I've come to realise this list may never end as it is added to daily. An obvious preference toward certain letters has also been brought to my attention...
- acerbic
- acosmism - n. a philosophy in which nothing is real but the Absolute
- acquiesce
- acrid
- acrimony
- aegis
- ailurophile
- altruistic
- ambulatory
- ameliorate
- anagapesis
- anaphora - n. repetition of a word or phrase in poetry or prose
- anathema
- animadversions
- anomie
- antediluvian
- appellation
- appoggiaturas - also called "grace notes"
- apropos
- ardour
- arrhythmia
- assemblage
- astute
- aubade - n. love song which is sung at dawn
- aureate - adj. elaborately wordy prose; golden
- austere
- avarice
- avuncular
- bacchanalia
- bailiwick
- baleful
- balustrade
- basorexia - n. a hunger for kissing
- behoove
- beleaguer
- bellicose
- berated
- bluestocking
- boustrophedon
- braggadocio
- Brobdingnagian
- brood
- brouhaha
- brusque
- bucolic
- buoy
- calibre
- catharsis
- cede
- chatoyant
- chiaroscuro
- clandestine
- colloquialism
- concupiscence
- connoisseur
- convalescence
- convivial
- crass
- curmudgeon
- cynosure
- demesne
- demure
- denouement
- desuetude
- desultory
- diaphanous
- dint
- dissemble
- dulcet
- dwale - n. a sleeping potion; belladonna or deadly nightshade
- dwalen - v. to stray or wander
- dysphoria - n. an emotional state of restlessness or anxiety
- ebullience
- echelon
- edification
- effervescent
- efflorescence
- effuse
- egregious
- eigengrau - n. the fuzzy grey that's seen in the dark
- eke
- elision
- elixir
- eloquence
- elucidate
- embrocation
- emollient
- ennui
- ephemeral
- epicaricacy - n. schadenfreude
- epiphany
- ersatz
- erstwhile
- esoteric
- ethereal
- eumoirous - n. happiness from being innocent and wholesome
- evanescent
- evocative
- excrescences
- extemporaneous
- felicity
- firmament
- fisticuffs
- forbearance
- fortuitous
- frabjous - adj. "O frabjous day!" from Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky
- frenetic
- frileux - adj. sensitive to cold
- frutescent
- fugacious
- furtive
- gambol
- gossamer
- grandiloquent - adj. pompous in language or manner so as to impress, magniloquent
- grandiose
- haberdashery
- halcyon
- harbinger
- heliolatry - n. worship of the sun; sunbathing
- holocene
- hubris
- hypophrenia - n. a feeling of sadness seemingly without cause
- ignominious
- illicit
- imbrication
- imbroglio
- imbue
- incipient
- ineffable
- inexorable
- inglenook
- insouciance
- inure
- iota
- irascible
- jackanapes - n. an impertinent person or tame monkey
- jejune - adj. naive; uninteresting ideas or writings
- ken
- kismet
- labyrinthine
- lagniappe
- lagoon
- lamentation
- languorous
- lassitude
- legion
- leisure
- licentious
- lilt
- lissome
- listlessness
- litany
- macrocosm
- maelstrom
- magnanimous
- mamihlapinatapai - n. a look shared by two people both wishing the other would initiate what both desire but neither will start
- maudlin
- melee
- mellifluous
- mélomane - n. music lover
- mercurial
- mien
- mimp - v. to pucker or purse one's lips
- moiety
- mondegreen
- moribund
- moue
- multifarious
- murmurous
- nascent
- nebulous
- nemesis
- neophyte
- obfuscation
- ombre
- onus
- oporopolist
- opulent
- orifice
- panacea
- paradigm
- paralian - n. someone who lives near the sea
- pastiche
- penumbra
- percipient
- percolating
- peregrination
- persnickety
- pervigilo - v. to lie awake all night
- petrichor
- pettifogging - adj. petty; of a person: placing undue emphasis on petty details
- pica
- pontificate
- proclivity
- profligate
- propinquity
- pulchritude
- pusillanimous
- pyrrhic
- quintessential
- rapacious
- ravel
- reconnaissance
- redolent
- redamancy
- remonstrance
- restitution
- reticent
- rictus
- rimjhim
- riparian
- riposte
- sabaism - n. worship of the sun, moon, and stars
- saccharine
- sacrosanct
- sanguineous
- saturnine
- scarper
- schadenfreude - n. pleasure felt at another's misfortunes
- scintilla
- scunnered
- sedition
- sempiternal
- sequester
- seraglio
- seraphic
- serendipity
- sobriquet
- solicitous
- soliloquy
- somnambulist
- somnolent
- soporific - adj. sleep inducing
- sordid
- squiriferous
- striation
- supercilious
- surreptitious
- susurrus
- sybaritic
- sycophant
- synapse
- tacenda - n. things better left unsaid; matters to be passed over in silence
- taciturn
- talisman
- tetchy
- tintinnabulation
- torrential
- toska - Vladmir Nabokov: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom."
- tryst
- ubiquitous
- unguent
- untoward
- vacuity
- velocipede
- verbose
- verisimilitude
- vermiform
- vestigial
- visceral
- vitriol
- vituperative
- volatile
- wabi-sabi - Japanese aesthetic partly centering on acknowledgment that nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect
- wafture
- weltschmertz
- wherewithal
- winsome
- woebegon
- wont
- zephyr
- zeppelin
apr 9 2011 ∞
aug 25 2014 +