she was only a first-year student, she was diffident when offering a comment on the professor's lecture.
hirsute - Covered with hair; hairy.
Synonyms: hairy
Usage: The hirsute man used to joke that he looked like a grizzly bear.
monolithic - Massive, solid, and uniform
Synonyms: massive, monumental
Usage: During her travels, she studied the monolithic proportions of Stalinist architecture.
abstemious - Marked by temperance in indulgence.
Synonyms: light
Usage: Though he ate abstemious meals, he never seemed hungry for snacks.
lissome - Easily bent; supple.
Usage: There was a grace, which no austerity could diminish, about every movement of her lissome, slender form.
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clotheshorse - A person excessively concerned with dress.
Usage: The clotheshorse could be found at the boutique once a week, poring over a variety of suits, sweaters, and ties, and inevitably buying at least three of each.
avidity - Keen interest or enthusiasm.
Usage: A devoted fan, he followed the tennis tournament with avidity.
synesthesia - A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color.
Synonyms: chromesthesia
Usage: Many of those affected with synesthesia say that they associate letters of the alphabet with specific colors.
vallecula - Any furrow or channel on a bodily structure or part.
Synonyms: groove
Usage: The medical students studied the diagram depicting the vallecula between the hemispheres of the brain.
zeitgeist - The spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation.
Usage: As much as critics decry reality television, it seems to have become a part of the Zeitgeist.
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scrooge - A mean-spirited miserly person; a skinflint.
Usage: The old scrooge was married to his money and spending a penny was, to him, as traumatic as divorce.
windbreaker - A trademark used for a warm outer jacket having close-fitting, often elastic, cuffs and waistband.
Usage: George's windbreaker was torn, and he shivered in the cold night air.
philistine - A smug, ignorant, especially middle-class person who is regarded as being indifferent or antagonistic to artistic and cultural values.
Synonyms: anti-intellectual
Usage: When he teased his sister about her love of museums and literature, she dubbed him a philistine and marched out the door.
schism - A separation or division into factions.
Usage: Heretics were burned for attempting to create a schism in the Catholic Church.
sesquipedalian - A long word.
Synonyms: sesquipedalia
Usage: D'Artagnan recoiled, as though the sesquipedalian syllables had knocked the breath out of his body.
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Achillean - Resembling Achilles, the hero of the Iliad.
Synonyms: invincible
Usage: In those days, Ali had an Achillean quality, and it seemed that nothing could destroy him.
inured - Made tough by habitual exposure.
Usage: The Old West had made him inured and hardened against the wilderness, thievery and corruption.
languorous - Lacking spirit or liveliness.
Usage: a hot languorous afternoon
torpid - Lethargic; apathetic.
Usage: They are always in a torpid state, and are apt to yawn and go to sleep over any intellectual toil.
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ingraft - Cause to grow together parts from different plants.
Usage: The farmer decided to ingraft the cherry tree branch onto the plum tree to produce a better variety of fruit.
burnish - To make smooth or glossy by or as if by rubbing; polish.
Usage: Every afternoon, she would obsessively burnish the floors until the parlor gleamed like an ice rink.
grovel - To lie or creep in a prostrate position, as in subservience or humility.
Usage: The prisoners groveled before the emperor, hoping that he would commute their sentences.
gainsay - To oppose, especially by contradiction.
Usage: In vain did the poor old father weep and implore her pity; she was firm, and he dared not gainsay her.
prevaricate - To be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information.
Usage: At the press conference, the politician chose to prevaricate instead of providing direct answers.
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cajolery - Flattery intended to persuade.
Synonyms: blandishment, palaver
Usage: She used every possible means of cajolery to persuade her father to take her to the circus.
diluent - An inert substance used to dilute.
Usage: The artist thinned the paint to a pale yellow using a diluent and a bit of white.
cannoneer - A serviceman in the artillery.
Usage: You were a cannoneer that day there, and you were among the first to enter the accursed fortress when it fell.
katzenjammer - A loud, discordant noise; hangover; state of depression or bewilderment.
Synonyms: hangover
Usage: during the firework display that ended the gala the noise reached 98 decibels
bulrush - Any of various aquatic or wetland herbs having grass-like leaves and usually clusters of small, often brown spikelets.
Usage: According to the story, Moses was found in the bulrushes by the pharaoh's daughter.
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splenetic - Of or relating to the spleen; Affected or marked by ill humor or irritability.
Usage: His splenetic nature was both gross and uncalled for.
ostentatious - Intended to attract notice and impress others.
Synonyms: pretentious, showy
Usage: His ostentatious displays of wealth did nothing to impress his neighbors, who were proud of their middle-class status.
sumptuous - Of a size or splendor suggesting great expense.
Usage: The sumptuous homes of the wealthy were full of gilding and ornament.
empirical - Relying on or derived from observation or experiment.
Usage: Scientists insist on empirical results, not mere speculation, to support their theories.
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slake - To satisfy (a craving); quench.
Usage: My first act on coming to this water was, of course, to slake my thirst.
coagulate - To cause transformation of (a liquid or sol, for example) into or as if into a soft, semisolid, or solid mass.
Synonyms: clot
Usage: The medical students watched blood coagulate as part of their lesson in clotting reactions.
quail - To shrink back in fear; cower.
Usage: Even the bravest man would quail from the frightening story she just recounted.
quaff - To swallow hurriedly or greedily or in one draught.
Usage: They quaffed their ale with gusto.
muster - To call (troops) together, as for inspection.
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cache - A secret store of valuables or money.
Usage: In case of an emergency, I have a small cache of money and weapons hidden in the shed.
reredos - A painted or carved screen placed above and behind an altar or communion table.
Synonyms: altarpiece
Usage: Over the years, the antiques enthusiast had acquired a large collection of reredos by visiting churches that were about to close.
satirist - A humorist who uses ridicule and irony and sarcasm.
Usage: The satirist got into trouble with the network after he ridiculed a number of prominent donors on his live television show.
shogunate - A form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.).
Synonyms: monocracy, dictatorship, totalitarianism, tyranny, authoritarianism, despotism, absolutism
Usage: The people had philosophical problems with the shogunate, but they had to admit that trade and commerce were flourishing under its rule.
luminary - A person who is an inspiration to others.
Usage: He is considered a luminary in his field, due to the groundbreaking research he has published.
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inalienable - That cannot be transferred to another or others.
Synonyms: unforfeitable, unalienable
Usage: When he decided to fight for his inalienable rights, he did not realize that his actions would go down in history.
nonpareil - Having no equal; peerless.
Usage: An 'Only' is a nonpareil, the feller that does one kind of a turn better'n any other feller.
spurious - Lacking authenticity or validity in essence or origin; not genuine.
Synonyms: specious, unauthentic
Usage: The professor explained to the student that her essay had received a "C" due to numerous examples of spurious reasoning.
fugacious - Passing away quickly; evanescent.
Usage: Restless, shifting, fugacious as time itself is a certain vast bulk of the population of the red brick district of the lower West Side.
emollient - Softening and soothing, especially to the skin.
Usage: In the winter, she applied emollient cream to her hands to prevent the skin from cracking.
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bathos - Insincere or grossly sentimental pathos.
Synonyms: mawkishness
Usage: The opera's conclusion was emotional to the point of bathos, with the soprano dying heroically to save her lover.
chalkstone - A deposit of urates around a joint or in the external ear; diagnostic of advanced or chronic gout.
Synonyms: tophus
Usage: Once the doctor saw the chalkstone, the diagnosis was obvious: the patient was suffering from gout.
orthography - A method of representing a language or the sounds of language by written symbols; spelling.
Synonyms: writing system
Usage: She was familiar with many of the regional dialects, but she did not recognize this orthography.
rigmarole - Confused, rambling, or incoherent discourse; nonsense.
Synonyms: rigamarole
Usage: Now I want to know what that rigmarole you told me this morning meant.
costermonger - One who sells fruit, vegetables, fish, or other goods from a cart, barrow, or stand in the streets.
Synonyms: barrow-boy, barrow-man
Usage: Too far, in fancy, above the rest of mankind to trouble about their petty distinctions, he is equally at home with duke or costermonger.
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pernicious - Tending to cause death or serious injury; deadly.
Usage: That which maketh the effect more pernicious, is that all proportion is lost.
amatory - Of, relating to, or expressive of love, especially sexual love.
Usage: She showed her friends the stack of old love letters and read them excerpts from the couple's amatory correspondence.
ostentatious - Intended to attract notice and impress others.
Synonyms: pretentious, showy
Usage: His ostentatious displays of wealth did nothing to impress his neighbors, who were proud of their middle-class status.
indelible - Impossible to remove, erase, or wash away; permanent.
Synonyms: unerasable
Usage: It was never published, but I saw it once and it made an indelible impression on my mind.
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variegate - Make something more diverse and varied.
Usage: After the third consecutive dinner of mashed potatoes, we began to hope that the cook would begin to variegate the menu.
whet - Make keen or more accurate.
Usage: These fragments of nourishment served only to whet my hunger.
confabulate - To talk casually; in psychology, to fill in gaps in one's memory with fabrications that one believes to be facts.
Usage: Three old friends met in a café to confabulate together.
apprise - To give notice to.
Usage: During the drive home from the airport, they had time to apprise her of everything that had changed since she'd been gone.
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antecedent - One that precedes another.
Usage: They all saw the vase crash, but what the antecedent was, they could not determine.
jongleur - A wandering minstrel, poet, or entertainer in medieval England and France.
Usage: The group of jongleurs was so popular that King Edward requested a private performance.
helicon - A tuba that coils over the shoulder of the musician.
Synonyms: bombardon
Usage: As the marching band strolled by, Karen could see that the small boy carrying the giant helicon was sweating profusely.
mnemonic - A device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering.
Synonyms: aide-memoire
Usage: The students came up with a mnemonic to help themselves remember the colors of the rainbow.
satyr - A woodland creature in Greek mythology, depicted as having the pointed ears, legs, and short horns of a goat and a fondness for unrestrained revelry; a licentious man.
Usage: He had sounded like a nice man in his personal ad, but, in person, he turned out to be no more than a satyr.
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stentorian - Extremely loud.
Synonyms: booming
Usage: He was woken by the stentorian voice of his teacher, demanding to know why he wasn't paying attention.
auricular - Of or relating to the sense of hearing or the organs of hearing.
Synonyms: otic
Usage: This dignitary, conferring in secrecy, bent his head as though stooping to the Papistical practice of receiving auricular confession.
penultimate - Next to last.
Synonyms: penult
Usage: The penultimate novel in the series left many questions that would be answered in the final volume.
reticent - Inclined to keep one's thoughts, feelings, and personal affairs to oneself.
Synonyms: untalkative
Usage: She was so reticent about her social life that even her roommates did not know she had a boyfriend.
cantankerous - Ill-tempered and quarrelsome; disagreeable.
Synonyms: bloody-minded
Usage: She made it more difficult for him by adopting a cantankerous tone.
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troika - A Russian carriage drawn by a team of three horses abreast; A team of three horses abreast.
Synonyms: 3, deuce-ace, III, tercet, ternary, ternion, terzetto, three, threesome, trey, triad, trine, trinity, trio, triplet, tierce, lea
Usage: The general was just in time to see the prince take the first sledge he could get, and, start off in pursuit of the troikas.
turncoat - One who traitorously switches allegiance.
Usage: He was a turncoat who betrayed his friends to curry favor with the King.
scrooge - A mean-spirited miserly person; a skinflint.
Usage: The old scrooge was married to his money and spending a penny was, to him, as traumatic as divorce.
sesquipedalian - A long word.
Synonyms: sesquipedalia
Usage: D'Artagnan recoiled, as though the sesquipedalian syllables had knocked the breath out of his body.
mnemonic - A device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering.
Synonyms: aide-memoire
Usage: The students came up with a mnemonic to help themselves remember the colors of the rainbow.
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maudlin - Effusively or tearfully sentimental.
Usage: When the farewells were in danger of becoming maudlin, he judged that it was time to leave.
virid - Bright green with or as if with vegetation.
Synonyms: verdant
Usage: The lake was virid with bright algae on the surface.
quotidian - Everyday; commonplace.
Usage: There's nothing quite like a real train conductor to add color to a quotidian commute.
insipid - Lacking flavor or zest; not tasty.
Usage: Their long conversation about the weather was so insipid that he wanted to leave the room at once.
indomitable - Incapable of being overcome, subdued, or vanquished; unconquerable.
Synonyms: never-say-die, unsubduable
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mollify - To calm in temper or feeling; to lessen in intensity.
Usage: She was so outraged that nothing her friends said could mollify her anger.
grovel - To lie or creep in a prostrate position, as in subservience or humility.
Usage: The prisoners groveled before the emperor, hoping that he would commute their sentences.
evince - To show or demonstrate clearly; manifest.
Usage: The baby couldn't tell us she disliked the cereal, but she evinced her distaste by grimacing.
gainsay - To oppose, especially by contradiction.
Usage: In vain did the poor old father weep and implore her pity; she was firm, and he dared not gainsay her.
addle - To muddle; confuse.
Usage: You'll addle your brain, that's what you'll do, Philip.
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parochial - Narrowly restricted in scope or outlook.
Synonyms: insular
Usage: After moving to a big city, she had little patience for what she considered to be her parents' parochial attitudes.
unadulterated - Not mingled or diluted with extraneous matter.
Synonyms: pure
Usage: Because she did not like artificial or diluted flavors, she made sure to purchase unadulterated maple syrup.
percutaneous - Passed, done, or effected through the skin.
Usage: percutaneous absorption
hieratic - Of or associated with sacred persons or offices; a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphics used especially by the priests; extremely formal or stylized, as in a work of art.
Synonyms: priestly, sacerdotal
Usage: The figures in Byzantine paintings are arranged in hieratic compositions, used as symbols for religious truths rather than true representations.
lachrymose - Weeping or inclined to weep; causing or tending to cause tears.
Usage: He was by turns devout and obscene, merry and lachrymose.
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gaberdine - A loose coverall (coat or frock) reaching down to the ankles.
Usage: He was an unshaven little man in a threadbare coat like a gaberdine, with his feet in slippers, and I thought him a harmless fool.
acquittance - A written release from an obligation, specifically a receipt indicating payment in full.
Synonyms: release
Usage: After years of haggling over debts and money owed, the two men resolved their dispute and drew up an acquittance.
jointer - A long carpenter's plane used to shape the edges of boards so they will fit together.
Usage: Eschewing electrical tools, the carpenter used a manual jointer to fit the two boards together.
quinine - A bitter, colorless alkaloid powder, derived from cinchona bark and used in medicine to treat malaria.
Synonyms: antimalarial, Peruvian bark
Usage: Since quinine is used in tonic water to give it a bitter taste, gin and tonics were once consumed to prevent malaria.
leghorn - A stiff straw hat with a flat crown.
Usage: He had a collection of silly hats, his favorite being a giant leghorn that he had painted purple.
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munificent - Very liberal in giving; generous.
Usage: Munificent as life was to me, I added to that munificence.
mendacious - Lying; untruthful.
Synonyms: lying
Usage: answered I, that is a kind of state, and indeed the most mendacious.
medial - Relating to, situated in, or extending toward the middle; median.
Synonyms: median
Usage: They took up defensive posts all along the field, with Ray in the medial position.
heathenish - Of or having to do with heathens.
Usage: The Crusaders looked upon the followers of Islam as heathens, who refused to accept the true word of God.
jejune - Not interesting; dull.
Synonyms: insubstantial
Usage: and there pour forth jejune words and useless empty phrases Anthony Trollope.
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recompense - To award compensation for; make a return for.
Usage: I wish to recompense you for the time and money that you spent while helping my sister find her lost dog.
waft - To cause to go gently and smoothly through the air or over water.
Usage: The scent of her perfume wafted through the room.
muster - To call (troops) together, as for inspection.
Usage: It was the strongest fortress France possessed, and if the king had better sense, he would have sent all the ships he could muster to protect it.
enfeeble - To deprive of strength; make feeble.
Usage: Although his age enfeebled him, he could still walk long distances without tiring.
jibe - To be in accord; agree.
Usage: The two stories don't jibe in many details.
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plectrum - A small, thin device (of metal or plastic or ivory) used to pluck a stringed instrument.
Usage: When he first struck the guitar's strings with his plectrum, we knew we were in for a great performance.
panacea - A remedy for all diseases, evils, or difficulties; a cure-all.
Usage: His panacea was somewhat in the nature of an anti-climax, but at least it had the merits of simplicity and of common sense.
panache - Distinctive and stylish elegance.
Usage: He wooed her with the confident panache of a cavalry officer.
reredos - A painted or carved screen placed above and behind an altar or communion table.
Synonyms: altarpiece
Usage: Over the years, the antiques enthusiast had acquired a large collection of reredos by visiting churches that were about to close.
effulgence - A brilliant radiance.
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hirsute - Covered with hair; hairy.
Synonyms: hairy
Usage: The hirsute man used to joke that he looked like a grizzly bear.
facetious - Playfully jocular; humorous.
Synonyms: bantering, tongue-in-cheek
Usage: She was quite gullible and could never tell when his remarks were facetious or when he was being serious.
blithe - Carefree and lighthearted.
Usage: The blithe young couple was a pleasant sight to see.
emollient - Softening and soothing, especially to the skin.
Usage: In the winter, she applied emollient cream to her hands to prevent the skin from cracking.
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oratorio - A musical composition for voices and orchestra, telling a sacred story without costumes, scenery, or dramatic action.
Synonyms: cantata
Usage: Because he was used to the drama, costumes, and scenery of Italian opera, he found the oratorio to be dry and austere.
montage - A single pictorial composition made by juxtaposing or superimposing many pictures or designs.
Synonyms: collage
Usage: The children's gift to their grandmother was a montage of family pictures.
ingrate - A person who shows no gratitude.
Synonyms: thankless wretch, ungrateful person
Usage: This bird was a godsend to us, and I should be an ingrate if I forgot to make honorable mention of him in these pages.
valance - An ornamental drapery hung across a top edge, as of a bed, table, or canopy.
Usage: Large valances of silk, embroidered with flowers of gay colors, which were rather faded, fell from the wide windows; the fittings of the room were simple, but in excellent taste.
avidity - Keen interest or enthusiasm.
Usage: A devoted fan, he followed the tennis tournament with avidity.
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languid - Lacking energy, vitality, or animation.
Usage: He gave a languid wave of the hand to signify his indifference.
convivial - Fond of feasting, drinking, and good company; sociable.
Synonyms: good-time
Usage: a woman of convivial nature
lugubrious - Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree.
Usage: The look on his face was so lugubrious that for a moment I thought I had actually hurt his feelings.
blithe - Carefree and lighthearted.
Usage: The blithe young couple was a pleasant sight to see.
pellucid - Admitting the passage of light; transparent or translucent.
Usage: The water in the fountain, pellucid as crystal, was alive with myriads of gold and silver fishes.
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macerate - To make soft, usually by steeping in liquid, and cause to disintegrate as a result.
Synonyms: soften
Usage: The stale bread was left to macerate in a bowl of milk for a few hours.
abscond - To leave quickly and secretly and hide oneself, often to avoid arrest or prosecution.
Usage: Just as his case was about to go to trial, the lawyer panicked and absconded with his client's money.
escalate - To increase, enlarge, or intensify.
Usage: Tensions escalated as the politicians refused to compromise.
abjure - To renounce under oath; forswear.
Usage: Once a man has lost his self-respect, and has decided to abjure his better qualities and human dignity, he falls headlong into misery.
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banal - Drearily commonplace and often predictable; trite.
Synonyms: commonplace, trivial
Usage: The melodrama was quite cliché, and, by now, completely banal.
pernicious - Tending to cause death or serious injury; deadly.
Usage: That which maketh the effect more pernicious, is that all proportion is lost.
insentient - Devoid of sensation or consciousness; inanimate.
Synonyms: insensate
Usage: Jim thought he might be losing his mind when he caught himself talking to insentient objects.
gossamer - Sheer, light, delicate, or tenuous.
Usage: The gossamer curtains fluttered in the breeze.
lissome - Easily bent; supple.
Usage: There was a grace, which no austerity could diminish, about every movement of her lissome, slender form.
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debacle - A sudden, disastrous collapse, downfall, or defeat.
Usage: The team had had high hopes before the debacle of their final game, in which they did not manage to score any points.
inchoate - In an initial or early stage; incipient.
Synonyms: incipient
Usage: Then his eyes went muddy, as if he had lost his grip on the inchoate thought.
girth - The distance around something; the circumference.
Synonyms: circumference, perimeter
Usage: It was an enormous tree, its girth twice as great as what a man could embrace.
megrim - A severe recurring vascular headache; occurs more frequently in women than men.
Usage: Her megrims were severe, and she often had to miss work because of the terrible pain.
cabal - A conspiratorial group of plotters or intriguers; a secret scheme or plot.
Usage: She pretended that a wicked plot was being hatched against her, a cabal which would come to a head in the coming days.
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parochial - Narrowly restricted in scope or outlook.
Synonyms: insular
Usage: After moving to a big city, she had little patience for what she considered to be her parents' parochial attitudes.
mendacious - Lying; untruthful.
Synonyms: lying
Usage: answered I, that is a kind of state, and indeed the most mendacious.
imperviable - Not admitting of passage or capable of being affected.
Synonyms: impervious
Usage: The tablecloth was imperviable to liquid; the water ran along the surface of the fabric and did not soak through to the table.
apropos - Being at once opportune and to the point.
Usage: She was so hungry that the question of lunch was very apropos.
stentorian - Extremely loud.
Synonyms: booming
Usage: He was woken by the stentorian voice of his teacher, demanding to know why he wasn't paying attention.
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apprise - To give notice to.
Usage: During the drive home from the airport, they had time to apprise her of everything that had changed since she'd been gone.
exacerbate - Make worse.
Usage: This drug aggravates the pain
adumbrate - To give a sketchy outline of; to disclose partially or guardedly.
Usage: Before beginning his dissertation, he adumbrated his ideas to his professor.
discomfit - To make uneasy or perplexed; disconcert.
Usage: Her extreme candor would often discomfit strangers who suddenly found themselves privy to her most private thoughts.
vitiate - To reduce the value or impair the quality of; to corrupt morally; to make ineffective.
Usage: Even though her clothes were shabby, nothing could vitiate her beauty.
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automaton - A self-operating machine or mechanism, especially a robot.
Usage: The automaton was considered a feat of engineering until it broke down on its second day of operation.
escarpment - A steep slope or long cliff that results from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.
Synonyms: scarp
Usage: The basalt cliffs of the outside were reproduced upon the inside, forming an escarpment about two hundred feet high, with a woody slope beneath it.
physic - A medicine or drug, especially a cathartic.
Usage: "Affery, woman," said Mr. Flintwinch, with a friendly grin on his expressive countenance, "if you ever have a dream of this sort again, it'll be a sign of your being in want of physic."
twelvemonth - A year.
Usage: But wilt thou not give me another twelvemonth to pay my debt?
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