GRE Prep: Extreme words teaser (Part 2)

As part of our fun series on extreme words, this post will give you 12 difficult, obscure words to be matched to 12 sentences. At the end of the post, you will see the answers together with the definitions of the words.

Have fun!

Extreme words

Mansuetude      Transpicuous      Hebetude       Paladin       Raiment      Glabrous     Cachinnate     Depredate        Supposititious     Anathematize   Belaud      Lanuginous

Sentences

1. While it is important that an academic work is clear and concise, a literary work that is too _________________ might end up being banal and simplistic.
2. Samuel Beckett, like Harold Pinter and Luigi Pirandello, is generally regarded as a _______________ of modernist theatre characterized by minimal plot development and absurd patterns. 
3. It may be unavoidable to snigger at the speaker’s foolishness, but to ______________ bears on being rude.
4. The observant judge realized that the presented evidence was _________________ and hardly genuine in nature.
5. The elegant workmanship of that tailor comes through in the exquisite _______________ that he produces for the town’s wealthiest crowd.
6. Black bears are increasingly subjected to lethal control measures as they tend to _______________ crops and livestock.
7. Major newspapers did not hesitate to ________________ the famed director, who had recently been proven guilty of sexual misconduct.
8. The ___________________ leaves that seem to be covered in fine fur become smooth and shiny once the plant matures.
9. Research shows that ____________ areas of our body, such as the soles of our feet, are especially vital in heat regulation due to their lack of hair.
10. The beauty and ___________________ of the gentle, rolling hills made the visitors feel immediately peaceful and at ease.
11. The over-enthusiastic parents ________________ the young boy for finishing a race that was clearly within his capabilities.
12. Parents often end up feeling clueless and helpless when faced with millennial teenagers who stay in bed all weekend, falling into a state of perennial _____________ with their mobile devices.

Answers and definitions:

1. Transpicuous [from Latin transpicere, meaning “to look through”; trans-, meaning “through,” and specere, meaning “to look” or “to see”]: clearly seen through or understood
2. Paladin [from Latin palatium, meaning “imperial” or “imperial official”]: leading champion of a cause
3. Cachinnate [from Latin cachinnare, “to laugh loudly,” (cachinnare was probably coined in imitation of a loud laugh)]: to laugh loudly or immoderately
4. Supposititious [from Latin supposititius, from suppositus, past participle of supponere, “put or place under; to subordinate, make subject”]: fraudulently substituted; spurious
5. Raiment [from Middle English, arrayment, from arrayen (“to array”)]: clothing, garments
6. Depredate [from Latin depredatus, past participle of depraedare “to pillage, ravage”]: to plunder, ravage
7. Anathematize [from French anathématiser, from Late Latin anathematizare, from Ecclesiastical Greek anathematizein “to devote (to evil); excommunicate”]: to curse, denounce
8. Lanuginous [from Latin lanuginosus, lanugo, Latin for “down”; lanugo is also an English word used especially to refer to the soft woolly hair that covers the fetus of some mammals]: covered with down or fine soft hair
9. Glabrous [from Latin glaber, “bald”]: extremely smooth, hairless
10. Mansuetude [from Latin mansuetudo “tameness, mildness, gentleness,” noun of state from past participle stem of mansuescere “to tame,” literally “to accustom to the hand”]: the quality or state of being gentle; meekness, tameness
11. Belaud [from Latin laudare, laud-, meaning “praise”,
    be-
     meaning “to a greater degree” and “excessively or ostentatiously”]: to praise to excess
12. Hebetude [from Latin hebetudo, noun of quality from hebes “blunt, dull,” figuratively “sluggish; stupid”]: lethargy, dullness

If you enjoyed this post, how about checking out some commonly confused words?