1. sesquipedalian — long-winded, given to using big words; polysyllabic
I finally was able to decipher the doctor’s obfuscatory and sesquipedalian oration and learned that my car had been stolen.
2. plexus — network of nerves or blood vessels; web-like structure of networked complexity
Somehow over the years this one small block of the community had become enmeshed in an almost unbreakable plexus of favors owed and favors received, expectations and promises, financial obligations and friendly loans, as well as bonds of family and past friendships and rivalries.
3. fremitus — palpable bodily vibration
He would lay the infant upon his chest as he practiced his German, and the baby was tickled by the guttural fremitus as Pedro counted up to ninety-nine.
4. intumescent — swollen
Karen’s lips startled me, intumescent from overdone and inapt collagen treatments.
5. costa — [biology] rib
The buried electrical wiring produced earthen costae that radiated from the cargo container we used as our command center.
6. umbrage — offense, annoyance; slightest feeling, as of suspicion or dislike; shade or shadow
I lost sight of the black snake as soon as it entered the dark umbrage of the pines.
7. sequaciously — in logical order; with blind following
Jimmy attended sequaciously to the latest QAnon analyses.
8. renitent — offering resistance; recalcitrant
Aye, he was smart enough, but so obtuse and renitent was he as well, until you’d throw up your hands as soon as tell him something new.
9. monostich — a one-line poem
Rather than writing another epic, Gerrold undertook to fill a volume with 14,000 separate monostiches.
10. murine — of or related to mice or similar rodents
At the bottom of the trunk was a pile of chewed cardboard, gnawed gloves, tufts of some sort of cloth, tiny fewmets, and other detritus of a murine nest.
11. pemphigus — disease characterized by painful blisters on skin and mucous membranes
In his thirties he barely survived a very serious case of pemphigus, and the scars both external and internal remained with him all the rest of his life.
12. scoriaceous — of or related to dark frothy volcanic rock
So tiny were the vesicles of the scoriaceous pebbles that little rainwater found its way into the blebs.
13. versant — slope of a mountain
The hardy sheep found good grazing upon the verdant versant of the aged mountain.
14. ashlar — square-cut stone; masonry made of such stone
The archbishop gravely blessed the fine granite ashlar which was destined to be the final stone placed in the coping.
15. quag — boggy, marshy place, esp. with yielding turf
The sheriff thought that Jackson had drowned in the swamp, but some believed that the runaway knew secret paths through the quag and had made it to safety, though he was never seen alive again.
16. erumpent — bursting forth
Lulled into tranquility by the initial pastoral images, the moviegoers were shocked by the suddenly erumpent gore.
17. virescent — greenish, turning green
I’d thought that JoJo was virescent from envy, but it turned out to be a symptom of heavy metal poisoning.
18. charabanc (more properly char-à-banc) — sightseeing bus with bench seats and no center aisle
The baby cheetah posed in the shade, and the riders on the left side of the charabanc rued their positions on the wrong side of the bus.
19. mugient — bellowing
Aidan sensed something wrong when the mugient monsters in their cages suddenly ceased lowing.
20. rax — to stretch, to extend
I got out of bed, threw out my arms, and raxed like a waking dog.
21. mollitude — softness, luxuriousness
Suddenly faced with Molly’s indescribable mollitude, Oliver panicked and ran.
22. burke — to kill by suffocation or strangulation so as to leave no trace; to hush up
But I soon found my plaint lost in the system, burked by the very bureaucracy charged with bringing these malefactions to light.
23. viscid — sticky
The price tags came off without too much trouble, leaving, however, a viscid residue on the front and back covers which stuck to the books on either side of the shelf.
24. arctophile — lover or collector of teddy bears
She was a devoted and demented arctophile, and an asshole to boot.
25. perfervid — very ardent, extremely impassioned
Swayed by his perfervid oratory, we once more spread out into the community, seeking donations for the Acne Awareness March.
Bonus Vocabulary
(language)
lingua geral — either of two trade languages used in Brazil, based upon that of the aboriginal Tupi people
The Englishman proved to be a valuable addition to our crew, as his familiarity with the lingua geral decreased our dependence upon the increasingly inebriated Cuttleson.