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TOEFL Word List # TOEFL/W23

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Description of dilemma (noun)
difficult situation; difficult decision

Samples of dilemma
The observational data show that Easton's neighborhood police have two recipes for resolving this dilemma and its associated conundrum.



   
Description of misnomer (noun)
name or term that describes wrongly

Samples of misnomer
Parents' evenings are a bit of a misnomer, in some schools these traditional semi-formal meetings are staggered throughout the day to give shift workers opportunity to attend.



   
Description of alacrity (noun)
eager readiness; speed

Samples of alacrity
The manager was so impressed by the worker's alacrity; he suggested a promotion.
On the first day of her new job, the recent college graduate was able to leave early after completing all of her tasks with alacrity.



   
Description of bombast (noun)
pompous speech; pretentious words; trite cliches

Samples of bombast
After he delivered his bombast at the podium, he arrogantly left the meeting.
The presenter ended his bombast with a prediction of his future success.



   
Description of adversary (noun)
enemy; foe; opponent; rival

Samples of adversary
The peace treaty united two countries that were historically great adversaries.



   
Description of fealty (noun)
faithfulness; loyalty

Samples of fealty
The baron was given land in exchange for his fealty to the king.



   
Description of construe (noun)
to interpret; to explain the sense of; to analyze; to understand

Samples of construe
His refusal to construe a trust appears to rest solely on the fact that he deprecates interference of this kind in the rights of another.



   
Description of dispatch (noun)
sending off; shipment; message; communication; promptness

Samples of dispatch
On the last day of 1921 the Party Central Committee appointed Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the head of the Cheka and Commissar for Transport, to the commission for the dispatch of food supplies and grain seed from Siberia and the Ukraine.



   
Description of hyperbole (noun)
exaggeration; overstatement

Samples of hyperbole
The full moon was almost blinding in its brightness, he said with a measure of hyperbole.



   
Description of archetype (noun)
original pattern or model

Samples of archetype
This man was the archetype for scores of fictional characters.
The scientist was careful with the archetype of her invention so that once manufacturing began, it would be easy to reproduce it.



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