| academicism |
in the arts, rigid adherence to accepted and traditional forms. |
| belie |
to give a false impression of. |
| contumacious |
stubbornly disobedient; insubordinate; rebellious. |
| encomium |
a formal expression of praise. |
| festoon |
a decorative chain or strip of ribbons, flowers, leaves, or the like, suspended at the ends and hung in a curve. |
| frangible |
easy to break; breakable; fragile. |
| germane |
having relevance to a given matter; pertinent; significant. |
| indemnity |
insurance against damage, loss, or liability. |
| inflection |
change that occurs in the form of words to show a grammatical characteristic such as the tense of a verb, the number of a noun, or the degree of an adjective or adverb. |
| insipid |
having a bland or uninteresting flavor; tasteless. |
| malapropism |
the humorous or ridiculous misuse of a word, especially by using a word that sounds similar to the correct word, but whose meaning is inappropriate. |
| oppugn |
to oppose, contradict, criticize, or call into question. |
| ostentation |
a showy display to impress others. |
| peroration |
the concluding part of a speech in which there is a summing up of the principal points. |
| unabashed |
not feeling or showing embarrassment, uneasiness, or shame. |