Up Your Score (19 page)

The president mingled with the people
incognito
to find out what they really thought.

lacking space; not commodious

His apartment was so
incommodious
that there was no room for a
commode
.

indisputable

“The evidence is
incontrovertible
,” the lawyer concluded. “The sunburn on your bald head proves that you drive a
convertible
.”

nightmare; mental burden

Note:
Incubus
has another meaning that should help you remember it but, as a matter of taste, we chose not to include it. That ought to entice you into looking it up.

The SAT is an
incubus
that hovers in the minds of high school students.

laziness

If you study with
indolence
, they will send you a note of
condolence
with your score report.

unconquerable; impossible to
dom
inate

He was the best
domi
noes player around; he was virtually
indomitable
.

incompetent

The
inept
astronomy student thought that unicorns live on
Nept
une.

to conclude based on facts

It can be
inferred
that people dressed
in fur
are not animal-rights activists.

Two more words that will confuse you:

original; resourceful

showing childlike simplicity; innocent

Remember these words this way:
Ingenious
has an
i
, like
genius
, and it also expresses the main qualities of
genius
.

Baby
geniuses
frequently discover
ingenious
ideas in
ingenuous
ways. (It also helps if you know that
disingenuous
means
crafty
, not innocent or straightforward.)

belonging to someone from birth; inherent (see
CONGENITAL
)

The malice
in Nate
is
innate
. He’s been nasty since birth.

impossible to satisfy

You must develop an
insatiable
desire to learn more and more vocabulary words.

enigmatic; difficult to understand

The Swedish furniture manufacturer’s instructions on how to
unscrew
the
table
were
inscrutable
.

unconscious; lacking
sensa
tion

Inhaling too much
incense
could make you pass out and lie
insensate
on the floor.

working or spreading stealthily; sneaking
inside
to do something bad

Note:
Do not confuse with
INVIDIOUS
.

The Evil Testing Serpent uses
insidious
techniques to torture students.

lacking excitement; vapid

The
insipid
innkeeper stayed
in, sipped
wine, and slept.

not perceptible to the touch; impalpable

You can’t touch the
tang
ent of π/2; it’s
intangible
.

abusive put-down

If your favorite television show gets taken off the air, you should complain to the producers with
inventive
invective
until they release the series on DVD.

making people angry; offensive

The critics of MTV were concerned about the
invidious
images
in videos
.

easily provoked; irritable

The
irascible rasc
al threw her eraser.

JaJa, Larry, Manek, Michael, and Paul were traveling
incognito
in the
incommodious
bus. They had reached an
impasse
in their
indomitable
attempts to think of sentences for the I’s and were nearly
insensate
with
indolence
.

“Hey, Manek, do you have any
ingenious
ideas for ‘
inscrutable
,’ you
inept
fool?” Larry inquired.

Manek’s face remained
impassive
. “You know you’re just
inciting
me to anger with your
insipid invective
. If you continue this
impropriety
, this
invidious
behavior, I’ll become
irascible
.”

“Are we to
infer
that you are questioning Larry’s
impeccable
integrity by implying that he acted in an
ignoble
manner?” Paul interjected
ingenuously
. “I’m sure he couldn’t stand the
ignominy
.”

“If you all don’t shut up, I’ll be forced to
impale
you. Especially since you
imbibed
my iodine,” JaJa shouted.

“There seems to be an
insidious
force at work among us,” Larry added. “Our
incontrovertibly
insatiable
desire to help students is failing!”

“But what, ho!” JaJa exclaimed. “I believe our destination is
imminent
.”

So the bus stopped and they got off, continuing to argue
incessantly
.

wearied, especially by too much of the good life

They lived out their
jaded
existence wearing
jade
jewelry and driving Ferraris.

extreme patriotism

Francis Scott Key was a
jingoistic
jingle
writer.

These three words all begin with “joc-” and they all mean about the same thing:

merry; joking

jolly; joking

merry; jolly

The
jocose
jockey did a jig as a
joke
.

The
jocular
journalist joined the
joker’s club
.

The
jocund
judge joyfully jailed the jolly janitor.

range of knowledge

“
Ken’s
ken is limited,” Barbie complained. “He only knows surfboards.”

pavilion or small open booth where items are bought or sold

The
kiosk
in Kiev sold cold knishes. (Say this five times fast.)

fate

“
Kiss me
, baby, it’s
kismet
,” slurred the drunk at the singles’ bar.

compulsive stealer

Old
kleptomaniacs
never die, they just
steal
away.

clever bad guy

dishonest, mischievous dealing

“
Can Avery
join the
navy
?”

“
Never, he
is always up to some kind of
knavery
.”

The
jingoist
became
jaded
. He didn’t feel as
jocose
,
jocular
, or
jocund
as he once did. Eventually, he turned to
knavery
, robbing from
kiosks
. It was
kismet
that he got caught. It takes little
ken
to be a
kleptomaniac
. A lesson for us all.

complicated maze or winding series of corridors

You’d be a
maze
d at how easily the
lab
oratory rats get lost in the
labyrinth
.

to rip, maul, tear, mutilate, or mangle

Al
as
, when Arth
ur ate
pickled razor blades, he
lacerated
his tongue.

uncaring;
lack
ing in interest or spirit

The florist exclaimed, “I
lack a daisy! Call
the flower supplier pronto!” But the
lackadaisical
stock boy didn’t pay any attention.

not saying much; brief; terse; concise; succinct

This sentence is
laconic
.

There is a Greek story about the war between Laconia and Athens. The Athenians threatened the Laconians by sending a letter to them that said something like, “If we defeat you we will burn your houses, pillage your villages, maul your women and children, etc. .. .” The
Lacon
ians sent back the
laconic
reply, “If.”

to thrash, maul, beat, whip, or bludgeon with big things and other fun stuff; to scold sharply or rebuke

“
Baste
that
lamb
or I’ll
lambaste
you!” the cook yelled to his assistant.

lacking energy; weak

to lose strength; waste away

Note:
As you will notice, a lot of L words mean either “lazy and lacking energy” or “lusty.”

No doubt learning all this language is giving you so much anguish that you’re starting to
languish
.

languidness; sluggishness

I can’t lie here in
languor
any longer.

stealing

Stealing from the cartoonist who created
The Far Side
is
Larson-y
.

lusty; lewd

The
lascivious
lass lusted after Larry.

listlessness; a state of exhaustion or weakness

The ship’s crew was in such a state of
lassitude
that they sailed to the wrong
latitude
.

potential but not yet displayed

He had a
latent
talent for playing the harmonica, but he didn’t discover it until
late in
his life.

(
Note: Latent
is often used in the phrase
latent talent,
which is a handy memory aid because the two words have the exact same letters.)

(v.) to praise (think: “
Praise
be the
Laud!
”)

(n.) praise

(adj.) praiseful

The students stuck in the loud
auditori
um did not have any
laudatory
comments at the end of the pep rally.

lewd; lustful; given to sexual activity

The country preacher said to the employees in the brothel, “Yer goin’ to Hades ’cause you
let yer house
be used for
lecherous
activities.” They replied, “Don’t
lecture us
.”

deadly

The lisping landlord said, “If you don’t sign the
leath, I’ll
thtab you with my
lethal
thord!”