504 Vocabulary Lesson 3 & 4

April 2, 2013

Typical (adj): usual, common• They look like the typical American tourists:

bad clothes, cameras worn like jewelry, pointing at everything and being too loud.

Minimum (adj): the least possible amount of something

• Studies show that adults need a minimum of six hours of sleep every night.

Scarce (adj): hard to find; rare

• Water is very scarce in the desert.

Annual (adj): once a year; something happens yearly or lasts for a year.

• Last week, ESLI students went on our annual trip to Six Flags.

Persuade (v): to make someone decide to do something by giving good reasons

• Can you persuade him to stop being a bachelor and get married?

I persuadeYou persuadeHe persuades

I persuadedYou persuadedShe persuaded

Essential (adj): necessary; very important

• The essential items in a cake are flour, eggs, and butter.

Blend (v): to mix together thoroughly

• When making a cake, it is essential to blend everything very well.

Visible (adj): able to be seen

• You need a very powerful microscope to make germs visible.

Expensive (adj): costly, very high-priced

• Because diamonds are scarce, they are very expensive.

Talent (n): natural ability

• She has great talent at playing the piano.

Devise (v): think out; plan; invent

• He devised a way to make tiny germs visible.

Wholesale (adj): in large quantity; less than retail price.

• It is wise to buy things for your house wholesale, because you save money.

• No one likes the wholesale slaughter of innocent people.

Vapor (n): moisture in the air that can be seen; mist or fog.

• Clouds are just large collections of water vapor in the air.

Eliminate (v): get rid of; remove; omit

• Teachers do all they can to eliminate cheating.

I eliminateYou eliminateShe/he eliminates

I eliminatedYou eliminatedHe/she eliminated

Villain (n): a very wicked person; a bad guy

• Snidely Whiplash is a cartoon villain that many people recognize.

Dense (adj): closely packed together; thick

• Dense fog made it hard to see very far ahead.• The dense crowd was almost impossible to

move through.

Utilize (v): to make use of something

• The gardener was eager to utilize new flowers so he could make a dense garden.

Humid (adj): moist; damp

• There was so much water vapor in the air outside that our classroom felt humid and uncomfortable.

Theory (n): explanation based on thought, observation, or reasoning

• No one has ever come up with a good theory to explain the beginnings of writing.

Descend (v): to go down or come down from a higher place to a lower one.

• The plane descended quickly to escape the dense clouds.

Circulate (v): to go around, move from place to place or person to person.

• Fans help circulate the air in a hot room.

Enormous (adj): extremely large; huge

• The gallant knight drew his shining sword and killed the enormous dragon.

Predict (v): to guess or tell beforehand

• Weathermen can predict the weather correctly most of the time.

Vanish (v): disappear; disappear suddenly.

• The wicked witch vanished suddenly in a puff of smoke.