 | Term | Definition |
| |
Pernicious |
Tending to kill or hurt |
| |
Persiflage |
Banter |
| |
Perspicacity |
Acuteness of discernment |
| |
Perturbation |
Mental excitement or confusion |
| |
Petrify |
To convert into a substance of stony hardness and character |
| |
Petulant |
Displaying impatience |
| |
Phelgmatic |
Not easily roused to feeling or action |
| |
Physiognomy |
The external appearance merely |
| |
Pious |
Religious |
| |
Pique |
To excite a slight degree of anger in |
| |
Placate |
To bring from a state of angry or hostile feeling to one of patience or friendliness |
| |
Platitude |
A written or spoken statement that is flat, dull, or commonplace |
| |
Plea |
An argument to obtain some desired action |
| |
Plenary |
Entire |
| |
Plethora |
Excess, superabundance |
| |
Plumb |
A weight suspend by a line to test the veticality of something |
| |
Plummet |
A piece of lead for making soounding, adjusting walls to the vertical |
| |
Poignant |
Severely painful or acute to the spirit |
| |
Polyglot |
Speaking several tongues |
| |
Ponderous |
Unusually weighty or forcible |
| |
Portend |
To indicate as being about to happen, especially by pervious signs |
| |
Portent |
Anything that indicates what is to happen |
| |
Precarious |
Perilous |
| |
Preclude |
To prevent |
| |
Precocious |
Having the mental faculties prematurely developed |
| |
Predominate |
To be chief in importance, quantity or degree |
| |
Premature |
Coming too soon |
| |
Presage |
To foretell |
| |
Prescience |
Knowledge of events before they take place |
| |
Presumption |
That which may be logically assumed tobe true until disproved |
| |
Preternatural |
Extraordinary |
| |
Prevalent |
of wide extent or frequent occurence |
| |
Prevaricate |
To use ambiguous or evasive language for the purpose of deceiving or diverting attention |
| |
Prim |
Stiffly proper |
| |
Pristine |
Primitive |
| |
Probity |
Virtue or integrity tested and confirmed |
| |
Proclivity |
A natural inclination |
| |
Procrastination |
Delay |
| |
Prodigal |
One wasteful or extravagant, especially in the use of money or property |
| |
Prodigious |
Immense |
| |
Profligacy |
Shameless viciousness |
| |
Profligate |
Recklessly wasteful |
| |
Profuse |
Produced or displayed in overabundance |
| |
Prolix |
Verbose |
| |
Propinquity |
Nearness |
| |
Propitious |
Kindly disposed |
| |
Prosaic |
Unimaginative |
| |
Proscribe |
To reject as a teaching or a practice, with condemnation or denunciation |
| |
Protuberant |
Bulging |
| |
Provident |
Anticipating and making ready for future wants or emergencies |
| |
Prudence |
Caution |
| |
Puerile |
Childlish |
| |
Pugnacious |
Quarrelsome |
| |
Punctilious |
Strictly observant of the rules or forms prescribed by law or custom |
| |
Pungency |
The quality of affecting the sense of smell |
| |
Pusillanimous |
Without spirit or bravery |
| |
Pyre |
A heap of combustibles arranged for burning a dead body |
| |
Qualm |
A fit of nausea |
| |
Quandary |
A puzzling predicament |
| |
Quibble |
An uttelry trivial distinction or objection |
| |
Quiescence |
Being quiet, still or at rest; inactive |
| |
Quiescent |
Being in a state of repose or inaction |
| |
Quixotic |
Chivalrous or romantic to a ridiculous or extravagant degree |
| |
Quotidian |
Of an everyday character; ordinary |
| |
Raconteur |
A person skilled in telling stories |
| |
Ramify |
To divide or subdivide into branches or subdivisions |
| |
Rapacious |
Seize by force, avaricious |
| |
Raucous |
Harsh |
| |
Reactionary |
Pertaining to, of the nature of, cuasing or favoring reaction |
| |
Rebuff |
A peremptory or unexpected rejection of advances or approaches |
| |
Recalcitrant |
Marked by stubborn resistance |
| |
Recant |
To withdraw formally one's belief |
| |
Reciprocity |
Equal mutual rights and benefits granted and enjoyed |
| |
Recluse |
One who lives in retirement or seclusion |
| |
Recondite |
Incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding |
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace