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TOEFL Word List # TOEFL/W59

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Description of dilettante (noun)
admirer of the fine arts; dabbler; amateur; nonprofessional

Samples of dilettante
Though she played the piano occasionally, she was more of a dilettante.



   
Description of denunciation (noun)
denouncement; condemnation

Samples of denunciation
The internal politics of Surrealism were complicated by rivalries and ideological disputes; in the case of Andre Breton's association with Dali, his earlier support gave way to a denunciation of the artist, who was expelled from the group.

Determination of denunciation
Dictionary.com · Cambridge Dictionaries · Merriam-Webster · Onelook.com


   
Description of obdurate (adjective)
stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing; stiff-necked

Samples of obdurate
The obdurate child refused to go to school.
The obdurate youngster refused to eat the Brussels sprouts.



   
Description of animus (noun)
feeling of hatred; resentment; animosity; hostility

Samples of animus
Because the nation is seen as only partially liberated, and particularly by the membership of the largest party Fianna Fail, the animus of the national-popular consciousness is focused on this issue, to the detriment of class-based politics.
From a different position, independently arrived at and much less troubling, the animus was to be shared lifelong by Robert Graves.



   
Description of ephemeral (adjective)
very short-lived; lasting only a short time; transitory

Samples of ephemeral
Living alone gave him an ephemeral happiness, soon to be replaced with utter loneliness.



   
Description of jargon (noun)
incoherent speech; specialized vocabulary in certain fields

Samples of jargon
The conversation was nothing but jargon, but then the speakers were nothing but cartoon characters who specialize in an oddly bracing form of gibberish.
The engineers' jargon is indecipherable to a lay person.



   
Description of invective (noun)
insult; curse; affront; offense

Samples of invective
Take one opposition spokesman, simmer for an hour in a heavy sauce of sarcasm, season with scornful adjectives, throw in liberal amounts of contempt, add several pinches of disdain, and spice with invective.



   
Description of divulge (verb)
to make public; to reveal; to tell; to disclose

Samples of divulge
Our manager replied that it was not company policy to divulge personal details of employees and that if she wanted to take it further, she should write in.



   
Description of nostalgia (noun)
homesickness; sentimentality

Samples of nostalgia
By the time the studio came to make The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953), about a village's attempt to preserve their branch line against nasty entrepreneurs who have set up a bus service, gentle anarchy has given way to nostalgia for Olde England.



   
Description of ostracize (verb)
to banish; to exclude

Samples of ostracize
The students tend to ostracize the children they dislike from their games.



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