Words worth keeping close.

aberration

A fact, an action or a way of behaving that is not typical, and that may be unacceptable.

ablation

The removal, destruction, or wearing away of material from a surface or object.

abomination

A thing, action, or person that causes a feeling of extreme hatred, disgust, or moral disapproval.

Often misspelled as abonimation.

absolve

Declare free from blame, guilt or responsibility.

abstinent

Practicing self-restraint and completely avoiding things that give pleasure or cause harm.

absurd

Not at all logical or sensible; ridiculous.

abysmal

Extremely bad, terrible, or of a very low standard.

adversity

Difficulties or problems.

affable

Pleasant, friendly, and easy to talk to.

affront

An open, intentional insult or an action that hurts someone's dignity or pride.

agonizing

Causing extreme physical or mental pain, distress, or prolonged anxiety.

altruism

Caring about other people's needs and happiness, often more than your own.

ambiguous

Open to more than one interpretation or having multiple possible meanings.

Often misspelled as ambigous.

ambush

A sudden, unexpected attack made by people who are hiding and waiting for an target to pass by.

analogous

Comparable or similar in certain ways, even if things belong to entirely different categories.

anarchist

Someone who believes society should function without a centralized state or coercive government.

annihilate

To destroy or defeat somebody/something completely.

anthropomorphise

To attribute human form, emotions, behaviors, or personality to non-human entities, such as animals, gods, objects, or natural phenomena.

archaic

Ancient or outdated.

assertive

Expressing your opinion clearly and firmly so that people listen to you or do what you want.

audacity

Willingness to take bold risks.

bamboozle

To cheat, trick, or fool someone.

batty

Slightly crazy, silly, or eccentric.

belligerent

Hostile, aggressive, and ready to fight or argue.

benevolent

Kind, friendly and helpful to others.

Billeted

To be provided with temporary lodging or housing.

blanket statement

A broad claim that applies a single idea, rule, or judgment to every person, object, or situation in a group.

botch

To do something badly; to make a mess of something.

bounded

Having clear limits, boundaries, or restrictions.

brevity

The quality of being concise and using fewer words.

budge

To move slightly from a fixed position, usually with effort and usually in the negative.

The 'short and plump' sense belongs to pudgy, listed separately.

bygones

Things from the past that are now over.

calcify

To harden or become inflexible by the deposit of calcium salts.

candid

Saying exactly what you think.

candor

Straightforward honesty or frankness in speech or expression.

carcass

The dead body of an animal, or the inner structural framework and remaining shell of an old object, building, or vehicle.

chuffed

Very pleased, happy, or delighted about something.

chump

A fool, a gullible person.

churlish

Rude, surly, bad-tempered, and ungracious.

clairvoyant

A person who some people believe has special mental powers and can see what will happen in the future.

clamour

To demand something in a loud or angry way.

clobber

To hit somebody hard.

cogitate

To think deeply, ponder, or meditate on a subject.

compelled

To be strongly driven or forced to take an action.

compersion

Feeling joy when witnessing or hearing about a loved one's happiness.

competent

Having the ability or skill needed for something.

conciliatory

Behavior, a tone, or a gesture intended to soothe anger, end a disagreement, or win over someone who is upset.

confide

To tell a secret or personal thing to a person you trust, hoping they will keep it safe.

conformal

Preserving angles but not distances, so a shape survives rescaling even though its size does not.

conjecture

To guess about something without real proof or evidence.

conjure

To do tricks by clever, quick hand movements, that appear to be magic.

connive

To work secretly with somebody to do something that is wrong; to do nothing to stop somebody doing something wrong.

conscientiousness

The quality of being disciplined, careful, reliable, and responsible.

conspicuous

Easily seen or noticed.

contempt

The feeling that someone or something deserves no respect or has no value.

contrary

A fact or condition incompatible with another.

copacetic

Old-fashioned, informal American slang term that means fine, completely satisfactory, or all in order.

coriolis

An apparent curving path of objects, winds, and ocean currents caused by the rotation of the Earth.

cosmological constant

A constant energy density belonging to space itself, the simplest candidate for whatever is accelerating the universe's expansion.

coven

A local group or gathering of witches or modern practitioners of Wicca who meet to practice magic, perform rituals, or worship.

covet

To want to have something very much.

craven

Lacking the smallest bit of courage, or behaving in a way that is cowardly, fearful, or spineless.

culpable

Responsible for something bad that has happened.

deceive

To try to make somebody believe something that is not true.

deduce

To reach a conclusion by using logic and reasoning based on available facts, clues, or evidence.

defy

To refuse to obey somebody/something.

demise

The death of a person or the end and failure of a business, institution, or idea.

Derogatory

Showing disrespect, strong disapproval, or a low opinion of someone or something.

despondent

Without hope; deeply discouraged.

Often misspelled as despondant.

detrimental

Harmful, damaging, or causing a negative impact.

dilemma

A hard choice between two or more options.

dissension

Strong disagreement.

dissent

The public or formal expression of disagreement with an official decision, prevailing belief, or majority opinion.

divination

The ancient practice of trying to figure out hidden knowledge, missing facts, or future events by using special tools, signs, or rituals rather than normal logic.

doctrine

A set of core beliefs or principles that guide how someone thinks or acts.

dote

To show a lot of love for someone or something and think they are perfect.

dowager

A widow who holds a title or property (a "dower") inherited from her deceased husband.

droning

Speaking in a boring, tedious, or monotonous manner, often for a long time.

dulcet

Sweet, soothing, or pleasant to the ear.

egalitarian

All humans are equal in fundamental worth or moral status.

egregious

Outstandingly bad, shocking, or obvious.

Often misspelled as egrigious.

elusive

Not easy to catch, find or remember.

emanate

To come out from a source, or to send out and give off something like light, sound, heat, or a feeling.

emancipation

Setting someone free from the control, power, or legal authority of another person or system.

enamored

Being deeply in love, charmed, or fascinated by someone or something.

enchant

To cast a magic spell on someone or something, or to strongly attract, charm, and delight someone with great beauty or character.

endeavour

To try very hard to do something, or a serious, purposeful project.

endemic

A disease or plant and animal species that is regularly found, native, and constantly present at a steady baseline level in a specific place, region, or group of people.

entangled

Two quantum systems sharing a single description, so what you learn about one fixes what can be known about the other.

enthuse

To express intense excitement, interest, or passion about something.

entropy

A measure of how many ways a system's parts could be rearranged without changing how it looks from outside.

eon

An extremely long period of time, on the scale of hundreds of millions to billions of years.

epilogue

A short piece that is added at the end of a book, play, etc. and that comments on what has gone before.

equanimity

A calm state of mind, especially in difficult situations.

evoke

To produce a memory, feeling, etc. in somebody.

fanatic

A person who shows extreme, unreasonable enthusiasm or intense devotion to a specific cause, hobby, or belief.

fearsome

Very frightening, causing fear, or inspiring deep awe.

feeble

Very weak, lacking physical strength, or failing to show enough force, energy, or effectiveness.

feisty

Full of energy, courage, and determination.

fib

Something you say that is not true.

finesse

Extreme skill, delicacy, or subtle cleverness in handling a situation or performing a task.

flabbergasted

Greatly surprised or astonished.

Flagship species

Charismatic species used to promote conservation (e.g., tiger, panda), but not necessarily ecologically indispensable.

flustered

To feel agitated, confused, or thrown off balance.

forage

To search for food.

fret

To be worried and unhappy about something.

fugitive

A person who is running away or escaping.

futile

Useless, pointless, or unable to produce any useful result.

gelded

The castration of a male animal, typically a horse, donkey, or mule.

gestate

To carry a baby in the body (womb) before birth.

gospel

Good news.

harbinger

A sign that shows that something is going to happen soon, often something bad.

harmony

A state of agreement or of peaceful existence together.

havoc

Widespread destruction, great confusion, or disorder.

heed

To pay attention to or take notice of something.

holistic

Considered as a whole thing rather than a collection of parts.

hooligan

A person who behaves in a violent and aggressive way in public places.

humiliating

Causing someone to feel very ashamed, foolish, or stripped of their self-respect and dignity.

imbecile

A rude way to refer to somebody who you think is very stupid.

immediacy

The quality of being available or seeming to happen close to you and without delay.

Impalement

Act of piercing or puncturing a body or object with a sharp, long tool like a stake, pole, or spike.

implicit egotism

The unconscious tendency to favor things connected to yourself.

impudence

Being rude and showing a lack of respect.

incantation

Special words that have a magic effect when spoken, sung or chanted; the act of speaking, singing or chanting these words.

incinerate

To burn something completely until it is reduced to ashes.

insolent

Lacking respect; rude.

integrity

The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.

Invasive species

Non-native species that spread and harm native ecosystems.

irreverence

A lack of respect for things that people normally take seriously, holy rules, or strict authority.

jingoistic

Extremely patriotic in an aggressive, my-country-is-always-right way, often with hostility toward other countries.

keystone

The central top stone of an arch, or the most important part of a plan or idea.

kleptomania

A rare mental health condition where a person cannot resist the urge to steal items they do not need and can usually afford.

Landauer's principle

The floor on how little energy a computation can cost, set by temperature, so colder hardware gets more computing out of the same energy.

latency

The delay between asking for something and the first part of the answer arriving.

lingua franca

A shared language used for communication by people who speak different native languages.

loiter

To stand or walk around somewhere for no obvious reason.

lucid

Clear and easy to understand.

malice

A wish or intention to hurt other people.

malignant

Something highly harmful, dangerous, or likely to cause deterioration.

mantel

The shelf or decorative framework that sits directly above a fireplace opening.

megaparsec

About 3.26 million light years, the unit astronomers reach for when measuring the gaps between galaxies.

memento mori

Remember that you must die.

Latin, not Spanish; often misspelled as Memonto Mori.

metastable

Stable enough to sit still for a very long time, but not in the lowest energy state available, so it can still fall further.

misandrist

A person who holds a deep-seated hatred, prejudice, or mistrust against men or boys.

miscreant

Person who acts badly, breaks rules, or commits unlawful acts.

mitigate

To make something, such as a problem, symptom, or punishment, less harsh or severe.

mobius

(mobius edge) a geometric shape with only one surface and one edge.

moxie

Force of character, determination, nerve, or skill.

mumbles

Speaking softly and unclearly.

mutiny

When a group of people working under a leader, most often soldiers or sailors, refuse to obey orders and try to take control away from that leader.

MYA

Million years ago.

myopic

Near-sighted; also used for thinking that is narrow or short-term.

nary

Not one; not any.

necromancy

The practice of claiming to communicate by magic with the dead to learn about the future.

neurotic

Behaving in an anxious or unreasonable way because of worry.

nexus

A complicated series of connections between different people or things.

nocturnal

Awake and active at night and asleep during the day.

nominalisation

A verb or adjective turned into a noun, so 'verify' becomes 'verification'.

non-trivial

Important, meaningful, or not simple enough to dismiss.

noxious

Harmful or poisonous.

nucleate

To form the first small seed of a new phase, which then grows outward into the old one.

oblivion

The state of being completely forgotten, or the state of being unconscious and unaware.

oblivious

Not aware of something.

obnoxious

Extremely unpleasant, especially in a way that offends people.

occluded

To be blocked, obstructed, or shut off from passage or view.

Optimist

A person who tends to be hopeful, confident, and positive about the future and expected outcomes.

ornitho-

Birds.

A prefix rather than a standalone word.

orthogonal

Unrelated, independent.

outcast

A person who is no longer accepted by society or by a group of people.

panacea

Something that will cure all diseases or solve all problems and difficulties; a universal remedy.

passive aggressive

A pattern of expressing negative feelings, such as anger or resentment, indirectly rather than addressing them openly.

perennial

That happens often or that lasts for a long time.

peril

Great danger.

Pessimist

A person who habitually expects the worst outcome, focuses on the negative aspects of a situation.

Petulant

Someone who is unreasonably angry, sulky, or ill-tempered, especially in a childish or petty way.

pique

To excite, stimulate, or arouse.

planchette

A small, heart-shaped or triangular wooden or plastic board used in spiritualism and occult games.

plummeting

To fall or drop straight down at a very high speed, or to decrease rapidly in value, amount, or intensity.

poka-yoke

Designing a system so errors are impossible, or immediately detected and stopped before causing defects.

Usually written poka-yoke.

posse

A group of people, often friends or a close-knit circle, sharing a common purpose or interest.

pragmatic

Practical and realistic in approach to problem solving.

precipice

A very steep side of a high mountain or cliff.

prestidigitator

A skilled magician or illusionist who performs magic tricks using fast hand movements.

pristine

Completely clean, fresh, or in its original, untouched condition.

privy

Having access to confidential or secret information.

profane

To treat sacred, holy, or religious things with disrespect, or simply to be non-religious and worldly.

profusion

A very large quantity or an abundant supply of something.

prolific

Producing a large amount of work, often at high frequency.

provenance

Where a piece of information came from, and the chain of steps that produced it.

psephology

Quantitative analysis of elections and voting.

pudgy

Short and plump, or slightly fat.

pyrrhic

Victory won at too high a cost, making the win feel like a defeat.

quaint

Attractively unusual or old-fashioned.

quantization

Storing a model's numbers at lower precision to shrink it and speed it up, at some cost to accuracy.

quantum tunneling

A particle crossing a barrier it has no business crossing, which quantum mechanics permits with some small probability.

quarrel

An angry argument or disagreement.

querent

A person who asks a question or seeks advice.

quip

A funny, clever remark.

ratify

To make an agreement officially acceptable by voting for or signing it.

Realist

A person who accepts and deals with things as they actually are, rather than relying on idealized or hopeful wishes.

recant

To publicly take back something you said or believed.

reconciliation

The process of making two different things agree or match.

redshift

The stretching of light towards the red end of the spectrum as its source moves away, which is how distance and expansion get measured.

regal

Majestic, kingly, or queenly.

regurgitate

To repeat something without analyzing or understanding it.

reminiscence

The act of remembering, talking, or writing about pleasant experiences and events from the past.

renegade

A person who leaves one group, religion, political party, or set of beliefs to join an opposing side, or someone who rebels against rules and authority.

resurgence

Return or a new growth of an activity, interest, or success after a period of time when it was gone, forgotten, or quiet.

rife

Very common, widespread, or abundant, usually describing negative or unpleasant things.

rogue

Behaving differently from other similar people or things, often causing damage.

rumination

The habit of repeatedly going over the same negative thoughts, mistakes, or past events in your mind without finding a solution.

Runes

Ancient alphabets used by Germanic and Nordic peoples from around the 2nd to 13th centuries.

salvo

A simultaneous or rapid discharge of multiple weapons, artillery pieces, or the release of a group of bombs.

sanguine

Cheerful, hopeful, and confident about the future.

sedation

Use of medicine to help a person feel calm, relaxed, and drowsy during medical tests or treatments.

sentient

Having the ability to use your senses to see and to feel.

serendipity

Finding pleasant, valuable, or interesting things by chance and luck.

shagging

Having sexual intercourse.

sigil

A carved or written symbol that represents magic, identity, or computer data.

sigma

How far a result sits from what chance alone would produce. Physicists call five sigma a discovery.

slink

To move somewhere slowly and quietly because you do not want anyone to see you, often when you feel guilty or embarrassed.

sloppiness

Lack of care, order, or discipline; excessive casualness.

smirk

A smile that expresses satisfaction or pleasure about having done something or knowing something that is not known by someone else.

Spelled smirk. Murk is a different word, meaning darkness or gloom.

snapped

To break suddenly with a sharp cracking sound, lose emotional control, or take a quick photograph.

snide

Critical in an unpleasant way.

snoop

To look around secretly and without permission in order to find out information, etc.

snuggle

To get into a position that makes you feel safe, warm and comfortable, usually next to another person.

Sodomy

Legal and religious term that generally refers to anal or oral sex, or sexual acts with animals.

solace

A person or thing that makes you feel better or happier when you are sad or disappointed.

solitary

Being alone, doing something by yourself, or being the only one of its kind.

sordid

Unpleasant, dishonest, or morally low.

spew

To flow, pour, or force out quickly.

splendid

Very good; excellent.

spout

To say something, using a lot of words, in a way that is boring or annoying.

stave off

To delay, block, or prevent something bad or dangerous from happening.

stiff

Hard to bend, painful to move, or very formal.

stifle

To stop something happening, developing or continuing.

stooge

A person who helps a main comedian by acting silly, does secret or dirty work for a boss, or acts as an obedient helper.

stranded

Being stuck in a place with no way to leave or get help.

stray

To go away from the place where you should be.

suburb

An area where people live that is outside the central part of a town or city.

supplant

To take the place of someone or something else, often by force, cleverness, or because the new option is better.

swoon

To feel very excited, emotional, etc. about somebody that you think is attractive so that you almost lose consciousness.

tardy

Arriving, happening, or being done after the expected, scheduled, or proper time.

taunt

To try to make somebody angry or upset by saying unpleasant or cruel things.

temperate

Not very hot and not very cold (climate).

tenable

An argument, opinion, or theory that is reasonable, logical, and capable of being successfully defended against criticism.

throughput

How much work a system gets through in a given time, as opposed to how fast any single request feels.

thwart

To stop or prevent something from happening, especially a plan.

tiff

A slight argument between friends or lovers.

tinker

To try to repair or improve something, often without the proper skill or knowledge.

tokenization

Splitting text into the chunks a language model actually reads, which are usually smaller than words.

transience

The state or quality of lasting for only a short time.

transmutation

The process of changing one chemical element or form into another by altering the number of protons in an atomic nucleus.

tremble

To shake, for example because you are cold, frightened, etc.

trepidation

A feeling of fear, anxiety, or nervous hesitation about something that is about to happen.

trite

Boring or dull because it has been used or expressed too many times; not original.

truculent

Aggressive, defiant, and quick to argue.

tubi daor

Not today.

High Valyrian phrase.

turmoil

A state of great noise or confusion.

uncouth

Lacking good manners, refinement, or grace.

unfalsifiable

Framed so that no possible observation could ever show it to be wrong.

usher

To take or show somebody where to go.

usurp

To take control, power, or a position away from someone else by force, without any legal right, and without asking for permission.

utopia

A place or state that exists only in the imagination, where everything is perfect.

vague

Not clear or definite.

valiant

Full of courage and not afraid.

veer

To change direction suddenly.

vengeance

The act of punishing or harming somebody in return for something bad they have done to you, your friends or family.

ventriloquist

An entertainer who creates the illusion of speaking without moving their lips.

verbatim

Exactly as it was spoken or written.

verbose

Using or containing more words than are needed to make a point.

whiner

Person who makes weak/sad/repeated complaints about small/unfair things.

zeal

Great energy or enthusiasm.