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Difficult Words:
Audacity, Attrition, Augment, Auspicious, Austere and Autocratic
This is a list of Difficult Words: Audacity, Attrition, Augment, Auspicious, Austere and Autocratic
Attrition (uh TRISH un) n: gradual wearing away, weakening or loss, a natural or expected decrease in numbers or size
• Mr. Gregory did not have the heart to fire his workers even though his company was losing millions each year. He altruistically preferred to lose workers through attrition when they moved away, retired or decided to change jobs.
Audacity (aw DAS I tee) n: boldness, reckless daring, impertinence
• Edgar's soaring leap off the top of the building was an act of great audacity.
• Ivan had the audacity to tell nice old lady to shut up.
• A person with audacity is said to be audacious. Bert made the audacious decision to climb.Mount Everest in bowling shoes.
Augment (awg MENT) v: to make bigger, to add or to increase
• The army augmented its attack by sending in a few thousand more soldiers.
• To augment a record collection is to add more records to it.
• The act of augmenting is called augmentation.
Auspicious (aw SPISH us) adj: favorable, promising, pointing to a good result
• A clear sky in the morning is an auspicious sign on the day of a picnic.
• The first quarter of the football game was not auspicious. The home team was outscored by seventy Points.
Austere (aw STEER) adj: unadorned, stern, forbidding, without excess
• The smiths' house was very austere. There was no furniture in it and there was nothing hanging on the walls.
• Quentin, with his austere Personality, didn't make many friends. Most People were too intimidated by him to introduce themselves and say hello.
• The noun austerity (aw STER I tee) is generally used to mean roughly the same thing as poverty. To live in austerity is to live without comforts. Conditions in Austria were very austere after the war.
Autocratic (AW tuh KRAT ik) adj: ruling with absolute authority, extremely bossy
• The ruthless dictator's autocratic reign ended when the rebels blew up his palace with a few thousand pounds of plastic explosive.
• A two-year-old can be very autocratic-it wants what it wants when it wants it.
• No one at our office liked the autocratic manager. She always insisted on having here own way and she never let anyone make a decision without consulting here.
• An autocrat is an absolute ruler. Autocracy, a system of government headed by an autocrat, is not democratic-the people don't get a say.
