| Argument: An oral disagreement |
| They were deeply involved in an argument about inflation. |
| Arrogance: Pride |
| Undue arrogance in his abilities and knowledge led to Ravana’s fall from grace. |
| Artless: Without guile, open and honest |
| The artless villager was taken in by the city-bred salesman’s smooth talk and agreed to put his money in the venture without asking a question. |
| Banish: To expel from |
| He was banished to another country as whatever he had done didn’t confine to the law. |
| Charisma: Charm |
| The superstar's charisma was irresistible; even the elderly ladies found him attractive. |
| Confiscate: Seize |
| The army has seized substantial quantities of arms and ammunition, apart from objectionable literature from the arrested terrorists. |
| Deadlock: Stalemate, point where no progress is possible |
| The talks between the NSCN and the government have reached a deadlock due to the uncompromising stand taken by both the parties. |
| Decent: Proper and kind |
| There is such wretched poverty in some places that people are not able to give even a decent cremation to their dead. |
| Basal: Basic |
| If you really want to assess the effectiveness of the course, you must know your basal performance before joining it and then compare it with your performance, say, six months later. |
| Bask: To enjoy a happy or very comfortable situation |
| He went on basking in the glory of his first book. |
| Congruent: In agreement |
| His views and mine on most issues are hardly congruent; we always have some differences. |
| Debacle: A rout |
| The cricketing debacle, instead of dampening our spirits, should make us sit up and analyze what went wrong with us. |
| Figurative: Not literal |
| When the WHO says that India is sitting on a virtual population bomb, it does not mean that India will be blown up by this; the statement needs to be seen figuratively. |
| Honorarium: A payment |
| The NGO being a non-profit organization, could not afford to give him a decent salary; what all they could give him was a small honorarium in recognition of his services. |
| Nascent: Being born |
| The nascent democracy is yet to witness it’s first-ever assembly elections, only then will we come to know if the experiment will succeed. |
| Ornate: Heavily decorated |
| The ornate chariot, complete with a golden canopy, buntings and very expensive frills indicated that lots of money had gone into readying it for the CM's journey. |
| Perceive: Recognize |
| To us, ice is just ice, but to the Eskimos, it is much more and consequently, they can perceive differences among different types of ice, which we cannot; obviously, it requires a lot of practice. |
| Plummet: To plunge or drop straight down |
| The demand for the paging service has plummeted so much in view of the cell phones, which provide better service at almost the same price, that many paging companies are now on the brink of virtual closure. |
| Prune: to reduce by moving superfluous matter |
| Since the hedges have grown a lot, the gardener will now prune them, making them look more orderly and beautiful. |
| Salient: Prominent |
| He only mentioned the salient benefits of the scheme without getting into too much details. |
| Sanctify: To make holy |
| Just a visit by such a holy and revered person should be enough to sanctify this place, corrupted by the wrongdoings of these mischievous people. |
| Sanctimony: Hypocrisy |
| Politicians the world over are fond of being sanctimonious in public pronouncements: doing A and saying B. |
| Articulate: To speak distinctly and carefully |
| The speaker articulated very clearly the difficulties being faced by the villagers in respect of the availability of drinking water. |
| Condone: To pardon or overlook voluntarily, to treat as if trivial |
| The Principal can, at his discretion, condone the shortage of attendance, if he is convinced that the student could not attend those classes because of some unavoidable circumstances. |
| Confound: Confuse, puzzle |
| Remembering so much data was a big problem for him, getting new statistics will further confound him in the examination. |
| Conglomeration: A mixture of things |
| The gathering was an unlike conglomeration of philosophers, sociologists and historians. |
| Conjecture: A theory from incomplete evidence |
| Since he knew nothing of the question put by the teacher, he could only offer a conjecture as a reply. |
| Deadpan: Without emotion |
| It was very strange that he was breaking this emotionally surcharged news to us in a deadpan manner, as if it mattered little to him. |
| Dearth: Smallness of quantity or number, scarcity, paucity |
| There was no dearth of learned ladies who held important social and political positions in ancient India, the only regret being that they never gained as much prominence as they should have. |
| Debase: Cheapen |
| The women's organization dubbed as "debasing" the remark made by the minister calling the blunt-cut women as "sirkati". |
| Debilitate: To make weak |
| The month-long sickness had debilitated him considerably, making it quite difficult for him to walk. |
| Debonair: Genial |
| The hostess’ debonair manners, in sharp contrast to her husband’s almost rude disposition, served to make the guests completely at home. |
| Interject: Interrupt |
| The member would have gone on with his long speech but for the interjection in between by the speaker asking him to cut his speech short in view of the limited time available. |
| Jargon: Technical language |
| Since I do not understand medical jargon, please explain this thing to me in simple language. |
| Levitate: Float in air |
| Some people believe that mediation and magic will help them to levitate. |
| Mercurial: Characterized by rapid and unpredictable change in mood |
| Badlu’s mercurial behaviour is just like the weather of Mumbai, one minute it rains and five minutes later there is bright sunlight. |
| Mesmerize: To hypnotize |
| So mesmerized was she with Aamir Khan 's performance in the movie that she decided to go to Bombay to meet and congratulate him. |
| Penury: Extreme poverty, destitution |
| The extent of penury in Indian villages is obvious when you look at the recent poverty figures, which tell you that approximately 17.5% of them go to bed without meal. |
| Retribution: Deserved punishment |
| Sharminder Singh's ongoing campaign against Kavi Pidhu is believed to be an act of retribution for the vicious media attack launched by the latter against him when he was a reporter for The Bindu. |
| Salubrious: Promoting health or well-being |
| The salubrious climate of Dalhousie did much to boost his declining health. |
