Challenging Vocabulary List by Dictionary.com

Before deleting these out of my inbox, I thought I would keep them all in a post in case I was ever wanting to go back and review some of these interesting and relatively tough words:

Strong vocabulary words from Dictionary.com

scupper

[skuhp-er]

verb 1. British. Informal. to prevent from happening or succeeding; ruin; wreck. 2. British. Military. to overwhelm; surprise and destroy, disable, or massacre.

edentate

[ee-den-teyt]

adjective 1. toothless. 2. belonging or pertaining to the Edentata, an order of New World mammals characterized by the absence of incisors and canines in the arrangement of teeth and comprising the armadillos, the sloths, and the South American anteaters.

backstairs

[bak–stairz]

adjective 1. secret, underhanded, or scandalous: backstairs gossip. 2. associated or originating with household servants.

pellucid

[puh-loo-sid]

adjective 1. clear in meaning, expression, or style: a pellucid way of writing. 2. allowing the maximum passage of light, as glass; translucent.

summerize

[suhm-uh-rahyz]

verb 1. to prepare (a house, car, etc.) so as to counteract the hot weather of summer: to summerize a house by adding air conditioning. 2. to protect in hot weather for future use: to summerize a snowmobile.

thigmotropism

[thig-mo-truh-piz-uhm]

noun 1. Biology. oriented growth of an organism in response to mechanical contact, as a plant tendril coiling around a string support.

paragon

[par-uh-gon, -guhn]

noun 1. a model or pattern of excellence or of a particular excellence: a paragon of virtue. 2. someone of exceptional merit: Just who is this paragon whose name is on everyone’s lips?

stanchless

[stawnch-lis, stahnch-, stanch-]

adjective 1. incessant: a stanchless torrent of words. 2. not to be stanched.

nacreous

[ney-kree-uhs]

adjective 1. resembling nacre or mother-of-pearl; lustrous; pearly. 2. of or relating to nacre.

semaphore

antigodlin

[an-ti-god-lin]

adjective 1. lopsided or at an angle; out of alignment. 2. diagonal or cater-cornered.

scrutator

[skroo-tey-ter]

noun 1. a person who investigates.

sennight

[sen-ahyt, -it]

noun 1. Archaic. a week.

bacciferous

[bak-sif-er-uhs]

adjective 1. Botany. bearing or producing berries.

Disneyfy

[diz-nee-fahy, -ni-]

verb 1. to create or alter in a simplified, sentimentalized, or contrived form or manner: museums that have become Disneyfied to attract more visitors.

superluminal

[soo-per-loo-muh-nl]

adjective 1. Astronomy. appearing to travel faster than the speed of light.

atavism

[at-uh-viz-uhm]

noun 1. reversion to an earlier type; throwback. 2. Biology. a. the reappearance in an individual of characteristics of some remote ancestor that have been absent in intervening generations. b. an individual embodying such a reversion.

doss

[dos]

verb 1. Chiefly British. to sleep or lie down in any convenient place. noun 1. Chiefly British. a place to sleep, especially in a cheap lodging house. 2. Chiefly British. sleep.

brontide

[bron-tahyd]

noun 1. a rumbling noise heard occasionally in some parts of the world, probably caused by seismic activity.

concupiscent

[kon-kyoo-pi-suhnt, kong-]

adjective 1. lustful or sensual. 2. eagerly desirous.

palpebral

[pal-puh-bruhl, pal-pee-bruhl, –peb-ruhl]

adjective 1. of or relating to the eyelids.

mump

[muhmp, moomp]

verb 1. to sulk; mope. 2. to grimace.

excogitate

[eks-koj-i-teyt]

verb 1. to think out; devise; invent. 2. to study intently and carefully in order to grasp or comprehend fully.

estimable

[es-tuh-muh-buhl]

adjective 1. deserving respect or admiration; worthy of esteem. 2. capable of being estimated.

lateritious

[lat-uh-rish-uhs]

adjective 1. of the color of brick; brick-red.

ferly

[fer-lee]

noun 1. something unusual, strange, or causing wonder or terror. 2. astonishment; wonder.