Describing words 5
37 English words (level C2) with a simple English definition and an example sentence. In the app you can hear every word and practise with flashcards, a quiz, spelling and listening.
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| English | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| nostalgic | feeling nostalgia | I feel nostalgic about my school days. |
| oblique | not direct; also sloping | He made an oblique reference to the scandal. |
| opaque | not letting light through; also hard to understand | The glass is opaque. |
| opulent | very rich and luxurious | They live in an opulent house. |
| ornate | with a lot of decoration | The church has an ornate ceiling. |
| ostensible | seeming true but possibly not | The ostensible reason was illness. |
| outmoded | old-fashioned | The law is outmoded. |
| painstaking | very careful and thorough | It took painstaking work. |
| palatable | nice to eat; also acceptable | The food was palatable. |
| paradoxical | seeming impossible because it combines opposites | It's paradoxical but true. |
| paramount | more important than anything else | Safety is paramount. |
| parasitic | living off another; also caused by parasites | It's a parasitic disease. |
| parochial | only interested in local matters; also about a church area | He has parochial views. |
| patchy | uneven; good in some parts only | My knowledge of history is patchy. |
| patronizing | treating someone as if they are less clever | He has a patronizing tone. |
| pedestrian | ordinary and boring | The writing is pedestrian. |
| pervasive | spread through everything | There is a pervasive smell of smoke. |
| perverse | deliberately doing what is wrong or unexpected | He takes perverse pleasure in arguing. |
| philanthropic | helping people by giving money | She does a lot of philanthropic work. |
| physiological | about how the body works | Stress has physiological effects. |
| polysyllabic | having many syllables | He uses polysyllabic words. |
| ponderous | slow and heavy; also boring and too serious | His speech was ponderous. |
| postural | about the position of the body | She has postural problems. |
| precocious | (a child) more developed than usual | She was a precocious child. |
| preeminent | the best or most important | She is the preeminent scholar in her field. |
| prescriptive | saying how something should be done | The rules are too prescriptive. |
| presentational | about how something is presented | She has good presentational skills. |
| primeval | from the earliest times | They walked through primeval forest. |
| prissy | too careful about being proper (informal) | Don't be so prissy. |
| procedural | about the correct order of doing things | There were procedural errors. |
| promotable | able to be promoted or advertised | She is a highly promotable employee. |
| prone | likely to suffer or do something; also lying face down | He is prone to headaches. |
| proportional | in the right relation in size or amount | Pay is proportional to hours worked. |
| proprietary | owned by a company and protected by law | It uses proprietary software. |
| proprietorial | behaving as if you own something | He's very proprietorial about his desk. |
| prostrate | lying face down; also very weak or upset | He lay prostrate on the floor. |
| proverbial | well-known, like in a proverb | He's like the proverbial bull in a china shop. |