My word collection
I adopted a practice of noticing and collecting my favorite words as I read them, ones that had a pleasant mouth-feel, and ones that compelled me.
Many words I needed to look up, and still do. My understanding between words varies, understanding which grows as I notice the words more frequently.
Just noticing and taking note is sometimes enough to plant the seed of acquisition. Highlighted words are my favorite.
Dictionary that explains words practically.
- abate (subside)
- aberration
- abhor
- abject
- abscond
- absolution
- acerbic (sour and bitter)
- acquiesce
- acrid
- acrimonious
- acumen
- addled
- adjudicate
- adjunct
- admonish
- adulation (admiration)
- affable
- affinity
- affix(ing)
- afflict(ed)
- affront (insult)
- aloof
- ambulate
- ameliorate
- amenable
- amicable
- ammend
- amoral
- amorous/ly
- amorphous
- anachronism
- androgyne
- antipathetic
- "In very antiseptic environments" (think, sterile)
- aplomb (poise)
- appendages
- arbiter(s)
- ardent
- artifice
- ashen-faced
- asinine
- askew (of glasses)
- assent
- assuage
- audacity
- auspicious
- austere
- avolition (amotivation)
- awash
- banal/ity
- bated (breath)
- belie
- bellowing
- bereft
- besiege(d)
- besotted
- bewilder
- bifurcate(d)
- bitter-tempered
- blasé
- bleary-eyed
- blithe
- boisterous
- boorish
- brandish
- breath fanning
- breaths intermingled
- brevity
- bristle
- burgeoning
- cabal
- cacophonous
- cajole (sweet talk convincing)
- calcified anger
- callous
- candor
- cantankerous
- canter
- capitulate/ion (surrender, yield)
- catatonic
- caustic
- chary (cautious, wary)
- chaste
- churlish (vulgar)
- circumspection
- clandestine (secret)
- cocksure
- cogent
- cogitation
- coiled (of sunrays)
- commissary
- concentric
- concurrent/ly
- confection
- congealed
- congenial
- conjecture
- conniption (rage, hysteria)
- consanguineous (blood-related)
- consternation
- constitution
- consummate (to complete)
- contrite (penitent)
- corporal
- corrosive
- cull (slaughter/do off with the weak)
- cupidity (passionate or excessive desire)
- curtail
- dalliance
- debauched
- debonair
- debutante
- decadent (of sluts)
- deft
- defunct
- degeneration
- delectation (delight)
- deleterious
- deliverance (of wrath)
- demagogue
- demarcation
- democratic (broadly appealing)
- demonstrably/tive
- demoralize(d)
- demure
- denigrate
- derision/deride
- despondent
- despotic
- deuteragonist
- dexturous
- diminutive (illustrate tinyness; sometimes affectionate, sometimes disparaging)
- disarming
- discontinuity
- discordant (unpleasant sound)
- disembodied/ment
- disingenuous
- dispassionate
- dispirited
- disposition
- disquiet/ude, unrest, (unease)
- dissemble
- disseminate, permeate
- distend (chest expanding)
- doily-skinned
- dotage
- drivel
- dumbfeeling (a michaelism)
- duplicitous (deceit)
- demarcation
- démodé
- denigration
- dwarf (verb; made small)
- edifying
- effete
- eldritch
- elucidate
- elusive
- emblazoned
- emboldened
- embroil(ed)
- emphatic
- endemic
- enduring
- engender
- ennui
- enrich(ed)
- entrust
- enshrine
- enumerate
- ephemeral
- epitaph
- equivocation
- erroneous
- erudite
- espouse
- eventuality
- eviscerate
- excise
- exacting
- execrate
- exempt
- expanse(s)
- expeditious
- expound
- expunge
- extortionate (of prices)
- extracate
- extrapolate
- exuberant/ce
- exultant
- facsimile (reproduction of a human creation)
- fallible
- fanfare
- "I'm a farce."
- faux pas
- feckless
- feeble
- feign
- ferment
- ferocity
- fervent
- fervor
- fester
- fetching
- feud/ing
- fidelity (to the truth)
- flagrant
- flay (criticize harshly)
- flush (adj; overfilling)
- flux
- fodder
- foible (small, strange habit)
- for perpetuity
- formidable
- "fruitful relationship"
- fruitless
- fungible (of morality)
- furtive
- futile/futility
- gank (swindle, steal)
- gaunt
- generalize (results of a study)
- genial
- gestational (budding idea)
- ginned up
- gloaming (twilight, dusk)
- gloat
- glomming on (to appropriate)
- glower (angry stare)
- goad
- grok (understand)
- grouse
- grub (food)
- guffaw(ing)
- hammy (Goro Akechi)
- having no sense of propriety
- heart-rending
- histrionic
- hog wild
- "hollow comfort"
- (tragic) hubris
- ichor
- ideate
- idyllic
- ilk
- immutable
- impart
- impertinent/ly
- impervious
- implacable
- impossibility
- impotent
- impudence
- inane (lacks substance)
- incandescent (shining bright, of smiles)
- incognizant
- incongruous
- iconography
- incorrigible
- incorruptible
- inculcate (instill through repetition)
- incument
- indefensible
- indefinite (vague, undefined)
- indices
- indignant (anger at percieved injustice)
- indomitable
- ineptitude
- infamy
- infeminine
- infractions (of rules)
- ingenuous/ness
- innumerable
- inscrutable
- insipid (dull and boring)
- insolence
- insouciant
- intangible
- interiority (being interior, private)
- interlocutor
- inundate
- inure
- invariably
- inviolable
- ire
- irreconsilable
- irrelevant
- irreverant
- jeer(s)
- jovial
- keens (verb)
- keyed up
- knackered
- lachrymose
- lackadaisical
- laconic
- langorous
- languid
- lascivious (strong sexual desire)
- latent (present but inactive)
- lavish with
- leer
- lilting (of voice)
- liminal
- linger
- listless
- litany
- lithe
- livid
- loft (verb; hit high into air)
- lofty
- loll back (recline)
- ludicrous
- lurid
- lush(es) (noun; a drunk, alcoholic. Often describing a drunk woman who then seeks out sex, in which case she’d also be seen as loose)
- malaise
- malevolent
- maligned
- malingering
- "seduced by mammon"
- masticate
- meander(ing)
- mendacity
- "messianic complex"
- mewl
- mien (manner, appearance of)
- miffed
- miffy (easily offended)
- milieu (environment)
- militant
- minutia
- mirth
- misanthrope
- miscreant
- misgivings (worry)
- modicum
- moot
- motif
- mottled
- muddled
- mundane
- mussed (hair)
- nascent (newly forming, in its infancy)
- nebulous
- needling
- neg
- nix
- necrotic
- nominal
- nondescript (ordinary)
- noot (nothing)
- noxious
- obdurate (obstinate, unchanging)
- obstinate
- ogle
- on repose (mouth slightly open)
- ontological
- ornery
- ostensibly
- overtures
- owlish (look)
- padding (walking)
- palatable
- pallor
- pariah
- pawing at
- pay due deference
- peevy/ish
- pejorative (disparaging, disapproving)
- penitent (remorseful)
- peon
- peppery (easily annoyed)
- percussive
- perfunctory
- permutation
- perseverate
- perverse
- petulant
- peturbation
- phantasmic
- piddly (small and unimportant)
- placate
- placcid
- plaintive
- platitude
- pliant
- plod
- ploy
- plucked (miffed)
- ply at someone (offer something)
- ponder/ous
- pontificate
- portmanteau
- (save for) posterity
- posthaste
- posthumous
- postulate (propose a theory)
- posturing
- potent/cy
- practiced
- pragmatic
- prattle
- preamble
- precocious
- predilection (a great liking/preference to)
- preen
- preordained
- pressing on
- prickle (sensation)
- prickly
- progeny (offspring, successor)
- proprietary
- propulsive (propel forward)
- purport
- putrefaction (breaking down of a dead body)
- putter
- raffish (unconventional, unacceptable but intriguing)
- rancorous (bitter grudge)
- rap (at the door)
- rapt (enraptured)
- rapturous
- recapitulation (repeat)
- recoil
- recrimination (argument with mutual blame)
- redolent
- renumerate
- reprieve
- reproach (criticize)
- repudiate (refusal to accept)
- resolve
- resonant/ce
- respite
- restitution
- resumption
- reticent (reluctant)
- retort
- revel
- reverent
- rivulet
- robust
- (ride) roughshod (complete disregard of others)
- rouse
- rue/ful
- salacious
- salient (prominent, noticeable)
- sanctimonious
- sanctity
- sanctum
- sardonic
- satiated, sated
- saunter
- self-castigation (chastisement, corrective punishment)
- sensate
- septuagenarian
- sheath, srve
- shrewd
- shroud(ed)
- sibilant/ce (hissing sound)
- sidle (up next to someone)
- simulacrum
- since time immemorial
- slake
- slink
- somnolence
- sordid
- spitfire
- splendor
- sprawling (of limbs)
- spry
- stale(separate from food; outdated, old)
- sterile
- stigmata (nailed palms, like Jesus)
- stoic
- storied
- stunlock(ed)
- stultify (make look stupid; negate)
- stupefied
- subjugate
- subsume
- sullen, morose
- sunder
- supposition
- surreptitiously
- sycophant (dick rider)
- symbiotic relationship (mutually beneficial)
- synthesize(ing)
- tableau
- tact
- "take up the mantle"
- taut
- taxonomy
- tenacity/ous
- tenderhearted
- tenderize/d (made tender by beating)
- tendril/s
- tenuous
- tepid
- terse
- thrall, enthrall
- "tinker tirelessly"
- tinny (of sound)
- tittering
- topical (of the times, relevant now)
- traipse (bored walking)
- tremble(ing)
- trite
- truism
- tut
- ubiquitous (present, found everywhere)
- un/abashed
- unadulterated (pure, untainted)
- un/moored
- un/perterbed
- unbidden
- unbounded
- unbridled (of joy)
- unceremonious/ly
- unchaste
- uncouth
- unexceptional
- unfettered/fettered
- unflappable
- unforthcoming
- unidirectional
- unintelligible
- "ungrateful home"
- unquenchable
- unreality
- unremitting
- unrepentant
- unruffled
- unsinkable
- unspoiled
- untenable
- unvarnished truth
- vacant
- vacuous (of morality)
- vagary
- vagrant
- vapid
- veneer
- venerate (revere)
- veracity
- verdant
- verisimilitude
- veritable
- vestige
- vex(ing)
- virile/ity
- visage
- visceral
- viscous
- vitriol
- volition
- voracious
- voyeur/ism (and its brother, exhibitionism)
- waffling
- wane
- wanton
- wiry and spidery (of human form)
- wistful
- wry (bad sit. a little funny)
- zealot/ous
- "I like the cut of your jib"
- "my soft pink heart"
- "6 feet up" (still alive)
icon from Pixel Sea.