Advanced Vocabulary

Mainstream: The main or most widely accepted way of thinking or acting in relation to a subject.

Sentence – The new law should allow more disabled people to enter the mainstream of American life.

Ignominious: bringing or deserving strong (especially public) disapproval damaging to one’s pride.

Sentence – He made one mistake and his career came to an ignominious end.

Irrevocable: that cannot be changed.

Sentence – Think about the situation carefully before you take an irrevocable step.

Motley: of many different kinds.

Sentence – A group appear from the house, a motley collection like a troupe of clowns.

Expertise: special skills or knowledge in a particular subject.

Sentence – A high degree of expertise is required for this stage of the manufacturing process.

Muster: to gather or collect.

Sentence – New teams won’t be admitted to the league if their stadiums don’t pass muster.

Pernicious: very harmful but not easily noticeable; having or being an evil influence.

Sentence – The pernicious effect of this advertising on children is a problem that we ignore at our peril.

Colossal: extremely great or large.

Sentence – These are colossal outbursts: at its peak a supernova may become at least fifteen million times as luminous as the Sun.

Salvage: to save (goods or property) from loss or damage.

Sentence – They still hoped to salvage something from the wreck of their marriage.

Manipulate: control or influence in a clever way.

Sentence – The treasurer was arrested for trying to manipulate the company’s accounts.

Bulwark: someone or something that protects or defends something such as a belief, idea, or way of life.

Sentence – Bulwark stays shall be provided at two frame spacing intervals.

Moot: to state (a question, matter, etc.) for consideration.

Sentence – It is a moot point whether hierarchies exist outside our own thought processes.

Precedence: priority.

Sentence – The needs of the patient take precedence over those of the student doctor.

Gambit: sacrifice of a piece for the sake of an advantage in the opening stages of a game.

Sentence – As this gambit brought no success, she returned to the salt.

Enfranchise: to give the right to vote at elections.

Sentence – The ruling countered moves in both Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein to enfranchise certain categories of foreigners in local elections.

Reflect: to think about something carefully and seriously.

Sentence – You have to reflect on how to answer his questions before you get to his house.

Ascendancy: a position of power, influence, or control.

Sentence – Nothing but independent advice or relief from the ascendancy of her husband over her judgment and will would suffice.

Harrowing: causing great suffering and anxiety in the mind; distressing.

Sentence – He was reliving the harrowing moment when he discovered her unconscious, her neck in a ligature.

Loquacious: liking to talk a lot.

Sentence – His loquacious good – humour infected every one.

Languish: to experience long suffering.

Sentence – And they neglect an equally dire risk: A minimum wage that is too low leaves people to languish on welfare.

Flounder: to move about helplessly or with great difficulty, especially in water, mud, snow, etc.

Sentence – The little dog was floundering around in the snow, so I picked it up.

Jumble: a disorderly mixture of things or ideas.

Sentence – Don’t jumble up one question and another.

Exegesis: an explanation of a piece of writing.

Sentence – But we shall not find a consistent position in which the tasks of biblical exegesis and scientific inquiry were no longer mutually relevant.