1. Contravene
● Go against the prohibition or order of a law, treaty, or code of conduct.
● Deny the truth of
Usage:
– He contravened the Official Secrets Act of brotherhood.
– Being asked your opinion only to be contravened is frustrating.
Synonyms: break, breach, fail to comply with, violate, infringe, offend against, and transgress against.
In many civil law countries a contravention is a non-criminal offense, similar to an infraction or civil penalty in common law countries.
2. Naysayers
A person who criticizes, objects to, or opposes something.
Usage: “It’s not too late to try a new career, but brace yourself for the ageist naysayers.”
3. Privy
Sharing in the knowledge of something secret.
Usage: He was privy to high-level corporate activity, and he sensed a general attitude of contempt toward the government.
Synonyms: aware of, acquainted with, informed of, advised of, and apprised of.
4. Dead in the water
Unable to function effectively.
Usage: The economy is dead in the water.
5. Consternation
A feeling of anxiety or dismay, typically at something unexpected.
Usage: To her consternation, her car wouldn’t start.
Synonyms: dismay, perturbation, anxiety, distress, disquiet, disquietude, discomposure, angst, trepidation
6. Laggard
A person who makes slow progress and falls behind others.
Usage: Let’s say the whole world finally wakes up to the idea that we night owls are more than laggards and sleepyheads.
Synonyms: straggler, loiterer, slug, snail, delayer, idler, loafer, lounger, shirker.
7. Extrapolation
Extend the application of a method or conclusion to an unknown situation by assuming that existing trends will continue or similar methods will be applicable.
Usage : “The estimate of 10 extra calories for an hour of standing was an extrapolation, he said, and the subways might require more energy.”
8. Awry
● Away from the usual or expected course.
Usage: Losing your backpack is a mistake, but when you realize it contained your ticket and your passport, your vacation plans really go awry.
● Out of the normal or correct position.
Usage: He was hatless, his silver hair awry.
9. Tenuous
Very weak, slight, very slender or fine
Usage: If you try to learn a complicated mathematical concept by cramming for 45 minutes, you will have a tenuous grasp of that concept, because cramming doesn’t help.
10. Guzzle
Eat or drink something greedily.
Usage: In parties, it’s common to see teens guzzle beer and drink from the red Solo cups.
Synonyms: gobble up, gulp, eat greedily, eat hungrily, gourmandize on
11. Parch
Make or become dry through intense heat.
Usage: A piece of grassland parched by the sun.
Synonyms: searing, scorching, blistering, flaming
12. Aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock, rock fractures or unconsolidated materials. Groundwater can be extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology.
Usage: Plastic waste and microplastics are found everywhere from whales’ stomachs to aquifers deep underground.
13. Assay
● An assay is an investigative procedure in laboratory medicine, pharmacology, environmental biology and molecular biology.
● Assay is for qualitatively assessing or quantitatively measuring the presence, amount, or functional activity of a target entity.
● Usage: “When you assay a situation, you look at all the elements that created the problem in order to come up with a solution.”
14. Occult
● The occult is “knowledge of the hidden” or “knowledge of the paranormal”, as opposed to facts and “knowledge of the measurable”, usually referred to as science
● Mystical, supernatural, or magical powers, practices, or phenomena.
Usage:
– “It is not illegal to practise witchcraft in Canada – either as part of a religion like Wicca or as an occult practice”
– She woke up with a spasm of panic, the muscles of her hand throbbing with an occult pain.
