| appellation |
a name, title, or other designation. |
| baleful |
threatening harm; full of malice; ominous. |
| bellicose |
easily incited to quarrel or fight; belligerent. |
| desideratum |
something that is needed or wanted. |
| encomium |
a formal expression of praise. |
| gnomic |
short and pithy, as an aphorism. |
| jeremiad |
a long complaint about life or one's situation; lamentation. |
| parturient |
giving birth or about to give birth; in labor. |
| recurve |
to bend or curve back or backward, as the ends of certain shooting bows. |
| reprisal |
injury inflicted in retaliation for injury received, as in war; revenge. |
| sanctimony |
a pretense of righteousness or piety; feigned devotion or holiness. |
| scabrous |
characterized by a rough or scaly surface, as the leaf of a plant. |
| sere1 |
dried up or withered. |
| stickler |
one who must observe or conform to something (usually followed by "for"). |
| syntax |
the word order or pattern of word order in a sentence. |