Vocabulary Words You Must Know - Commack Schools



Tone Words You Should Know

1. acerbic – acidic; bitter; sharp

2. admonitory – serving to admonish; warning

3. affable -- friendly

4. biased – prejudiced towards one side

5. bombastic- language with a theatricality of style far too powerful for the meaning expressed

6. brusque – rudely abrupt

7. caustic – bitingly sarcastic or witty

8. clinical – highly objective; scientific

9. condescending – treating people as weak or inferior

10. confused – perplexed or bewildered

11. contemptuous – expressing contempt; a lack of respect

12. contentious – quarrelsome, tending to argument or strife

13. cynical – bitterly or sneeringly distrustful, contemptuous, or pessimistic

14. despotic – exercising absolute power; tyrannical

15. dictatorial – domineering; oppressively overbearing

16. didactic – intended for instruction; can be a bit preachy

17. disdainful – to regard or treat with contempt; to look down on

18. disingenuous –not straightforward; insincere

19. disparaging – to speak of in a negative way; belittling

20. dogmatic – stubbornly adhering to unproved beliefs

21. ebullient – intense enthusiasm

22. effusive – emotionally unrestrained; gushy

23. enigmatic – puzzling; baffling; cryptic

24. erudite – characterized by great knowledge; scholarly

25. facetious – playfully humorous

26. flippant – lacking proper respect

27. frank – open and sincere in expression; straightforward

28. grandiose – characterized by pretended greatness; pompous

29. haughty – arrogant; vainly proud

30. iconoclastic – attacking traditional or popular ideas

31. impartial – not in favor of one side or the other; unbiased

32. imperious – arrogantly domineering or overbearing

33. indignant – attitude of being angry because of an injustice or unworthiness

34. indifferent – not caring one way or the other



35. insipid – without distinctive, interesting, or stimulating qualities; dull

36. insolent – boldly rude or disrespectful

37. irreverent – lacking seriousness

38. laconic – expressing much in few words; concise; succinct

39. languid – lacking in vigor or vitality

40. laudatory – pertaining to or expressing praise

41. lucid – easily understood; clear

42. melancholy – causing sadness or gloom

43. moralistic – characterized by a narrow and conventional moral attitude

44. nostalgic – a wistful desire to return to a former time or place

45. obdurate – stubborn; inflexible

46. obsequious – fawning; overly obedient; dutiful (what a servant would do, sucking up?)

47. patronizing – to behave in an offensively condescending manner

48. pedantic – characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules

49. pedestrian – lacking in vitality, imagination, distinction; prosaic or dull

50. pithy – brief, forceful, and meaningful in expression

51. plaintive – expressing sorrow or melancholy (a plaintive melody)

52. poignant – profoundly moving; touching (a poignant memory)

53. pragmatic – practical

54. precocious – unusually advanced in mental development (a precocious child)

55. pretentious – language purposely inflated to impress

56. prosaic – matter of fact; dull; ordinary

57. ribald – vulgar or indecent in speech; coarsely mocking; irreverent

58. saccharine – overly sweet

59. sanctimonious -- hypocritical show of religious devotion

60. sardonic – disdainfully or ironically humorous; harsh, bitter, or caustic

61. sentimental – appealing to tender emotions and feelings (love, pity, nostalgia)

62. somber – gloomily dark

63. sophomoric – immature and over confident

64. supercilious – disdainful; haughtily contemptuous

65. turgid – excessively ornate or complex in style or language; bombastic

66. vociferous – characterized by loudness and vehemence

67. wistful – full of wishful yearning

68. whimsical – subject to erratic behavior; unpredictable

Note from :

Sarcastic suggests sharp taunting and ridicule that wounds: "a deserved reputation for sarcastic, acerbic and uninhibited polemics" (Burke Marshall).

Ironic implies a subtler form of mockery in which an intended meaning is conveyed obliquely: "a man of eccentric charm, ironic humor, and—above all—profound literary genius" (Jonathan Kirsch).

Caustic means corrosive and bitingly trenchant: "The caustic jokes ... deal with such diverse matters as political assassination, talk-show hosts, medical ethics" (Frank Rich).

Satirical implies exposure, especially of vice or folly, to ridicule: "on the surface a satirical look at commercial radio, but also a study of the misuse of telecommunications" (Richard Harrington).

Sardonic is associated with scorn, derision, mockery, and often cynicism: "He was proud, sardonic, harsh to inferiority of every description" (Charlotte Brontë).

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