Despondent (adjective) Feeling deeply discouraged and without hope.
Example: After the third rejection letter, he grew despondent about ever getting the paper published.
Mnemonic: 'De-' (down) plus Latin 'spondere' (to promise) — a despondent person feels every promise of better days has been pulled down.
Desultory (adjective) Lacking a plan or purpose, moving randomly from one thing to another.
Example: Their desultory conversation drifted from the weather to politics to lunch plans without ever settling anywhere.
Mnemonic: Desultory sounds like a 'result-less' story — one that wanders without direction or aim.
Diatribe (noun) A forceful, bitter verbal attack against someone or something.
Example: The critic's diatribe against modern architecture filled three furious columns in the newspaper.
Mnemonic: Diatribe sounds like 'dial-a-tribe' — as if an entire angry tribe was dialed up to shout complaints at once.
Eccentric (adjective) Behaving in an unconventional or slightly odd way that departs from common habits.
Example: The eccentric professor wore mismatched socks and kept a pet turtle in his office.
Mnemonic: Eccentric contains 'center' with ec-, meaning out of — someone eccentric is out of the center, off from the usual.
Edify (verb) To instruct or improve someone, especially in a moral or intellectual sense.
Example: The museum's new exhibit is designed to edify visitors about the region's ancient history.
Mnemonic: Think of edify as 'add-ify' — you add knowledge and moral improvement to someone's mind.
Effusive (adjective) Expressing feelings, especially gratitude or enthusiasm, in an unrestrained and overflowing way.
Example: The host greeted every guest with effusive hugs and compliments at the door.
Mnemonic: Effusive shares a root with 'fusion' — emotions fuse together and overflow out of the person.
Elegy (noun) A mournful poem or song written as a tribute to someone who has died.
Example: The poet laureate composed an elegy for the fallen soldiers, read aloud at the memorial.
Mnemonic: Elegy sounds like 'eulogy' — both honor the dead, but elegy is the poetic, musical cousin.
Elucidate (verb) To make something clear by explaining it in detail.
Example: The professor paused to elucidate the equation before moving on to the next slide.
Mnemonic: Elucidate contains 'lucid' (clear) — to elucidate is to shine a light directly onto a confusing idea.
Emollient (adjective) Having a softening or soothing effect, especially on skin or on tension.
Example: The negotiator's emollient tone calmed both sides before the real bargaining even began.
Mnemonic: Emollient sounds like a soft, soothing lotion rubbed onto rough, irritated skin — or rubbed onto tempers.
Encomium (noun) A formal expression of high praise.
Example: The retiring CEO received an encomium from the board, praising three decades of steady leadership.
Mnemonic: Encomium sounds like 'in-COME-ium' — praise so glowing it feels like an honor has come to you.
Facile (adjective) Arrived at without due care or effort, superficially easy or simplistic.
Example: The senator's facile solution to the housing crisis ignored decades of zoning complications.
Mnemonic: Facile looks like 'easy-file' — from Latin for 'easy,' but here meaning suspiciously, too-easily easy.
Fecund (adjective) Highly fertile or productive, capable of generating abundant results or offspring.
Example: The delta's fecund soil produced three harvests a year.
Mnemonic: Fecund rhymes with 'second' — a fecund field gives you a second, third, and fourth crop without running dry.
Fetter (verb) To restrain or restrict someone's freedom or actions.
Example: Outdated regulations fettered the startup's ability to hire workers across state lines.
Mnemonic: Fetter sounds like 'feet-er' — imagine chains clamped onto your feet so you can't move freely.
Fickle (adjective) Likely to change opinions or loyalty without warning or good reason.
Example: The fickle crowd cheered for the challenger the moment the champion lost a single round.
Mnemonic: Fickle sounds like 'flick-le' — flicking between choices like flipping a light switch on and off.
Flippant (adjective) Showing an inappropriate lack of seriousness toward something that deserves respect.
Example: His flippant joke about the funeral arrangements drew horrified stares from the family.
Mnemonic: Flippant sounds like 'flip it' — flipping a serious topic into a joke without a second thought.
Forbearance (noun) Patient self-control and restraint, especially when provoked.
Example: The teacher's forbearance with the disruptive student surprised everyone in the room.
Mnemonic: Forbearance contains 'bear' — to forbear is to bear a situation patiently instead of reacting.
Galvanize (verb) To shock or excite someone into taking action.
Example: The coach's halftime speech galvanized the team into a furious second-half comeback.
Mnemonic: Galvanize comes from 'galvanism,' electric shocks that made frog legs twitch — literally to jolt someone into action.
Germane (adjective) Relevant and appropriate to the matter being discussed.
Example: The lawyer objected that the witness's opinion on parking wasn't germane to the fraud case.
Mnemonic: Think 'germinate' — a germane idea germinates directly from and belongs to the topic at hand.
Glib (adjective) Speaking or spoken fluently but in a way that suggests insincerity or a lack of real thought.
Example: The candidate's glib answers to hard questions left reporters more suspicious than reassured.
Mnemonic: Glib is short and slick, just like the speech it describes — words that slide out with nothing solid behind them.
Grandiose (adjective) Impressively large in scope, or overblown and pretentiously grand.
Example: The mayor's grandiose plan to build a second airport never made it past the first budget meeting.
Mnemonic: Grandiose contains 'grand' — everything is grand, taken to an over-the-top, almost silly extreme.
Halcyon (adjective) Denoting a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful.
Example: She often thought back to the halcyon summers spent at her grandparents' lake house.
Mnemonic: From a myth of a bird calming the seas to nest — halcyon days are calm, storm-free days.
Hapless (adjective) Unlucky, unfortunate, typically through no fault of one's own.
Example: The hapless intern spilled coffee on the CEO twice in the same week.
Mnemonic: Hapless = hap (luck, as in 'happen') + -less (without) — literally without any luck at all.
Hermetic (adjective) Completely sealed, especially against air or outside influence; also, isolated from outside understanding.
Example: The lab kept the samples in a hermetic chamber to prevent any contamination.
Mnemonic: From Hermes, god of secrets — a hermetic seal locks something away as tightly as a guarded secret.
Hubris (noun) Excessive pride or self-confidence, especially of a kind that leads to a downfall.
Example: The champion's hubris led him to skip training for the rematch, and he lost in the first round.
Mnemonic: Hubris sounds like 'you-bris(k)' — walking around brisk and cocky with your chin up, until pride brings you crashing down.
Impute (verb) To attribute a fault, quality, or intention to someone, often unfairly.
Example: The editorial imputed dishonest motives to the charity without offering any real evidence.
Mnemonic: Impute sounds like typing blame directly 'in' — you input blame into someone's file whether they earned it or not.