[Taken from the Princeton Review's Word Smart 3rd Edition]
- Arbiter - n. one who decides; a judge
- An arbiter of fashion is someone who determines what other people will wear by wearing it herself.
- Arbiter and arbitrator mean the same thing. An arbiter presides over an arbitration, which is a formal meeting to settle a dispute.
- Exposition - expounding or explaining; explanatory treatise
- Polemic - a powerful argument made in refuation of something
- The editorial was a convincing polemic that revealed the true nature of the proposition.
- Forbear - to refrain from; to abstain
- "He forbore from eating fried foods because of the trans fats."
- Plumb - to measure the depth of something
- Deleterious - harmful
- "Overeating is deleterious to your health."
- Hermetic - impervious to external influence; hermetic
- "Bush led a hermetic existence as his advisers tried to keep bad news from him."
- Salubrious - promoting health
- "The salubrious country air was a welcome change from the city air."
- Goad - to urge forcefully; to taunt someone into doing something
- "The cheerleaders goaded the geek into doing something bad."
- Rampart - a fortification; a bulwark or defense
- "They stormed the ramparts of the city."