Essential Twelfth Grade Vocabulary: List 4

Learn these challenging words that you'll encounter in literature, articles, and textbooks.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. hackneyed
    repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
    The plot, they wrote, was hackneyed and formulaic. New York Times (Mar 31, 2021)
  2. obsequious
    attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery
    Sitting across a desk from the famous and powerful, he was friendly but not fawning, interested but never obsequious. Los Angeles Times (Jan 23, 2021)
  3. perfunctory
    hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
    Nathan’s post is perfunctory, as if it’s been summarized from his earlier statements. Every Day
  4. prevaricate
    be deliberately ambiguous or unclear
    Politicians lie, pivot away from questions they don't want to answer and prevaricate. Salon (Oct 27, 2020)
  5. sagacity
    the trait of having wisdom and good judgment
    For all his sagacity, for all his caution and astuteness, the old judge had gone the way of the rest. And Then There Were None
  6. sordid
    morally degraded
    Both men prefer the sordid, disagreeable, even the vilest aspects of life. Huneker, James
  7. strident
    being sharply insistent on being heard
    He was interrupted, many times, by strident protesters. Washington Post (Jan 10, 2017)
  8. supercilious
    having or showing arrogant superiority
    I never shall forget the supercilious manner in which the Countess took out her eye-glass and looked me over as I passed her one day in the park. Fay, Amy
  9. torpor
    inactivity resulting from lethargy and lack of energy
    Week by week, as the cycles wore on, I found myself sinking helplessly into a torpor of inertia. The Guardian (Jun 3, 2016)
  10. vestige
    an indication that something has been present
    I’m no archaeologist, but these vestiges of an empire nine centuries gone were beautiful and intriguing. Washington Post (Apr 23, 2015)
Created on Fri May 30 11:26:12 EDT 2025 (updated Fri May 30 11:26:31 EDT 2025)

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