| Prohibitive | tending to prohibit, preclude, or disallow | The college was prohibitive of alcohol on the campus. |
| Proletarian | The working class or lower class. | they are true proletarians |
| Proliferate | spread rapidly or increase in number | As problems with the business continued to proliferate, Edward decided to chuck it all and go into retirement. |
| Prolific | producing abundant results or works | The prolific chemical reaction produced a lot of carbon monoxide. |
| Prolix | tiring because too long, prone to using large words that most people do not understand | The prolix professor had a habit of using complex words that most people could not comprehend. |
| Prompt | in good time; punctual | Because I take pride in being prompt, I always leave early for work |
| Prone | prostrate; inclined to (undesirable things), inclined to act a certain way | Jack is prone to be quite talkative after he has consumed several beers. |
| Propagation | increasing the number; spreading; extending | Usenet messages can be cancelled, which prevents their further propagation. |
| Propensity | a natural inclination or tendency | My mother-in-law can not get over her propensity to interfere in my marriage. |
| Propinquity | nearness in time or place affinity of nature, nazdeeki, | When I saw the propinquity of all the houses next to each other, I decided to move into a more spacious subdivision. |
| Propitiate | to make things right by doing something that is requested | Only an idiot believes he can propitiate his way into heaven by giving the church all of his money. |
| Propitiatory | conciliatory; appeasing; mitigating, to make things right by doing something that is requested | Only an idiot believes he can propitiate his way into heaven by giving the church all of his money. |
| Propitious | auspicious; presenting favorable circumstances, full of promise; favorable | The wrestler waited for a propitious moment to attack his opponent. |
| Proponents | a person who advocates a theory, proposal, or course of action | a strong proponent of the free market and liberal trade policies |
| Proposition | a proposal or plan | Most of the homeowners in the area disagreed with the state’s proposition for the new superhighway. |
| Propriety | following what is socially acceptable in speech and conduct; correctness of behaviour | To ensure all legal obligations are met, Tom must review every paragraph of the contract for propriety. |
| Prosaic | straightforward.; lacking in imagination and spirit, commonplace or dull; unimaginative | Because the biggest thing in my hometown is the grocery store, the city really is a prosaic little place. |
| Proscribe | denounce as dangerous | In our country, there are laws which proscribe discrimination based on race and gender. |
| Prosody | the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry. | the translator is not obliged to reproduce the prosody of the original |
| Prostration | the action of lying stretched out on the ground | she was laying prostration position while reading |
| Protagonist | the leading character or one of the major characters in a play, film, novel, etc. | the novel’s main protagonist is an American intelligence officer |
| Protean | changing often; variable | Because the woman’s affections are protean, she has ten ex-husbands. |
| Protégé | a person who is led by a more experienced individual | As the principal’s protégé, my math teacher knows how to effectively manage a classroom. |
| Protracted | prolonged | a protracted and bitter dispute |
| Provident | frugal; looking to the future | My financier told me that I needed to be more provident when it came to my spending. |
| Provincial | concerning a province of a country or empire. | Even though James had travelled all over the world, he still wore clothing which was quite provincial and outdated. |
| Provisional | of the present time only | Provisional custody arrangements favored the mother, but the children were later ordered to live with their father. |
| Provocation | anything or anyone that incites a response | I walked away from a potential fight despite my enemy’s provocation |
| Provocative | Tending to provoke or stimulate | In order to get attention, the young woman wore a provocative dress to the party. |
| Provoke | to trigger a reaction, often an angry one | Nobody expected the teen’s death to provoke a national investigation into the brutality of police force. |
| Proximate | (especially of the cause of something) closest in relationship; immediate | the fact that a storm may show up the poor condition of a flat roof does not signify that storm was the proximate cause of damage to it |
| Prudence | careful forethought | we need to exercise prudence in such important matters |
| Prudent | marked by wisdom or sound judgment | My prudent uncle pays for everything with cash so he will not build up a pile of debt. |
| Prudish | easily shocked; excessively modest | Someone who is very proper and cannot stand hearing any sexual reference, this is an example of someone |
| Prune | dried plum silly person, aalo bukhara | I am eating prune |
| Pry | get something inquire too curiously | In order to pry into the subject’s past, the detective interviewed family members. |
| Psychosis | a severe mental disorder | It was quite obvious that psychosis plagued the mumbling man with the lost eyes who would occasionally yell and get scared for no reason. |
| Pucker | tightly gather or contract into wrinkles or small folds., wrinkle | You’re really talking about a pucker whistle. |
| Puerile | childish | Since my son is thirty-three years of age, I do not find his puerile behavior amusing. |
| Pugnacious | fond of in the habit of fighting | John’s pugnacious behavior causes him to have few friends. |
| Puissance | strength | By overstepping his boundaries, William took his puissance as the company president and changed the century-old by-laws to fit his preferences. |
| Pulchritude | Physical beauty | Not only is Angelina Jolie a woman of great pulchritude, her humanitarian efforts have demonstrated that she is equally as beautiful on the inside as on the outside. |
| Pulchritudinous | physically beautiful; comely. having great physical beauty | Jack loves to stand in front of his mirror, staring at his pulchritudinous face. |
| Punctilious | Meticulous, showing great attention to detail | Because my aunt is quite punctilious when it comes to table settings, every utensil must be turned properly. |
| Pundit | pedant authority on a subject,one who gives his opinion as an expert in a specific field | During the trial, the prosecutor will call upon a pundit of forensics to link the evidence to the suspect. |
| Pungency | sharpness stinging quality | When the pungent smell of rotten eggs filled the house, I held my nose |
| Pungent | having an intense flavor or odor | When the pungent smell of rotten eggs filled the house, I held my nose. |
| Punitive | Punishing, done as an act of punishment | The purpose of the punitive lawsuit’s community service ruling is to forever remind the drunk driver of the cost of his actions. |
| Purist | a perfectionist who believes in sticking to all of the rules | “Even a purist would think this room is clean,” the angry teenager yelled to her scolding mother. |
| Purloin | to take another’s belongings without permission | Because Eddie tried to purloin the woman’s purse, he spent the night in jail. |
| Purvey | provide supply | shops purveying cooked food |
| Pusillanimous | cowardly; craven | The pusillanimous soldier cried because he was scared of the gunfire. |
| Putrefaction | becoming rotten, decay | Putrefaction of the animal made the area where it died smell horrible. |
| Putrefy | to produce a strong odor while decaying | Water left over from the hurricane swept the area and covered the corpses that quickly started to putrefy. |
| Pyre | large pile of wood for burning | When my husband left me for his clerk, I burned all his clothes in a pyre in the front yard. |
| Pyromania | a strong urge to start fire to things | Since many teenagers were partaking in activities involving pyromania, numerous forest fires continued to burn across their town. |
| Quack | person dishonestly claiming to something | I heard a quack and saw some ducks huddled together. “Careful who you call ` quack’!” |
| Quaff | drink deeply | The huge athlete was able to quaff down a gallon of water in less than two minutes. |
| Quagmire | a situation from which it is hard to escape | When Hank called me from jail, I knew he was in a quagmire. |
| Quail | lose courage turn frightened, a small, short-tailed, commonly hunted bird | When I visited the local park, a quail darted near the pond and pecked with its beak at the bread crumbs lying around. |
| Quaint | appearing old-fashioned in an appealing way | My grandmother’s quaint home is filled with knick-knacks from her childhood. |
| Qualm | feeling of doubt temporary feeling of sickness, a feeling of doubt or uncertainty about whether you are doing the right thing | I have a serious qualm about my teenage daughter dating an older man. |
| Quandary | state of doubt or perplexity, a state of doubt about what to do in a certain situation; a difficult situation | I find myself in a moral quandary about whether or not I should tell my wife the truth about my affair. |
| Quarantine | a place where individuals or animals who have contagious diseases are held | As long as John is in quarantine, he will not be able to contaminate anyone else. |
| Quarry | an area from which materials like stone are removed | On Monday, the middle school students will visit the quarry to search for limestone. |
| Quell | suppress subdue, to calm or reduce | The old man drinks warm milk to quell his upset stomach. |
| Querulous | full of complaints; complaining | Forgive me for sounding querulous, but there is a bug in my soup. |
| Quibble | try to avoid by sophistication, to quarrel about minor matters | It is normal for married couples to quibble over small things like who controls the television remote. |
| Quiescence | state of being passive/motionless | Now that school has started back, my neighborhood is pretty quiescent during the day |
| Quintessential | a model example of a specific quality | Everyone knows watermelon is the quintessential fruit on a hot summer day. |
| Quirk | habit or action peculiar to something, an odd behavior or different way of acting | Janice has this irritating quirk of rolling her eyes whenever she speaks. |
| Quisling | a traitor who helps an enemy that has taken control of his or her country | The quisling was a traitor who helped the British when they came to try and take over his country. |
| Quiver | to shudder with a slight sound or motion, usually because of strong feelings | I knew Jill was upset when her lips started to quiver. |
| Quixotic | fanciful, fantastic, imaginary, unrealistic and impractical | It is quixotic to think you can get away with walking into the prison and breaking out your boyfriend. |
| Quotidian | banal; everyday, everyday events that are normal and not that exciting | As the days of celebration wore on, the formerly spectacular events began to seem more quotidian, and the king found himself yawning at the chariot races. |
| Rabble | mob crowd the lower classes of populace, a disorderly crowd, a large group of butterflies | he was met by a rabble of noisy, angry youths |
| Raconteur | person who tells anecdotes, one recognized as being a talented teller of stories | A screenwriter is a raconteur who simply puts his stories on paper. |
| Raffish | showing vulgar in nature or appearance; tawdry, unconventional and unacceptable yet intriguing | While many people found the singer’s raffish behavior interesting, others viewed it as completely unacceptable. |
| Ramble | to talk aimlessly | Because my math professor tends to ramble on, I often fall asleep in class. |
| Ramification | a change that makes a situation more complicated | The trade embargo will be a damaging ramification to the financially distressed nation. |
| Ramify | to be divided or subdivided to branch out, complicate | Frankfurt’s theory can ramify to any number of levels. |
| Rampant | not restrained, not under control | Sadly, the Internet has made it easier for the rampant spread of false information. |
| Rancor | feeling bitterness; spitefulness, a feeling of hate or anger | Although my friend betrayed me, I have no rancor towards him. |
| Ranger | army | ranger is member of a body of armed men |
| Rant | use extravagant language | With her rant completed, the woman tapped her foot, waiting for her children to begin cleaning. |
| Rapacious | greedy (esp for money) | Even though Bruno is always happy to give you a loan at a ridiculously high interest rate, if you don’t pay him back on time he becomes a rapacious bill collector. |
| Rarefy | to make thin to make less dense to purify or refine | To make the mixture less dense, add water to rarefy it. |
| Rash | acting without thinking | Because of Tim’s rash behavior, he’ll be in prison for the next twenty years. |
| Ratify | to officially go on the record as approving something | The shareholders will ratify any merger that will increase their dividends. |
| Rationale | an explanation given to justify something | The judge asked the young man to explain his rationale for stealing a police car. |
| Raucous | behaving in a noisy and disorderly way | Raucous but fun is how they always describe her birthday parties. |
| Rave | act with excessive enthusiasm, to speak wildly and incoherently, as though insane | People who take drugs are likely to rave at others if they are not in their right mind |
| Raze | to demolish, to destroy | The commercial builder has plans to raze the buildings and develop the area into a series of strip malls. |
| Reactionary | opposing progress | My grandmother is described as reactionary because she refuses to use modern technologies like microwaves and mobile phones. |
| Rebuff | snub, to turn down or refuse | Since your offer does not benefit me, I will have to rebuff it and walk away empty-handed. |
| Rebus | puzzle in which pictures stand for words | a puzzle in which words are represented by combinations of pictures and individual letters; for instance, apex might be represented by a picture of an ape followed by a letter X. |
| Rebuttal | an account that is written or stated to contradict another idea, contradict=against | During the politician’s rebuttal, he further described his proposal to improve the nation’s economy. |
| Recalcitrant | disobedient, stubborn | Because of its two recalcitrant members, the committee got very little work done. |
| Recant | take back as being FALSE give up | If my best friend does not recant the accusation she made about me, then she and I will no longer be friends. |
| Recapitulate | to review or repeat | At the start of each class, the professor will recapitulate yesterday’s lecture. |
| Recast | cast or fashion anew | We need to recast the play because the people we currently have in each role aren’t well suited to it. |
| Recede | to go back | When the storm quiets, the waters will recede from the beach. |
| Receptacle | an item used to hold something | All trash should be placed in the garbage receptacle. |
| Recidivism | relapse into antisocial or criminal behavior, to harm the good reputation of a person | Because the state prison is so awful, prisoners who are sentenced there tend to avoid recidivism |
| Reciprocity | granting of privileges in return for similar | Without reciprocity, a relationship will eventually begin to feel one-sided. |
| Recitals | a number of performance of music | I gave my first recital at the Royal College |
| Reckless | unconcerned to danger or the consequences; careless | The reckless driver did not stop at the red light. |
| Recluse | person who lives alone and avoids people | Despite her reputation as a recluse, Samantha held regular gatherings in her home to entertain close friends. |
| Recompense | make payment to reward punish | There is no recompense I would accept in exchange for the life of my child who was recently killed in a hit-and-run accident. |
| Reconcile | settle a quarrel restore peace | Instead of spending a fortune in court fees, the two parties have agreed to see a mediator to reconcile their differences. |
| Recondite | little known; abstruse | Since I do not have a law degree, I find it hard to understand the recondite terms of the contract. |
| Reconnaissance | a survey or observation to gain information | With assistance from the aerial team, the police on the ground will conduct reconnaissance on the suspect. |
| Recourse | options or assistance during a difficult period or situation | Before hospitals, midwives were often the only recourse for expectant mothers |
| Recreancy | cowardice a cowardly giving up | The king was angered by the recreancy of his wife and his best friend |
| Recumbent | a resting or reclining state | Is your cat going to lie recumbent on the windowsill all day long? |
| Recuperate | to obtain something that has been lost, usually one’s good health or a financial stake | Hopefully Jean will recuperate quickly and be able to leave the hospital soon. |
| Redeem | get back by payment compensate | I save my coupons so that I can redeem them at the supermarket. |
| Redolent | filled with a scent or odor | The candy shop was redolent with the rich smell of chocolate. |
| Redoubtable | a difficult challenger or challenge | Because the teacher knew the test was redoubtable, she urged her students to study tirelessly. |
| Redress | To make something right or the payment for a wrong | The company hopes to redress the victim’s injury by paying out a million dollar settlement. |
| Redtape | excessive bureaucracy or adherence to official rules and formalities | this law will just create more red tape |
| Redundant | something that is unnecessary | My professor’s redundant speech consisted of him saying the same thing over and over again. |
| Referendum | a public vote on a particular issue | The employees were asked to vote on a referendum about the company insurance plan. |
| Refine | make or become pure cultural, to improve or make better | Taking each step carefully, the dancer made an extra effort to refine any sloppy movements |
| Refractory | stubborn; unmanageable; intractable | Because the prisoner acts in a refractory manner, he is accompanied by four guards whenever he leaves his cell. |
| Refulgent | shining; brilliant | When the beauty queen accepted her crown, she had a refulgent smile on her face. |
| Refute | to prove wrong by argument or evidence | My physics teacher challenged us to refute his laboratory findings with our own evidence. |
| Regale | to delight or entertain to feast, to please someone | Since I prefer happy endings, reading gory crime novels does not regale me. |
| Regicide | crime of killing a king | The man was charged with regicide after killing the king. |
| Reinstate | restore; bring back | My insurance will reinstate my policy once I’m fully paid up. |
| Reiterate | say or do again several times | The purpose of this email is to reiterate the points we discussed on the telephone. |
| Rejoice | display or show feelings of great joy | The children will rejoice after they open their holiday gifts. |
| Rejoinder | response, a clever or sharp response | The boy was chastised when he responded to the teacher with a sarcastic rejoinder. |
| Rejuvenation | becoming young in nature or appearance, to provide with energy and/or strength | The football players consume sports drinks to rejuvenate themselves during the game. |
| Rekindle | To kindle once again, To recover from a state of oblivion, revive | he tried to rekindle their friendship |
| Relapse | fall back again | To avoid having a relapse, the patient should rest and take his medications. |
| Relegate | to put (someone or something) in a lower or less important position, rank | n spite of her strong commitment to her job, she vowed she would never relegate her maternal duties to a nanny |
| Relent | To become less severe or intense; to become less hard, | Hopefully the judge will relent and allow me to post bail. |
| Reminiscent | suggest something in the past | The smells coming from the bakery were reminiscent of the scents that used to come from my grandmother’s kitchen. |
| Remnant | what remains of an item after the majority of it has been used | The abandoned plant was a remnant of the town’s once thriving economy. |
| Remonstrate | to protest object, criticize someone about something | Before I could remonstrate on the poor working conditions, my boss fired me. |
| Remorse | guilt or regret for a misdeed | I felt remorse after I bought the rundown car from the dealer. |
| Remuneration | compensation for goods or services | The salary earned by teachers is not enough remuneration for all the work they do on a daily basis. |
| Render | deliver provide represent | My donation is going to the local soup kitchen because I know it will use the funds to render food to the homeless. |
| Renegade | someone who leaves one group and joins another with different goals or beliefs | The renegade soldiers decided to leave the base and go back home to their families. |
| Renege | to not fulfill a promise | The property buyers will be sued if they renege on the terms of the contract. |
| Renovate | restore something to better condition | The homeowners decided to renovate their old kitchen. |
| Renown | the state of being widely known; acclaim | The philanthropist has garnered renown for her clean water projects in Africa. |
| Renowned | celebrated; famous | The renowned actress could not go out in public without wearing a disguise. |
| Repast | meal, food consumed as a meal | Hoping to enjoy a romantic repast with her husband, Jill prepared his favorite dishes and lit candles. |
| Repel | refuse to accept/cause dislike, to force a thing or person away | Hopefully the air freshener will repel the odor of the deceased rodent. |
| Repertoire | A stock of plays, dances, or pieces that a company or a performer knows or is prepared to perform | As long as the piano player continues to strum through a boring repertoire of tunes, he will never keep a large audience. |
| Repine | at be discontented with, to yearn for something or someo | The little girl began to cry when she started to repine for her family during her first sleepover. |
| Replete | having much or plenty of something | History is replete with examples of the dangers of war. |
| Repose | rest;sleep | When you begin to meditate, you need to sit in repose and try to empty your mind of all thoughts. |
| Reprehensible | highly unacceptable action; deserving severe disapproval or criticism | Stealing is reprehensible. |
| Repress | to prevent from coming forth, t o press again. | During the protest, troops were sent to the town hall to repress angry citizens from entering the building. |
| Reprieve | to cancel or postpone a bad situation | Because of a legal review, the criminal was granted a reprieve on his sentence. |
| Reprimand | an act of disapproval, generally done in an official manner | When I misbehaved in school, my teacher sent me home with a written reprimand for my parents to sign. |
| Reproach | scold upbraid, disgrace or scandal | The politician’s sordid actions have brought reproach to the entire government. |
| Reprobate | person hardened in sin; one devoid of decency | The serial killer was a reprobate who did not care about anyone. |
| Reproof | a criticism or rebuke | Without harsh reproof, the mother calmly explained the reasons why the boy shouldn’t throw the ball in the house. |
| Repudiate | disown refuse to accept or pay, to reject; refuse to support | Because I want to avoid the conflict between my two sisters, I repudiate their argument. |
| Repugnant | repulsive or offensive | The smell was completely repugnant to the pregnant woman. |
| Repulse | to repel or drive back | His gross eating habits would repulse anyone sharing a meal with him. |
| Repulsive | causing a feeling of disgust | The repulsive smell of the dead body sent me running from the house. |
| Requite | repay give in return, to give payment for something | The civil court jury will decide how much money the drug manufacturer must requite the widow for the death of her husband. |
| Rescind | repeal/annul/cancel | I cannot believe Janice’s boyfriend tried to rescind his marriage proposal! |
| Resent | to express displeasure for | My daughter will resent the fact I have cancelled her mobile phone service. |
| Resigned | unresistant; submissive, to leave one’s position without being asked | After a scandal emerged about his extramarital affair, the pastor resigned from his church. |
| Resilience | quality of quickly recovering the original shape | Despite a cancer diagnosis, Mary would remain resilient and fight until the very end. |
| Resonant | continuing to sound; echoing | During the concert, the opera singer’s resonant voice vibrated across the stage. |
| Resort | to frequently visit, rujuu karna | The Choices program encompasses all the resort’s restaurant menus. |
| Resound | to be loud enough to echo | The auctioneer’s projecting voice gave him to resound over the chatty crowd. |
| Respite | brief interval of rest or relief | In most places, summer brings a much-needed respite to teachers and students alike. |
| Resplendent | shiny and colourful, and thus pleasing to the eye | The peacock is a very showy bird with resplendent plumage in multiple shades of blues and greens |
| Restitution | the restoring of something that is stolen or lost to the property owner | Since I was in the car but not the driver, I do not believe I should have to pay restitution to the hit-and-run victim. |
| Restive | refusing to move reluctant to be controlled, feeling bored or impatient while waiting for something to happen or change | After just a week of summer vacation, the kids were bored and restive, demanding new things to do. |
| Restorative | capable of making an individual feel well | My eighty-five-year-old grandmother credits restorative yoga as the key to her good health. |
| Resuscitation | coming back to consciousness | When my father had a second heart attack in the hospital, the doctor was unable to resuscitate him. |
| Retard | check hinder, to delay or hold back the development of something | The poor fiscal decisions of one country can do much to retard the growth of other nations as well. |
| Retention | the power to hold on to or keep something | Because of water retention my stomach appears swollen. |
| Reticence | uncommunicativeness | While Barbara likes to discuss her personal life with our co-workers, I am much more reticent. |
| Reticent | reserved; untalkative; silent; taciturn | While Barbara likes to discuss her personal life with our co-workers, I am much more reticent. |
| Retinue | following; attendants | When the actress and her retinue arrive, they will require twelve hotel rooms. |
| Retiring | shy and fond of being on one’s own | you have to be fairly resilient and not too much of a shy retiring type |
| Retraction | the taking back of a previous statement that was not true or accurate | After he gave a false statistic, the politician needed to make a retraction. |
| Retreat | a private event or place where a person goes to relax | The presidential retreat at Camp David was used as a place to unwind and reflect. |
| Retrograde | receding, reverting backwards | The disease produces a retrograde process which weakens normally healthy muscles. |
| Retrospective | Looking back on past | When the seniors looked at the retrospective slideshow, they laughed at their freshmen photos. |
| Revere | have deep respect for | Many people from India are Hindu, and so they do not eat beef because they revere the cow as a sacred object. |
| Reverent | feeling or showing deep respect | At the funeral, hundreds of police officers paid reverence to their fallen office. |
| Revile | to attack with abusive language | Although the media goes out of its way to revile the president, its actions have not caused a fall in the leader’s popularity. |
| Rhetoric | persuasive or impressive language which is often insincere | The protestors’ rhetoric is filled with anger towards the government. |
| Riddle | puzzling person or thing | My friend asked me a question about something that was black and white but ‘read’ all over, but I knew that the answer to his riddle was a newspaper. |
| Rife | widespread, great quantitiy | The beach is rife with young people during the summer months. |
| Rift | split crack dissension, a circumstance in which an amiable relationship has been broken | A difference in perspectives caused a rift that forced the two friends to end their business partnership. |
| Rigor | inflexibility; severity, The degree of something undesirable; badness or seriousness. | Students who do not apply themselves will not be able to handle the rigor of medical school. |
| Rind | the tough outer skin of certain fruit, especially citrus fruit | decorate with fine shreds of orange rind |
| Ritual | a standard procedure for a rite or ceremony | The genital mutilation ritual is performed on women and girls in over twenty-five countries. |
| Rivet | fix take up secure metal pin, to command the attention of | Apple Inc. knows how to rivet the world’s attention by constantly releasing cutting edge technology |
| Riveting | completely engrossing; compelling | the book is a riveting account of the legendary freedom fighte |
| Robust | strong and healthy | In order to be a fireman, one needs to be robust because fighting fires is a very difficult job. |
| Rogue | a person without principles; a dishonest individual | Although the rogue was engaged to be married, he found it easy to flirt with other women. |
| Roll | call calling of names | Roll the dice |
| Roster | a person without principles; a dishonest individual | Although the rogue was engaged to be married, he found it easy to flirt with other women. |
| Rotund | rich and deep; plump and round | The jovial man’s rotund belly bounced wildly as he tried to jump rope with the kids. |
| Rubicund | red and healthy,bearing skin that is pink or red in color | The sunburn made his face rubicund in appearance. |
| Ruddy | reddish, healthy-looking | My daughter’s normally pale skin becomes ruddy with a rosy color when she works in the garden. |
| Rue | to experience regret or sorrow | My husband will rue the day he ever cheated on me! |
| Rueful | dejected, displaying regret and/or sorrow for one’s actions | Because the judge felt the defendant wasn’t rueful, he gave him a harsh sentence. |
| Ruffian | violent cruel man | The ruffian became violently angry when the cashier refused to sell him alcohol. |
| Ruminate | to think deeply about something | His sudden death made us all ruminate on the true value of time. |
| Rumple | make rough | Besides, he would tug at the ribbons of her bonnet and, no doubt, rumple her dress. |
| Rung | a horizontal support on a ladder for a person’s foot, ringing | He kept shaking his head like he really rung his bell. |
| Runic | character | any of the characters of any of several alphabets used by the Germanic peoples from about the 3rd to the 13th centuries |
| Ruse | a plan or plot to mislead someone | One example of a military ruse is the Trojan horse. |
| Saccharin | a sweet-tasting synthetic compound used in food and drink as a substitute for sugar | Saccharin is sugar free sweet tasting |
| Sacred | holy; divine | The Indian tribe will not hunt the eagle because it considers it to be a sacred creature. |
| Sacrosanct | too important or respected to be criticized or changed | The award-winning filmmaker felt his movies were too sacrosanct to be criticized by the media. |
| Sadastic | Cruel, feeling pleasure from the pain of others, delighting | Doris feared being kidnapped by a sadistic maniac. |
| Sagacious | having sound judgment; perceptive; wise like a sage | It is not very sagacious of you to play with fire. |
| Sage | a wise individual who gives others helpful advice | My father was the sage who kept everyone in my family on a straight path by giving us guidance before it was even requested. |
| Salacious | obscene, promoting sexual desire or lust | The salacious content of some popular novels has led parents to demand that they be removed from school libraries. |
| Sallow | having an unnatural yellowish or pale skin color | The boy’s lack of proper nutrition caused him to have a sallow unhealthy appearance. |
| Salubrious | healthful, something that is good for you or is beneficial to mind or body | Vegetables are salubrious foods which provide essential nutrients. |
| Salutary | remedial wholesome causing improvement, producing good benefits | The board hopes the merger of the two companies will have salutary effects that will leave all the shareholders happy. |
| Salvage | the saving of property from loss, something pulled out or saved because of its value | The salvage from the nonworking computer will come in handy when we decide to build a new PC. |
| Salvation | a thing that rescues a person or object from a dangerous situation | When the shipwreck survivor located a box of food, he knew he’d found his salvation. |
| Sanctimonious | pretending to be better than others on a moral level | Even though the minister had been arrested for shoplifting, he still had the nerve to act sanctimonious in front of the congregation. |
| Sanctimony | self-righteousness hypocritical with FALSE piety | Even though the minister had been arrested for shoplifting, he still had the nerve to act sanctimonious in front of the congregation. |
| Sanction | approval (by authority) penalty | The government will never sanction drinking and driving because it is unsafe. |
| Sanguine | cheerful; confident; optimistic, optimistic, hopeful, or confident about the future | lthough the economy is looking better, we should still not be too sanguine about the future. |
| Sanity | health of mind soundness of judgment | How can I retain my sanity when I have eight small children running around my house making me feel insane? |
| Sap | gradually weaken or destroy, the fluid which circulates in the vascular system of a plant, consisting chiefly of water with dissolved sugars and mineral salts. | these insects suck the sap from the roots of trees, our energy is being sapped by bureaucrats and politicians |
| Sardonic | displaying disrespect in a scornful way | The criminal had a sardonic smile on his face when he shot at the police officer. |
| Sash | long strip worn round the waist | why you are not putting sash |
| Sate | to satisfy; fill up | I need a glass of ice water to sate my thirst. |
| Satiate | satisfy fully | Hopefully this feast I am preparing will satiate your hunger. |
| Saturnine | gloomy; dark; sullen; morose | The dog’s eyes became saturnine whenever he was left at home alone. |
| Savant | person of great learning | Because Jackie is a savant of style, she hosts a television show about the latest fashion trends. |
| Savor | taste flavor something | Jack kissed her as long as he could because he wanted to savor the sweetness of her lips. |
| Sawdust | tiny bits of wood | Fine sawdust can cause eye irritations so this should be avoided. |
| Scabbard | sheath for the blade | The pirate pulled his sword out of the scabbard attached to his belt. |
| Scalding | hot enough to boil, to be hurt by a scorching fluid | Even the smallest splash of hot oil on my skin would scald it causing severe burns. |
| Scapegoat | a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place | Now that the company is about to declare bankruptcy, upper level managers are looking for a scapegoat to save their own skins. |
| Scent | smell (especially pleasant) | The difference between a scent and a stench is that a scent smells pleasant while a stench is disgusting. |
| Scorch | become discolored/dry up/go at high speed, to burn the surface something | My tendency to leave the iron laying on clothing has led me to scorch many a shirt. |
| Scribble | write hastily, write or draw something quickly or without much focus | A toddler may draw with a crayon or chalk, but considering their lack of focus they usually do little more than scribble. |
| Scrupulous | very careful about doing something correctly | Although Margaret tries to be a scrupulous cleaner, she sometimes forgets to dust off the bookshelves. |