| baleful |
threatening harm; full of malice; ominous. |
| Byzantine |
characterized by complexity and intrigue. |
| denigrate |
to deny the worth of; sneer at; belittle. |
| garble |
to mix up, distort, or confuse (a message, translation, or the like); cause to be disordered or unintelligible. |
| ineluctable |
impossible to be avoided; inescapable. |
| 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. |
| ingenuous |
having or showing simplicity and lack of sophistication; artless. |
| lenitive |
mitigating pain, discomfort, or distress; soothing. |
| malfeasance |
an illegal act or wrongdoing, especially by a public official. |
| obscurantism |
a deliberate lack of clarity or directness of expression, as in certain styles of art or literature. |
| preferment |
the act of promoting or being promoted to a higher position or office. |
| recant |
to withdraw from commitment to (a former position or statement), especially publicly; retract. |
| salvo |
the firing of guns or other firearms simultaneously or in succession, especially as a salute. |
| sanctimony |
a pretense of righteousness or piety; feigned devotion or holiness. |
| shyster |
a person, usually a lawyer, who uses underhanded, unethical methods. |