List 7

VIRTUOSO (n) a highly skilled performer.

TEMERITY (n) unwise boldness; rash or reckless behavior.

VOLITION (n) use of your own will by your choice.

TORPOR (n) sluggishness, lethargy; inability to think or act quickly. TORPID (adjective form).

QUANDARY (n) a feeling of puzzlement or doubt.

TREPIDATION (n) fear, worry, apprehension.

ZENITH (n) the highest point or acme; point of culmination.

RETICENCE (n) quietness and restraint in personality. RETICENT (adjective form) silent, restrained, reserved.

RESPITE (n) time of relie from activity; rest, pause, lull.

PARSIMONY (n) extreme stinginess; thrift; pennypinching. PARSIMONIOUS (adjective form).

NOSTALGIA (n) a sentimental longing for a past time or state. NOSTALGIC (adjective form).

PREDECESSOR (n) an ancestor; prior person in a position.

List 6

1. GARNER (v) to gather or collect; accumulate; earn.

2. MAR (v) to spoil or damage; to injure or blemish

3. HEED (v) to listen to, pay attention to, consider; to mind.

4. MEANDER (v) to wander casually with no set plan; to ramble.

5. NULLIFY (v) to render unimportant or without worth; to negate or invalidate; to annul legally

6. OBLITERATE (v) to erase completely, wiping out all traces.

7. MITIGATE (v) to ease, making less severe; to alleviate or relieve.

8. OBSCURE (v) to make dim or unclear; to conceal, hide.

9. PERUSE (v) to study or examine carefully. -- PERUSAL (noun form).

10. RAZE (v) to tear down completely, to demolish.

11. PLACATE (v) to calm, soothe, or appease, especially by offerning to "be nice" or to do someone a favor.

12. REBUFF (v) to criticize harshly or to reject someone, often by snubbing them (ignoring them).

List 5

ARROGANT (adj) proud, overbearing, snootily self-important

DISDAIN (n) scorn; snooty disapproval or dislike; contempt. (v) to disdain. (adj) disdainful

FASTIDIOUS (adj) extremely fussy and particular; meticulous

HAUGHTY (adj) openly and disdainfully proud; snooty. (n) hauteur, haughtiness

DISPARAGE (v) to belittle or downgrade (someone or something); to decry, depreciate, minimuze

DEPRECATE (v) to disappove mildly, with regret. (adj) deprecatory, hoping to avoid disapproval

CONDESCEND (v) to come down in level, unbend, stoop

SUPERCILIOUS (adj) excessively proud; disdainfully superior

CONTEMPT (n) total lack of respect; disdain; scorn

PERTENTIOUS (adj) showy, self-important, pompous, insisting on recognition, often unjustifiably

SCOFF (v) to make fun of, mock; to belittle by jeering or contemptuous talk

COMPLACENT (adj) self-satisfied, smug