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| -----one who argues in support of something; an advocate; a champion of a cause-----Our nation has always produced leaders who were strong proponents of reform. |
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| -----a person with great talent; a young genius-----LeBron James is an athletic prodigy who started out as a gifted high school basketball player and quickly became an NBA superstar. |
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| -----a person considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinions-----Warren Buffet is the world's most successful stock market investor, leading many to consider him an oracle. |
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| -----a person who hates or distrusts humankind-----Ebenezer Scrooge is a cold-hearted, miserly misanthrope who despises poor people and Christmas. |
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| -----a person who introduces something new-----Michael Jackson was an extraordinarily talented entertainer and musical innovator who became a global superstar, setting the standard for how a song could be presented. |
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| -----a person who seeks favor by flattering people of influence; a toady; someone who behaves in an obsequious or servile manner-----Life at the royal palace transformed haughty aristocrats into favorseeking sycophants. |
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| -----a person who is seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by joy, grief, pleasure, or pain; someone who is impassive and emotionless-----The guards at Buckingham Palace are famous for their ability to stoically endure hot summer weather and hordes of pe |
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| -----a morally unprincipled person-----Bernie Madoff is described as a reprobate because of the enormity of a fraud taht Judge Chin called "extraordinary evil." |
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| -----a disloyal person who betrays his or her cause; a traitor; a deserter-----Benedict Arnold was vilified as a renegade whose name became synonymous with traitor. |
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| -----characterized by very strict laws, rules, and punishments-----The Treaty of Versailles imposed a number of draconian measures against Germany. |
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| -----very brief; concise; succinct; terse-----Spartans were renowned for being laconic or very concise. |
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| -----plain; simple; austere-----Recruits at the Marine training center at Paris Island must live in spartan barracks and pass a demanding twelve-week training schedule. |
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| -----idyllically calm and peaceful; an untroubled golden time of happiness and tranquility-----Allie and Noah became instantly smitten with each other and spend many halcyon days together. |
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| -----a plausible but deliberately misleading or fallacious argument designed to deceive someone-----Otter resorted to sophistry in a clever attempt to save the Deltas, misleading them. |
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| -----given to fantastic schemes; existing only as a product of an unchecked imagination-----Fad diets, vitamin supplements, and exercise routines all offer claims that have often proved to be chimerical. |
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| -----to deliberately exclude from a group-----Angry French citizens ostracized people who had collaborated with the Nazis. |
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| -----poor; penniless; not affluent-----In the movie "Titanic" Rose fell in love with a handsome but impecunious young artist. |
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| -----extremely wicked; villainous; vile-----The Joker, Voldemort, and Darth Vader are all nefarious villains. |
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| -----good-humored; cheerful; jocular-----Santa Claus is often referred to as "jovial old St. Nicholas." |
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| -----a funeral hymn; a slow mournful musical composition-----As the Titanic slowly sank, its musicians played the dirge "Nearer, My God, To Thee" to comfort the desperate souls on the ship. |
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| -----tearful; excessively sentimental-----Moaning Myrtle lives up to her name by crying incessantly and thus being maudlin. |
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| -----foolishly impractical in the pursuit of ideals; impractical idealism-----Don Quixote is originally motivated by chivalric ideals to undo the wrongs of the world, but returns a disillusioned old man. He is a classic example of a quixotic person. |
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| -----a wild uproar; tumult-----When the Trade Towers collapsed on 9/11 the residents of New York City experienced pandemonium. |
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| -----a strict disciplinarian; a person who demands absolute adherence to forms and rules-----Dolores Umbridge was a martinet who tried to impose rigid standards of discipline of the students and faculty at Hogwarts. |
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| -----a complete failure; a debacle-----Many observers believe that the government's initial slow response to Hurricane Katrina transformed the natural disaster into a human-made fiasco. |
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