Here are 195 words I either like, don't/didn't know, couldn't define or couldn't form into a novel sentence. I often find these while reading good books, write them down on my bookmark, then put them here.
abject
acceding
1. assent or agree to a demand, request, or treaty
2. assume an office or position
2. assume an office or position
acerbic
adroitness
cleverness or skill
aegis
aesthete
a person who has or affects to have a special appreciation of art and beauty
alacrity
archly
assignation
auspicious
balkanized
banns
1. notice of an intended marriage, given three times in the parish church of each of the betrothed.
2. any public announcement of a proposed marriage, either verbal or written and made in a church or by church officials.
2. any public announcement of a proposed marriage, either verbal or written and made in a church or by church officials.
bastinado
bathyscaphe
beasel
bellicose
demonstrating aggression and willingness to fight
besmirch
billeted
blocs
a combination of countries, parties, or groups sharing a common purpose
bombazine
a twill fabric constructed of a silk or rayon warp and worsted filling, often dyed black for mourning wear.
bordello
a brothel
bravura
great technical skill and brilliance shown in a performance or activity
brilliantined
brio
bumptious
byzantine
(of a system or situation) excessively complicated, typically involving a great deal of administrative detail
calculus
canard
canny
categorically
in a way that is unambiguously explicit and direct
catholic
•••
including a wide variety of things, all-embracing
“Perhaps to be expected given his frenetic pace and catholic range of interests, Mark Sykes had a very hard time keeping his facts, even his own beliefs, straight.”
catspaws
charabancs
a large bus used on sightseeing tours, especially one with open sides and no center aisle.
charnel
churlish
clemency
•••
mercy, lenience
“...Bliss saw in Djemal a man caught between an overwhelming vanity and a core kindness, “a character teeming with conflicting elements: cruelty and clemency, firmness and caprice, ideality [sic] and hedonism, self-seeking and patriotism.”
compunction
conciliation
confreres
contravention
coquettish
cottoned
•••
to begin to understand
to have a liking for
coup
curvet
a leap of a horse from a rearing position, in which it springs up with the hind legs outstretched as the forelegs descend.
defiles
dekko
a look or glance
demesne
possession of land as one's own
demurred
denouement
descry
desiderata
plural of desideratum, which is something that is needed or wanted
desultory
dint
1. an impression or hollow in a surface
2. a blow or stroke, typically one made with a weapon in fighting
2. a blow or stroke, typically one made with a weapon in fighting
disquisitions
dissemble
doggerel
dogsbody
dragoman
drivel
silly nonsense
dudgeon
a feeling of offense or resentment; anger
dudgeon
equanimity
ersatz
(of a product) made or used as a substitute, typically an inferior one, for something else
erstwhile
execrably
fait accompli
fatuous
feckless
fecund
•••
producing or capable of producing an abundance of offspring or new growth
fertile
fettle
•••
state; condition
I was in rare fettle, and the heart had touched a new high. I don't know anything that braces one up like finding you haven't got to get married after all.
foundered
fundament
fusillade
galling
gibe
an insulting or mocking remark, a taunt
glassine
gowans
any of various yellow or white field flowers, especially the English daisy.
guffin
hardscrabble
hauteur
haughty manner or spirit; arrogance.
hedonism
•••
the pursuit of pleasure
sensual self-indulgence
hegemony
heraldic
hewing
hidebound
unwilling or unable to change because of tradition or convention
histrionic
hubris
excessive pride or self-confidence
hustings
•••
...William Yale returned to New York City and hit the hustings.
idyll
implacable
imprimatur
1. an official license by the Roman Catholic Church to print an ecclesiastical or religious book
2. a person's acceptance or guarantee that something is of a good standard.
2. a person's acceptance or guarantee that something is of a good standard.
inexorably
insalubrious
inscrutable
intransigent
inveighed
irascibility
ken
languorous
lassitude
legation
liquescent
liveried
clad in livery, where livery is a special uniform worn by a servant or official
locus
lurid
megrims
1. low spirits; the blues
2. a whim or caprice
3. migraine
2. a whim or caprice
3. migraine
mellifluous
sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding; flowing with honey; sweetened with or as if with honey.
mendacious
mercurial
subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind
messuages
a dwelling house with its adjacent buildings and the lands appropriated to the use of the household.
morass
moribund
mulishness
mullioned
munificence
myopia
nearsightedness; lack of imagination, foresight, or intellectual insight
nettlesome
niggling
nonplussed
obduracy
the quality of being obdurate, which is stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course of action
obsequious
obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree
obstreperous
offal
parasang
an ancient Persian unit of distance, equal to about 3.5 miles (5.6 km).
parochial
1. relating to a church parish
2. having a limited or narrow outlook or scope
2. having a limited or narrow outlook or scope
passel
•••
a large group of people or things of indeterminate number
a pack
patina
perfidious
picayune
•••
petty, worthless
“...but that seemed rather picayune in view of this conflict's cost.”
pipterino
plebiscite
pogrom
an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group, in particular that of Jews in Russia or eastern Europe
politic
precipitous
presaged
prescient
priggishness
profligate
prolixity
prosaic
proscenium
province
•••
...as he informed Clayton, if some public declaration by Faisal was hoped for, that “is rather beyond my province.”
prurience
précis
puerile
childishly silly and trivial
puffery
punctilious
showing great attention to detail or correct behavior
pustulent
quixotic
•••
exceedingly idealistic
unrealistic and impractical
rangy
rapprochement
(especially in international relations) an establishment or resumption of harmonious relations
realpolitik
recalcitrant
restive
impatient of control, restraint, or delay; restless; uneasy; stubborn; refusing to go forward; balky
retinue
risible
riven
roustabout
an unskilled or casual laborer, a laborer on an oil rig, a dock laborer or deckhand.
rubes
sanguine
saraband
a slow, stately Spanish dance, especially of the 17th and 18th centuries, in triple meter, derived from a vigorous castanet dance.
scion
1. a young shoot or twig of a plant 2. a descendant of a notable family
scotched
screed
scrofulous
self-abnegation
sere
shoals
sinecure
a position requiring little or no work but giving the holder status or financial benefit
slake
slapdash
done too hurriedly and carelessly
soporific
sordid
squalid
squalidness
stinting
stricture
sub rosa
suzerainty
technocrat
An exponent, advocate or member of technocracy. Technocracy is a system of governance where decision-makers are selected on the basis of technological knowledge.
temerity
tendentious
thrall
titular
toady
•••
a person who behaves obsequiously to someone important
a brown noser
topee
trenchant
1. vigorous or incisive in expression or style
2. (of a weapon or tool) having a sharp edge
2. (of a weapon or tool) having a sharp edge
triumvirate
(in ancient Rome) a group of three men holding power
troika
truculent
unguents
unlimbered
vassal
venal
viragos