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The End of Faith 118 words

February 24, 2009 By Steven M. (Olathe, KS)
A selection of words I encountered while reading Sam Harris's 2005 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for Nonfiction winner.

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Definitions Notes & Examples Words Only
  1. abject
    of the most contemptible kind
  2. abjure
    formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure
  3. adduce
    advance evidence for
  4. anthropocentrism
    an inclination to evaluate reality exclusively in terms of human values
  5. aphasia
    inability to use or understand language (spoken or written) because of a brain lesion
  6. apostate
    not faithful to religion or party or cause
  7. ardor
    feelings of great warmth and intensity
  8. argus-eyed
    carefully observant or attentive; on the lookout for possible danger
  9. ballast
    any heavy material used to stabilize a ship or airship
  10. benighted
    overtaken by night or darkness
  11. blandishment
    flattery intended to persuade
  12. blinker
    a light that flashes on and off; used as a signal or to send messages
  13. bona fide
    not counterfeit or copied
  14. canard
    a deliberately misleading fabrication
  15. capitulation
    the act of surrendering (usually under agreed conditions)
  16. capricious
    determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason
  17. casuistry
    argumentation that is specious or excessively subtle and intended to be misleading
  18. cloying
    overly sweet
  19. complaisance
    a disposition or tendency to yield to the will of others
  20. confabulation
    an informal conversation
  21. confer
    present
  22. conflate
    mix together different elements
  23. construal
    an interpretation of the meaning of something; the act of construing
  24. deference
    courteous regard for people's feelings
  25. demagogy
    impassioned appeals to the prejudices and emotions of the populace
  26. echolocation
    determining the location of something by measuring the time it takes for an echo to return from it
  27. ecumenicalism
    (Christianity) the doctrine of the ecumenical movement that promotes cooperation and better understanding among different religious denominations: aimed at universal Christian unity
  28. efficacy
    capacity or power to produce a desired effect
  29. efflorescence
    the time and process of budding and unfolding of blossoms
  30. enjoin
    give instructions to or direct somebody to do something with authority
  31. epistemology
    the philosophical theory of knowledge
  32. erstwhile
    belonging to some prior time
  33. eschatology
    the branch of theology that is concerned with such final things as death and Last Judgment; Heaven and Hell; the ultimate destiny of humankind
  34. ethos
    (anthropology) the distinctive spirit of a culture or an era
  35. exculpatory
    clearing of guilt or blame
  36. exhort
    spur on or encourage especially by cheers and shouts
  37. exigency
    a pressing or urgent situation
  38. facile
    arrived at without due care or effort; lacking depth
  39. felicity
    pleasing and appropriate manner or style (especially manner or style of expression)
  40. fillip
    anything that tends to arouse
  41. genteel
    marked by refinement in taste and manners
  42. gravitas
    formality in bearing and appearance
  43. hermeneutics
    the branch of theology that deals with principles of exegesis
  44. heterodoxy
    the quality of being unorthodox
  45. impertinent
    improperly forward or bold
  46. impresario
    a sponsor who books and stages public entertainments
  47. impute
    attribute or credit to
  48. inauspicious
    not auspicious; boding ill
  49. inchoate
    only partly in existence; imperfectly formed
  50. ineluctable
    impossible to avoid or evade:"inescapable conclusion"
  51. inimical
    not friendly
  52. injunction
    (law) a judicial remedy issued in order to prohibit a party from doing or continuing to do a certain activity
  53. insuperable
    incapable of being surmounted or excelled
  54. interdiction
    authoritative prohibition
  55. internecine
    (of conflict) within a group or organization
  56. interoception
    sensitivity to stimuli originating inside of the body
  57. inure
    cause to accept or become hardened to; habituate
  58. invidious
    containing or implying a slight or showing prejudice
  59. jurist
    a legal scholar versed in civil law or the law of nations
  60. kinesthesia
    the perception of body position and movement and muscular tensions etc
  61. leaven
    a substance used to produce fermentation in dough or a liquid
  62. licit
    authorized, sanctioned by, or in accordance with law
  63. locus
    the scene of any event or action (especially the place of a meeting)
  64. malefic
    having or exerting a malignant influence
  65. marzipan
    almond paste and egg whites
  66. mechanistic
    explained in terms of physical forces
  67. mendicant
    practicing beggary
  68. milling
    corrugated edge of a coin
  69. nefarious
    extremely wicked
  70. obverse
    the more conspicuous of two alternatives or cases or sides
  71. offal
    viscera and trimmings of a butchered animal often considered inedible by humans
  72. parochial
    relating to or supported by or located in a parish
  73. paucity
    an insufficient quantity or number
  74. perverse
    deviating from what is considered moral or right or proper or good
  75. phylogenetic
    of or relating to the evolutionary development of organisms
  76. Platonist
    an advocate of Platonism
  77. plebiscite
    a vote by the electorate determining public opinion on a question of national importance
  78. pluralist
    someone who believes that distinct ethnic or cultural or religious groups can exist together in society
  79. pogrom
    organized persecution of an ethnic group (especially Jews)
  80. precept
    rule of personal conduct
  81. primacy
    the state of being first in importance
  82. privation
    act of depriving someone of food or money or rights
  83. profligate
    unrestrained by convention or morality
  84. profundity
    the quality of being physically deep
  85. proprioception
    the ability to sense the position and location and orientation and movement of the body and its parts
  86. proscribe
    command against
  87. purview
    the range of interest or activity that can be anticipated
  88. ramify
    have or develop complicating consequences
  89. rapine
    the act of despoiling a country in warfare
  90. rarefied
    of high moral or intellectual value; elevated in nature or style
  91. ratiocination
    the proposition arrived at by logical reasoning (such as the proposition that must follow from the major and minor premises of a syllogism)
  92. recourse
    act of turning to for assistance
  93. reductio ad absurdum
    (reduction to the absurd) a disproof by showing that the consequences of the proposition are absurd; or a proof of a proposition by showing that its negation leads to a contradiction
  94. reductionism
    a theory that all complex systems can be completely understood in terms of their components
  95. refractory
    stubbornly resistant to authority or control
  96. regnant
    exercising power or authority
  97. rigmarole
    a long and complicated and confusing procedure
  98. risible
    arousing or provoking laughter
  99. roil
    make turbid by stirring up the sediments of
  100. salacious
    suggestive of or tending to moral looseness
  101. scrofulous
    afflicted with scrofula
  102. sine qua non
    a prerequisite
  103. stridency
    having the timbre of a loud high-pitched sound
  104. suasion
    the act of persuading (or attempting to persuade); communication intended to induce belief or action
  105. supervene
    take place as an additional or unexpected development
  106. swaddle
    wrap in swaddling clothes
  107. syllogism
    deductive reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from two premises
  108. tautology
    useless repetition
  109. tendentious
    having or marked by a strong tendency especially a controversial one
  110. theodicy
    the branch of theology that defends God's goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil
  111. thrall
    the state of being under the control of another person
  112. vacuity
    the absence of matter
  113. vagary
    an unexpected and inexplicable change in something (in a situation or a person's behavior, etc.)
  114. veldt
    elevated open grassland in southern Africa
  115. vet
    a doctor who practices veterinary medicine
  116. vicissitude
    a variation in circumstances or fortune at different times in your life or in the development of something
  117. vivisection
    the act of operating on living animals (especially in scientific research)
  118. winnow
    the act of separating grain from chaff