1. Weekly Words
The following are words that are “common” vocabulary used in everyday writing, reading, and speaking. It is important that you internalize words you may not be familiar with in order to build your vocabulary skills. Find interesting ways to use these words so they become part of you. 

2. Acrimonious Acrimonious Adjective
Bitter or sarcastic in temper, manner or tone
This book is an acrimonious attack on the present administration.
Synonyms: horrible, negative, bad
Antonyms: nice, good, positive
Derivatives: acrimoniously, acrimoniousness

3. Acumen Acumen (noun) Keenness of mind or judgment
She shows great acumen as a businesswoman.
Synonyms: wise, intellectual, sagacious, clever
Antonyms: unwise
Derivatives: acumenicle acumenically ?????

4. Affinity Affinity Noun A natural attraction or liking
The young couple had a great affinity for each other.
Synonyms: affection, fondness, connection
Antonyms: dislike, aversion
Derivatives: affinities, affinity (adj)

5. Apathy Apathy (noun) A lack of interest, concern, or desire to act
He views his current grades with a great degree of apathy.
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
Derivatives:

6. Capricious Adjective
Tending to change suddenly, unexpectedly, and for no apparent reason, unpredictable
ble.
Synonyms: moody, unpredictable
Antonyms: predictable, emotionless, happy
Derivatives: capriciously, capriciousness

7. Cognizant
Adjective
Aware
After his injury, the man was barely cognizant of his surroundings.
Synonyms: mindful, knowledgeable, conscious
Antonyms: unaware, confused, dazed, oblivious
Derivatives: cognizantly

8. Adjective Stating opinions or beliefs in a positive and haughty manner.
Dogmatic
The dogmatic teacher would not let anyone question his statements.
Synonyms: arrogant, snobby
Antonyms: nice, humble
Derivatives: dogmatically, dogmatism, dogmatist

9. Epiphany (noun)
To suddenly understand a concept.
After reading the book, he had an epiphany about the events leading to the American Revolution.
Synonyms: discovery, uncover, clear
Antonyms: confused, blurry, obscure
Derivatives: epiphanies

10. Adjective Useless, hopeless, or ineffective
Futile
Adjective Useless, hopeless, or ineffective
He tried to resist eating the chocolate cake, but it was futile.
Synonyms: frivolous, empty, unsuccessful, fruitless, unproductive
Antonyms: effective, fruitful, productive, successful
Derivatives: futility

11. Derivative: incessantly-adverb
Synonyms Antonyms
Unceasing Ceasing
Continue discontinue
Repeatedly interrupted
Incessant
Adjective
Derivative: incessantly-adverb
Continuing or
non-stop
The incessant ringing of his cell phone kept everyone in the office from being able to concentrate.

12. Innocuous (Adjective)
Harmless; innocent
The snake looked scary, but it was really innocuous.
“I am so cute and innocent.”
Synonyms: kind, safe, painless, inoffensive
Antonyms: offensive, harmful, painful, dangerous, scary
Derivatives:
innocuousness – noun
Innocuously - adverb

13. Deceitful; working in a hidden but harmful manner
Insidious
Adjective
Deceitful; working in a hidden but harmful manner
His insidious plan to hide money from his family wasn’t working out so well.
Synonyms: misleading, sly, deceptive, sneaky
Antonyms: fair, honest, sincere
Derivatives: insidiously-adv.
Insidiousness-noun

14. Mitigate verb
To make milder or less severe or painful
The nurse tried to mitigate the suffering of the injured child.
Synonyms – decrease, lessen, relieve
Antonyms – worsen, increase, intensify
Derivatives : mitigation - noun

15. Morose Bad tempered, gloomy, sullen
The old man was known for being extremely morose.
Adjective
Synonyms: cranky, grouchy, acrimonious
Antonyms: sweet, nice, happy
Derivatives: morosely – adverb
moroseness - noun

16. Ostentatious - adjective
Done to impress others or to attract attention
The large bags that the shoppers were carrying were incredibly ostentatious.
Synonyms: boastful, showy, flashy
Antonyms: obscure, modest, quiet
Derivatives: ostentatiousness – noun
ostentatiously - adverb

17. Plausible adjective
Seeming to be true, honest or worth of trust; believable.
Her excuse was plausible, but I still had my doubts.
Synonyms: credible, valid
Antonyms: incredulous, dishonest
Derivatives: plausibility – n
plausibly -adv

18. Precocious Adj.: Developed or matured earlier than usual
My son’s reading habits are incredibly precocious.
Synonyms: mature, advanced, developed
Antonyms: undeveloped, immature
Derivatives: precociously, precociousness

19. Quiescent adjective In a state of inactivity or rest.
He is in a quiescent frame of mind.
Synonyms: asleep, deactivated
Antonyms: active, rowdy, awake
Derivatives: quiescently, quiescence

20. Ramification noun
The act or process of dividing; an effect or consequence that results from a situation or statement.
What are the ramifications of his plan?
Synonyms: result, sequel, consequence, effect
Antonyms: cause, reason
Derivatives: ramifications, ramify

21. Redundant
Adjective
Using more words than necessary to express an idea; wordiness; unnecessary; superfluous.
In an attempt to meet length requirements, the girl’s paper was very redundant.
Synonyms: wordy, overused
Antonyms: essential, necessary
Derivatives: redundancy, redundantly, redundancies

22. Refutable The written statement was refutable..
adjective
Refutable
Able to be proven wrong or false
The written statement was refutable..
Synonyms: deny, disapprove, rebut
Antonyms: agree, validate, confirm
Derivatives: refute, refutability, refutably

23. Rudimentary Elementary; in the beginning or early stage of
Adjective
Elementary; in the beginning or early stage of
development; incompletely or imperfectly
developed.
A penguin has
rudimentary
wings.
Synonyms: immature, novice, simple, beginner
Antonyms: mature, precocious, developed, prepared
Derivatives: rudiment

24. The man had a very sanguine personality.
Sanguine adjective
Cheerful and optimistic; having a red color; ruddy
The man had a very sanguine personality.
Synonyms: enthusiastic, buoyant, lively
Antonyms: pessimistic, morose
Derivatives: sanguinity, sanguineness, sanguinely

25. Unscrupulous adjective
Showing no regard for what is right
The unscrupulous businessman cheated his customers.
Synonyms: unprincipled, unethical, dishonest, questionable, conscienceless
Antonyms: principled, moral, ethical, honest
Derivatives: unscrupulously, unscrupulousness

26. Ubiquitous adjective being everywhere at once, or seeming to be everywhere at once The famous actress was ubiquitous when she had a new movie coming out.
Synonyms: omnipresent, everywhere, universal
Antonyms: rare, scarce, occasional
Derivatives: ubiquitously, ubiquities

27. Surreptitious adjective
Done by secret or sly means
The secret society had a surreptitious meeting.
Synonyms: sneaky, hidden, obscure
Antonyms: truthful, open, obvious
Derivatives: surreptitiously, surreptitiousness

28. Terse adjective brief and to the point; concise Her terse reply surprised her friends.
Synonyms: abrupt, compact, concise, condensed
Antonyms: lengthy, wordy, longwinded
Derivatives: tersely, terseness

29. Wanton adjective marked by extreme thoughtlessness or ill will; immoral; not controlled; unruly
At first the student was apathetic, but then she began showing wanton misbehavior.
Synonyms: cruelty, malicious, unjust, inconsiderate, inhuman
Antonyms: careful, considerate, restrained, humane
Derivatives: wantonly, wantonness

30. Zenith noun the highest or greatest point This performance was the zenith of the musician’s career.
Synonyms: climax, peak, crest, crown
Antonyms: bottom, nadir, base, floor
Derivatives: zenithal

31. Expedite verb to speed up the process or progress of; to do quickly and efficiently The man asked the doctor to expedite the exam because he was in a hurry.
Synonyms: hurry, quicken, rush, accelerate
Antonyms: slow, decelerate, inefficient
Derivatives: expedited, expedites