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Barrons GRE Vocabulary List 3

berserk: mentally or emotionally upset; deranged; excessively agitated
E.g.Angered, he became berserk and began to wreck the room.

beseech: beg; plead with; ask for or request earnestly
E.g.The workaholic executive's wife had to beseech him to spend more time with their son.

beset: attack from all sides; trouble persistently; hem in
E.g.Many vexing problems beset the American public school system.

besiege: surround with armed forces; harass with requests
E.g.When the bandits besiege the village, the villagers hole up in the town hall and prepare to withstand a long siege.

besmirch: soil, smear so as to make dirty or stained
E.g.The scandalous remarks in the newspaper besmirch the reputations of every member of the society.

bestial: beastlike; brutal; lacking in intelligence or reason
E.g.According to legend, the werewolf was able to abandon its human shape and take on a bestial form.

bestow: give as gift; present
E.g.He wished to bestow great honors upon the hero.

betoken: signify; indicate; be a visible sign of; give evidence of
E.g.The well-equipped docks, tall piles of cargo containers, and numerous vessels being loaded all betoken Oakland's importance as a port.

betray: be unfaithful; reveal unconsciously or unwillingly
E.g.The two spies betray their country by selling military secrets to the enemy.

betroth: become engaged to marry; promise to marry
E.g.The announcement that they would betroth surprised their friends who had not suspected any romance.

bevy: large group; a group of animals or birds, especially larks or quail
E.g.The movie actor was surrounded by a bevy of starlets.

bicameral: composed of or based on two legislative chambers or branches
E.g.The United States Congress is a bicameral body.

bicker: engage in a petty, bad-tempered quarrel
E.g.The children bicker morning, noon, and night, exasperating their parents.

bid: make an offer of; propose; offer in words; declare, as a wish, a greeting, a threat, or defiance
E.g."Then you and I must bid good-bye for a little while?" "I suppose so, sir."

biennial: every two years; lasting or living for two years
E.g.Seeing no need to meet more frequently, the group held biennial meetings instead of annual ones.

bigot: hypocrite, especially, superstitious hypocrite; one who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics
E.g.And it appears that in many cases, being a hateful bigot is a boost to your chances of being elected.

bigotry: stubborn intolerance; excessive zeal or warmth in favor of a party, sect, or opinion
E.g.Brought up in a democratic atmosphere, the student was shocked by the bigotry and narrowness expressed by several of his classmates.

bilious: suffering from indigestion; appearing as if affected by disorder; sickly
E.g.The bilious is indicated by a thin, spare face, dark skin, black hair, firm flesh, moderate stoutness, with rough, harsh, and strongly marked features.

bilk: defraud or cheat; frustrate or disappoint; evade or escape from
E.g.The con man planed to bilk insurance companies.

billowing: swelling out in waves; surging; stormy; affected by storms
E.g.Standing over the air vent, Marilyn Monroe tried vainly to control her billowing skirts.

bivouac: temporary encampment; a site where people on holiday can pitch tent
E.g.While in bivouac, we spent the night in our sleeping bags under the stars.

bizarre: fantastic; violently contrasting; strangely unconventional in style or appearance
E.g.The plot of the novel was too bizarre to be believed.

blanch: cause to turn white or become pale; take color from; bleach
E.g.Although age can blanch his hair, he is still vigorous and energetic.

bland: lacking stimulating or mild; agreeable
E.g.She kept her gaze level and her expression bland, but her teeth were gritted.

blandishment: flattery; speech or action expressive of affection or kindness, and tending to win the heart
E.g.Despite the salesperson's blandishment, the customer did not buy the outfit.

blare: loud, harsh roar or screech; dazzling blaze of light
E.g.Then there was a louder blare from the organ, and everyone in the church stood up and faced backward.

blasphemy: act of claiming for oneself the attributes and rights of God; utterance or writing concerning God or a sacred entity
E.g.By our very nature, every single one of us believes in blasphemy.

blatant: flagrant; conspicuously obvious; loudly offensive
E.g.To the unemployed youth from Dublin, the "No Irish Need Apply" placard in the shop window was a blatant mark of prejudice.

bleak: cold or cheerless; unlikely to be favorable
E.g.The frigid, inhospitable Aleutian Islands are bleak military outposts.

E.g.A newspaper article alleging he had taken bribes may blemish his reputation.

blight: blast; prevent the growth and fertility of; destroy the happiness of; ruin; frustrate

blighted: suffering from a disease; destroyed, ruined, or spoiled
E.g.The extent of the blighted areas could be seen only when viewed from the air.

bloated: swollen or puffed as with water or air
E.g.Her bloated stomach came from drinking so much water.

bludgeon: short heavy club, usually of wood; heavy-headed weapon
E.g.Attacked by Dr. Moriarty, Holmes used his walking stick as a bludgeon to defend himself.

blues: gloom; depressed spirits
E.g.He had a bad case of the blues.

bluff: pretense of strength; mislead or deceive
E.g.If only, I thought, he had called our bluff from the start and told us firmly that he knew the figures but wouldn't say.

blunder: serious mistake typically caused by ignorance or confusion
E.g.The criminal's fatal blunder led to his capture.

blunt: having a dull edge or end; not sharp; lacking in feeling; insensitive
E.g.Public employee unions are demanding in blunt terms that Democrats make the tax code more progressive.

blurt: utter suddenly and impulsively
E.g.Before she can stop you, you should blurt out the news.

blush: become rosy or reddish; turn red, as if in embarrassment or shame
E.g.We all saw the girl blush when a young man whistled as she walked by.

bluster: blow in heavy gusts; speak in a loudly arrogant or bullying manner
E.g."Let the stormy winds bluster," cried Jack, "we'll set sail tonight anyway."

bode: foreshadow; indicate by signs; be an omen of; predict
E.g.The gloomy skies and the odors from the mineral springs seemed to bode evil to those who settled in the area.

bogus: counterfeit or fake; not authentic; not genuine
E.g.The police quickly found the distributors of the bogus twenty-dollar bills.

bohemian: unconventional in an artistic way
E.g.Gertrude Stein ran off to Paris to live an eccentric, bohemian life with her writer friends.

boisterous: rough and stormy; loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline
E.g.The unruly crowd became even more boisterous when he tried to quiet them.

bolster: support or prop up with or as if with a long narrow pillow or cushion
E.g.The debaters amassed file boxes full of evidence to bolster their arguments.

bolt: dash or dart off; move or jump suddenly
E.g.Jack was set to bolt out the front door.

bombardment: attack with missiles; continuous attack with shot and shell upon a town, fort, or other position
E.g.The enemy bombardment demolished the town.

bombastic: pompous; using inflated language; high-sounding but with little meaning

boon: blessing; benefit bestowed, especially in response to a request
E.g.The recent rains that filled our empty reservoirs were a boon to the whole community.

boorish: rude and clumsy in behavior; ungentlemanly; awkward in manners
E.g.Natasha was embarrassed by her fellow spy's boorish behavior.

boost: raise; advance; push or shove upward
E.g.It shows political parties could boost their share of the vote considerably.

bound: tied; held; committed; limit; constraint; leap; jump
E.g.Supreme Court ended a term bound to affect our lives in significant ways in the months ahead.

bountiful: abundant; graciously generous; giving freely and generously
E.g.Thanks to the good harvest, we had a bountiful supply of food.

bourgeois: middle class; selfishly materialistic; dully conventional
E.g.Technically, anyone who belongs to the middle class is bourgeois, but, most people resent it if you call them that.

bout: contest between antagonists; contest or fight; a period of time spent in a particular way, as in illness
E.g.She's still recovering from a bout of flu.

bovine: dull, slow-moving, and stolid, like an ox; placid and dull
E.g.Nothing excites Esther; even when she won the state lottery, she still preserved her air of bovine calm.

bowdlerize: edit by omitting or modifying parts considered offensive, vulgar, or otherwise unseemly
E.g.After the film editors finished to bowdlerize the language in the script, the motion picture's rating was changed from "R" to "PG.".

braggart: boaster; one given to loud, empty boasting; very talkative person
E.g.Modest by nature, she was no braggart, preferring to let her accomplishments speak for themselves.

braid: weave; interweave three or more strands
E.g.Have you ever wanted to braid your own hair or someone else's hair?

brand: burning piece of wood; mark made by burning with a hot iron; distinctive mark upon in any way
E.g.He has his own brand of humor and always brings laugh for us.

brandish: move or wave, as a weapon; raise and move in various directions
E.g.Doctor Watson began to wildly brandish his gun until Holmes told him to put the thing away before he shot himself.

bravado: defiant or swaggering behavior; pretense of courage; false show of bravery
E.g.The bravado of the young criminal disappeared when he was confronted by the victims of his brutal attack.

brawl: fight; noisy quarrel or fight; loud party
E.g.Last week, two local men were killed in a brawl.

brawn: solid and well-developed muscles, especially of the arms and legs
E.g.People think in farming community you don't need a brain, only brawn.

brazen: having loud, usually harsh, resonant sound; shameless
E.g.His entire premiership has become an exercise in brazen dishonesty.

breach: breaking of contract or duty
E.g.Jill sued Jack for breach of promise, claiming he had broken his promise to marry her.

breadth: measure or dimension from side to side; width; extent
E.g.We were impressed by the breadth of her knowledge.

breed: raise; produce offspring; give birth to or hatch; mate
E.g.In a fast neutron reactor, this process is optimized so that it can breed fuel, often using a depleted uranium blanket around the core.

brevity: quality or state of being brief in duration; concise expression
E.g.Brevity is essential when you send a telegram or cablegram; you are charged for every word.

brim: brink; edge
E.g.She shut her book and slowly looked up; her hat brim partially shaded her face, yet I could see, as she raised it, that it was a strange one.

brindled: of brownish, tawny colour, with streaks, spots, or patterns
E.g.He was disappointed in the litter because the puppies were brindled, he had hoped for animals of a uniform color.

brink: edge, margin, or border of a steep place verge
E.g.Beyond the verge of provocation I never ventured; on the extreme brink I liked well to try my skill.

brisk: marked by speed, liveliness, and vigor; energetic; swift; keen or sharp in speech or manner
E.g."Come in!" called a brisk, familiar voice, as Ronny knocked lightly on the almost closed door.

bristling: rising like bristles; showing irritation
E.g.The dog stood there, bristling with anger.

brittle: easily broken; having little elasticity
E.g.My employer's self-control was as brittle as an egg-shell.

broach: introduce; bring up for discussion or debate; announce
E.g.Jack did not even try to broach the subject of religion with his in-laws.

brochure: pamphlet; small book usually having paper cover
E.g.This brochure on farming was issued by the Department of Agriculture.

broil: cook by direct exposure to heat over fire; subject to great heat; be subjected to the action of heat; be greatly heated
E.g.I have to broil in this hot sun to get them back!

brooch: ornamental clasp; decorative pin worn by women
E.g.The brooch was a gift from Burton and she wore it when she wed him.

brood: think long and anxiously; be in a state of gloomy, serious thought
E.g.It's no use to brood over one's past mistakes.

brook: creek; stream
E.g.At the bottom of the hill ran a little brook, and on the opposite side of it was a bank.

browbeat: bully; intimidate; discourage or frighten with threats
E.g.Billy resisted Ted's attempts to browbeat him handing over his lunch money.

browse: graze; skim or glance at casually
E.g."How now, brown cow, browsing in the green, green grass." I remember lines of verse that I came across while I browse through the poetry section of bookstore.

bruise: injure, as by a blow or collision; contuse; fight with the fists
E.g.She fell, but did not bruise her knee in such a soft land.

brunt: main impact or shock; main burden
E.g.Tom Sawyer claimed credit for painting the fence, but the brunt of the work fell on others.

brusque: abrupt and curt in manner or speech; rudely abrupt, unfriendly
E.g.Was Bruce too brusque when he brushed off Bob's request with a curt "Not now!"?

buccaneer: pirate; robber upon the sea
E.g.At Disneyland a pirate of the Caribbean sings a song about his live as bloody buccaneer.

bucolic: rustic; pastoral; agricultural; relating to country affairs, or to shepherd's life and occupation
E.g.Filled with browsing cows and bleating sheep, the meadow was a charmingly bucolic sight.

buffoon: one who makes a practice of amusing others by low tricks, antic gestures; droll; mimic; clown
E.g.This buffoon is the most self-centered idiot I have ever seen or heard.

buffoonery: clowning; arts and practices of buffoon, as low jests, ridiculous pranks, vulgar tricks and postures
E.g.In the Ace Ventura movies, Jim Carrey's buffoonery was hilarious: like Bozo the Clown, he's a natural buffoon.

bulge: cause to curve outward; swell up; stick out; protrude
E.g.When the inserted balloon is filled with water, they bulge out in a variety of shapes.

bulk: majority; main part; volume; mass
E.g.Canada's largest bulk food retailer, it has more than 112 stores.

bullion: gold and silver in the form of bars
E.g.Much bullion is stored in the vaults at Fort Knox.

bully: noisy, blustering fellow; one who is threatening and quarrelsome; insolent, tyrannical fellow
E.g.I found early in life that the best way to defeat a bully is a punch to the nose.

bulwark: earthwork or other strong defense; person who defends
E.g.The navy is our principal bulwark against invasion.

bump: impact as from a collision; lump on the body caused by a blow
E.g.Have you ever found a small lump or a bump on your body?

bungle: mismanage; blunder; work or act in clumsy, awkward, or blundering manner
E.g.Don't botch this assignment; if you bungle the job, you're fired!.

buoyant: able to float; cheerful and optimistic
E.g.When the boat capsized, her buoyant life jacket kept Jody afloat.

bureaucracy: over-regulated administrative system
E.g.The Internal Revenue Service is the ultimate bureaucracy; taxpayers wasted so much paper filling out IRS forms to comply with the Paper-work Reduction Act.

burgeon: grow forth; send out buds; grow or develop rapidly
E.g.In the spring, the plants that burgeon are a promise of the beauty to come.

burlesque: give an imitation that ridicules; imitate mockingly or humorously
E.g.In Spaceballs, we see Rick Moranis burlesque Darth Vader of Star Wars, outrageously parodying Vader's stiff walk and hollow voice.

burnish: make shiny by rubbing; polish
E.g.I burnish the brass fixtures until they reflect the lamplight.

buttress: support physically; prop up; support something or someone by supplying evidence
E.g.The attorney came up with several far-fetched arguments in a vain attempt to buttress his weak case.

buxom: healthily plump and ample of figure; full-bosomed; vigorous; jolly
E.g.A generation ago, fat babies were considered healthy and buxom actresses were popular, but society has since come to worship thinness.

cabal: small group of persons secretly united to promote their own interests

cache: hiding place; secret store of valuables or money
E.g.The detectives followed the suspect until he led them to the cache where he had stored his loot.

cacophonous: discordant; inharmonious; sounding harshly; ill-sounding

cadaver: corpse; dead body, especially one intended for dissection
E.g.In some states, it is illegal to dissect cadaver.

cadaverous: like corpse; pale; Having appearance or color of dead human body
E.g.By his cadaverous appearance, we could see how the disease had ravaged him.

cadence: rhythmic rise and fall of words or sounds; beat
E.g.Marching down the road, the troops sang out, following the cadence set by the sergeant.

cadet: younger of two brothers; student at a military school who is training to be an officer
E.g.A cadet should understand that the war he or she joins four or five years from now will be a different war altogether.

cajole: influence or urge by gentle urging or flattering
E.g.Diane tried to cajole her father into letting her drive the family car.

calamity: event that brings terrible loss, lasting distress, or severe affliction; disaster; misery
E.g.As news of the calamity spread, offers of relief poured in to the stricken community.

calculated: deliberately planned; carefully thought out in advance
E.g.Her conventional suit was one calculated to appeal to the conservative judges.

caliber: ability; degree or grade of excellence or worth; diameter of tube or gun barrel
E.g.Einstein's cleaning the blackboards again? Albert, quit it! A man of your caliber shouldn't have to do such tasks.

calligraphy: beautiful writing; excellent penmanship
E.g.As we examine ancient manuscripts, we become impressed with the calligraphy of the scribes.

callous: emotionally hardened; unfeeling; toughened
E.g.He had worked in the hospital for so many years that he was callous to the suffering in the wards.

callow: youthful; immature; inexperienced; without feathers
E.g.As a freshman, Jack was sure he was a man of the world; as a sophomore, he made fun of freshmen as callow youths.

calorific: capable of producing heat; causing heat; heating
E.g.Coal is much more calorific than green wood.

calumny: false statement maliciously made to injure another's reputation; slander
E.g.He could endure his financial failure, but he could not bear the calumny that his foes heaped upon him.

camaraderie: good-fellowship; companionship; close friendship in friends or teammates
E.g.What he loved best about his job was the sense of camaraderie he and his coworkers shared.

candor: frankness; quality of being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech
E.g.Jack can carry candor too far: when he told Jill his honest opinion of her, she nearly slapped his face.

canine: related to dogs; dog-like; affecting or derived from dogs
E.g.They will then incubate the viruses in canine tissue cells to see how well they grow.

canker: corroding or sloughing ulcer; anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroy; disease incident to trees, causing the bark to rot and fall off
E.g.Drug addiction is a dangerous canker in society.

canny: having pleasing or useful qualities; gentle; knowing; cautious; cunning; shrewd
E.g.The first and most immediate of these is a certain canny captain of many wars whose regiment is still at the disposal of either army.

cant: inclination or slope; slanted or oblique surface; jargon, especially of thieves; dialect
E.g.I strayed from my own voice and slipped into jargon, cant, or false sentiment.

cantankerous: ill humored; irritable; marked by ill-tempered contradiction or opposition; ugly; malicious
E.g.Constantly complaining about his treatment and refusing to cooperate with the hospital staff, he was a cantankerous patient.

cantata: story or poem set to music that can be sung by chorus
E.g.The choral society sang the new cantata composed by its leader.

canter: slow gallop; moderate running pace of horse
E.g.Because the racehorse had outdistanced its competition so easily, the reporter wrote that the race was won in a canter.

canto: part or division of poem of some length
E.g.This is the first canto of Dante's poetic masterpiece The Divine Comedy.

canvass: determine votes; examine carefully or discuss thoroughly; scrutinize
E.g.After volunteers helped canvass the sentiments of his constituents, the congressman was confident that he represented the majority opinion of his district.

capacious: capable of containing a large quantity; spacious or roomy
E.g.In the capacious rotunda of the railroad terminal, thousands of travelers lingered while waiting for their train.

capacity: mental or physical ability; ability to accommodate
E.g.Mike had the capacity to handle several jobs at once.

capillary: long and slender with a very small internal diameter
E.g.It passed from a capillary tube.

capitulate: surrender; end all resistance; give up; go along with or comply
E.g.The enemy was warned to capitulate or face annihilation.

caprice: sudden, unexpected fancy; impulsive change of mind
E.g.Some revolutions may have originated in caprice, or generated in ambition.

capricious: fickle; impulsive and unpredictable; apt to change opinions suddenly
E.g.The storm was capricious: it changed course constantly.

caption: title; chapter heading; text under illustration
E.g.We got an caption error in The Far Side cartoons shown yesterday.

captious: intended to confuse in an argument
E.g.I resent the way he asked that was captious question.

carapace: hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as arthropods and turtles
E.g.The top shell is the carapace while the bottom is called the plastron.

cardinal: chief; serving as an essential component
E.g.If you want to increase your word power, the cardinal rule of vocabulary-building is to read.

cardiologist: doctor who specializes in medical problems related to heart
E.g.When the physician noticed Philip had a slight heart murmur, she referred him to a cardiologist for further tests.

careen: lean to one side, as a ship under press of sail; sway from side to side
E.g.He saw the taxicab careen wildly as it rounded the corner.

career: profession or occupation; individual’s work and life roles over their lifespan
E.g.The Italian Prime Minister and media tycoon Sylvia Berlusconi bought AC Milan in 1986 and the team's fortunes have mirrored his colorful career in politics.

caricature: representation that is deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic effect
E.g.The caricature he drew yesterday emphasized a personal weakness of the people he burlesqued.

carnage: destruction of life; savage and excessive killing of many people
E.g.The film The Killing Fields vividly depicts the carnage wreaked by Pol Pot's followers in Cambodia.

carnal: fleshly; of or relating to body or flesh; bodily
E.g.This wasn't about love, this was about raw animal attraction, about kindred spirits in carnal lust.

carnivorous: eating or feeding on flesh; predatory
E.g.The lion's a carnivorous beast. A hunk of meat makes up his feast.

carping: fault-finding; excessive complaining; of unreasonable criticism or censure
E.g.A carping critic is a nit-picker: he loves to point out flaws.

cartographer: one who makes maps or charts
E.g.Though not a professional cartographer, Tolkien was able to construct a map of his fictional world.

cascade: small waterfall; sudden downpour
E.g.We were too tired to appreciate the beauty of this cascade because we had to detour around it to avoid watering down.

caste: any of the hereditary social classes and subclasses of South Asian societies
E.g.The caste refers to social system based on rigid distinctions of birth, rank, and wealth.

casual: informal; purposeless; occurring by chance
E.g.The wildlife officer, in casual conversation, asks Hunter Joe where that deer came from.

casualty: serious or fatal accident; someone injured or killed in an accident
E.g.On holiday weekends this city usually has at least one automotive casualty.

cataclysm: an event resulting in great loss and misfortune; deluge or overflowing of water
E.g.A cataclysm such as the French Revolution affects all countries.

catalyst: agent which brings about chemical change while it remains unaffected and unchanged
E.g.Many chemical reactions cannot take place without the presence of a catalyst.

catapult: slingshot; hurling machine; military machine for hurling missiles, used in ancient and medieval times
E.g.The airplane is launched from battleship by catapult.

cataract: large or high waterfall; eye abnormality
E.g.She gazed with awe at the mighty cataract known as Niagara Falls.

catastrophe: calamity; disaster; state of extreme ruin and misfortune
E.g.The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a catastrophe that destroyed most of the city.

catcall: shout of disapproval; shout or whistle expressing dislike, especially from crowd or audience
E.g.Every major league pitcher has off days during which he must learn to ignore any catcall and angry hiss from the crowd.

catechism: book for religious instruction; instruction by question and answer
E.g.He taught by engaging his pupils in a catechism until they gave him the correct answer.

categorical: absolute; having no exception; of using category or categories
E.g.Though the captain claimed he was never, never sick at sea, he finally had to qualify his categorical denial: he was "hardly ever" sick at sea.

cater: supply what is needed or desired; provide food professionally for special occasion
E.g.The chef was happy to cater to the tastes of his highly sophisticated clientele.

catharsis: purging or cleansing of any passage of body
E.g.Aristotle maintained that tragedy created a catharsis by purging the soul of base concepts.

catholic: broadly sympathetic; universal; related to Roman Catholic Church
E.g.He was extremely catholic in his taste and read everything he could find in the library.

caucus: private meeting of members of a party to select officers or determine policy
E.g.At the opening of Congress, the members of the Democratic Party held a caucus to elect the Majority Leader of the House and the Party Whip.

causal: implying cause-and-effect relationship

caustic: capable of burning, corroding, dissolving, or eating away by chemical action
E.g.The critic's caustic remarks angered the hapless actors who were the subjects of his sarcasm.

cavalcade: ceremonial procession or display; succession or series
E.g.As described by Chaucer, the cavalcade of Canterbury pilgrims was a motley group.

cavalier: offhand or casual; given to haughty disregard of others
E.g.The disguised prince resented the cavalier way in which the palace guards treated him. How dared they handle a member of the royal family so unceremoniously!

cavil: criticise for petty or frivolous reasons; raise trivial objections
E.g.It's fine when you make sensible criticisms, but it really bugs me when you cavil about unimportant details.

cede: yield or formally resign and surrender to another
E.g.Eventually the descendants of England's Henry II were forced to cede their French territories to the King of France.

celerity: swiftness of action or motion; speed
E.g.Hamlet resented his mother's celerity in remarrying within a month after his father's death.

celestial: relating to the sky or the heavens; supremely good; god or angel
E.g.She spoke of the celestial joys that awaited virtuous souls in the hereafter.

celibate: unmarried; abstaining from sexual intercourse
E.g.The perennial bachelor vowed to remain celibate.

cemetery: place or ground set apart for the burial of the dead; graveyard
E.g.A vehicle for conveying a coffin is to a church or cemetery.

censor: overseer of morals; official responsible for removal of objectionable or sensitive content
E.g.Soldiers dislike having their mail read by a censor but understand the need for this precaution.

censorious: critical; addicted to censure; severe in making remarks on others, or on their writings or manners; implying or expressing censure
E.g.But it is childish to waste our time in censorious judgment on the individual who does no worse than represent a ruling type.

censure: expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism; blame
E.g.Today's paper will censure the senator for behavior inappropriate to a member of Congress.

centigrade: measure of temperature, used widely in Europe
E.g.On the centigrade thermometer, the freezing point of water is zero degrees.

centrifugal: radiating; departing from the center
E.g.Many automatic drying machines remove excess moisture from clothing by centrifugal force.

centripetal: tending toward center; moving or directed toward center or axis
E.g.Does centripetal force or the force of gravity bring orbiting bodies to the earth's surface?.

centurion: officer of ancient Roman army, in command of a century of soldiers or minor division

cerebral: relating to the brain or cerebrum; intellectual rather than emotional
E.g.The content of philosophical works is cerebral in nature and requires much thought.

cerebration: act of cerebrating; thinking, mental activity
E.g.Mathematics problems sometimes require much cerebration.

ceremonious: marked by formality; strictly observant of or devoted to ceremony or ritual
E.g.Ordinary dress would be inappropriate at so ceremonious an affair.

certitude: state of being certain; complete assurance; confidence
E.g.Though there was no certitude of his getting the job, Lou thought he had a good chance of doing so.

cessation: bringing or coming to end; ceasing
E.g.The airline's employees threatened a cessation of all work if management failed to meet their demands.

cession: yielding to another; ceding or surrendering
E.g.The cession of Alaska to the United States is discussed in this chapter.

chafe: wear away or irritate by rubbing; make sore by rubbing; annoy; vex
E.g.The high collar used to chafe against my neck.

chaff: trivial or worthless matter; thin dry bracts or scales, especially
E.g.When you separate the wheat from the chaff, be sure you keep the wheat.

chaffing: joking; use of light, frivolous language by way of fun or ridicule
E.g.Chad's worthless remarks annoy us.; Chad's chaffing keeps us laughing.

chagrin: anxiety caused by humiliation or injured pride; disappointment
E.g.Embarrassed by his parents' shabby, working-class appearance, Doug felt their visit to his school would bring him nothing but chagrin.

chalice: goblet; bowl-shaped drinking vessel; large drinking cup, often having stem and base
E.g.In a small room adjoining the cathedral, visitors can see this ornately decorated chalice made by famous European goldsmith.

chameleon: lizard that changes color in different situations
E.g.Like the chameleon, he assumed the political thinking of every group he met.