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The Counseling Department introduces one English word each week to help build students' vocabulary. The English words come from a list of SAT Vocabulary words which have been found to be difficult for students.
Students: These words will be listed weekly in the Daily Bulletin. Keep track of them in a notebook throughout the year and use them in your writing and conversation.
WEEK | WORD | MEANING | EXAMPLE |
5/6-5/8 | innate | Adj. - present in an individual from birth. | Sentence: Athletic ability can be enhanced by training but is mostly innate. |
4/30-5/1 | fallible | Adj. - prone to making errors | Sentence: Human beings are fallible, which is why forgiveness is so important. |
4/23 | ineffable | Adj. - incapable of being expressed; indescribable | Sentence: The music was hauntingly beautiful, with an ineffable quality about it that left him totally awed. |
4/15-4/19 | amenable | Adj. - willing to agree; responsive; cooperative | Sentence: Josh was amenable to Jim's idea to go hiking in the crater over the weekend. |
4/2-4/4 | demystify | Verb - to make clear and thus less baffling | Sentence: His purpose was to demystify the confusing stories and beliefs regarding the Loch Ness Monster. |
3/19-3/20 | staid | Adj. - marked by self-restraint; sober; grave | Sentence: The children knew that their doctor was very warmhearted in spite of his staid demeanor. |
3/11-3/12 | irrevocable | Adj.- not possible to revoke; unalterable; unable to be called back | Sentence: The moment after he shouted his hurtful words at her, he realized that what he had done was irrevocable . . . he would never be able to take back what he had said |
3/4-3/5 | paragon | Noun - a model of excellence | Sentence- Kimberly was often mentioned as being a paragon of virtue because of her goodness and strong faith. |
2/26-2/27 | spurious | Adj. - falsified, fake, and thus not genuine | Sentence: The Smiths were very disappointed when they discovered that the generous offer to buy their house turned out to be spurious. |
2/26-2/27 | incontrovertible | Adj. - cannot be disproved | Sentence: Because of the incontrovertible evidence presented to the jury, the accused thief was found guilty. |
2/11-2/12 | idiosyncrasy | Noun - any personal peculiarity or eccentricity | Sentence: Shirley's idiosyncrasy is funny .... she likes to wear a fur coat while cleaning the house. |
2/4-2/5 | rebuke | Verb - to criticize sharply; reprimand; berate | Sentence: After being rebuked for swearing at his mother, the little boy was sent to his room for the rest of the afternoon. |
1/28-1/29 | sporadic | Adj. - occurring occasionally; infrequent; not regular | Sentence: Unfortunately, the appearance of 'A's on my report card is so sporadic that I'll never make the honor roll. |
1/23-1/24 | disparage | Verb - to run down; belittle; speak poorly of | Sentence: Sheila is such a wonderful person; I can't understand why she is constantly disparaging herself. |
1/14-1/15 | approbation | Noun - approval | Sentence: His father's approbation was very important to Joe, but unfortunately very hard to get. |
1/7-1/8 | strident | Adj. - loud; harsh | Sentence: My big sister's strident voice is extremely irritating to me. |
1/3-1/4 | levity | Noun - light-hearted humor | Sentence: The levity of the Christmas party was heightened when celebrants attempted to do the limbo. |
12/17-12/18 | ostentatious | Adj. - fond of conspicuous display; pompous; pretentious | Sentence: The male peacock's ostentatious strutting around did nothing to impress the female peacock who was busy looking for food nearby. |
12/10 | exasperate | Verb - to cause irritation or annoyance | Sentence: "If you exasperate me one more time, we will just forget about going to the beach," said the frustrated mother to her defiant child. |
12/4- 12/5 | gullible | Adj. - easily fooled or tricked | Sentence: The gullible youth eagerly paid the fast-talking salesman only $300 for the Brooklyn Bridge. |
11/16-11/27 | incipient | Adj. - in the early stages; just beginning; embryonic | Sentence: The incipient signs of prisoner unrest were quashed when the warden ordered a complete shakedown. |
11/5-11/6 | vacuous | Adj. - empty; having or showing a lack of intelligence or insight. | Sentence - Mr. Clark could tell by Marie's vacuous look that she was not following the lesson at all. |
10/30 | emulate | Adj. - to imitate; copy | Sentence: To emulate Michael Jordan as a player and as a human being was Joe's big dream. |
10/23 | capacious | Adj. - spacious; roomy | Sentence: Their family room was capacious, to say the least. We had room to play ping-pong, shuffleboard, and practice our dance routine as well! |
10/15-10/16 | gratuitous | Adj. - not called for by the circumstances | Sentence: Many movies nowadays are flawed by gratuitous violence. |
10/8-10/9 | precipitous /pre-cip'-i-tous/ |
Adj. - acting with undue haste | Sentence: His precipitous reaction to the crisis only caused it to get worse. |
10/2-10/3 | incandescent | Adj. - giving off light; gleaming; brilliantly shining | The sun's reflection on the early morning waves was incandescent |
9/24-9/25 | sporadic | occuring occasionally, infrequently; not regular | The number of times I get 'A's on my report card are very sporadic, unfortunately. |
9/18 | ubiquitous /you-bik'-wi-tes/ |
Adj. Being or seeming to be everywhere ar the same time; omnipresent. | The American flag is ubiquitous because of the recent tragedy caused by terrorism. |
9/14 | disparage | Verb - to run down, belittle, speak poorly of | Sentence: Sue doesn't like it when her best friend disparages herself all the time. |
9/5 | demonstrative | (adj.) very open with a display of feelings | "Pete was embarrassed by his auntie's demonstrative ways - always kissing and hugging him whenever she saw him." |
8/27-8/29 | amenable | (adj.) willing to agree; responsive; cooperative | "Joe was amenable to the change i his schedule which decreased his hours of work, as long as it was a temporary thing." |