1. Bracing [brey-sing]
- Adjective: strengthening; invigorating; of, relating to, or serving as a brace.
- Noun: a brace.
- Synonyms: invigorating, refreshing, animating, chilly, cool, crisp, energizing, fortifying, quickening, restorative, reviving, rousing, stimulating, tonic, exhilarative, fresh, lively, stimulative, vigorous.
- Antonyms: friendly, hot, responsive, temperate.
2. Predominant [pri-dom-uh-nuh nt]
- Adjective: having ascendancy, power, authority, or influence over others; preeminent; preponderant; prominent.
- Synonyms: dominant, dominating, main, potent, prevailing, prevalent, weighty, absolute, all-powerful, almighty, arbitrary, ascendant, authoritative, capital, chief, controlling, directing, effective, efficacious.
- Antonyms: inferior, minor, secondary, subordinate.
3. Creed [kreed]
- Noun: any system, doctrine, or formula of religious belief, as of a denomination; any system or codification of belief or of opinion.
- Synonyms: doctrine, dogma, faith, ideology, persuasion, profession, religion, tenet, canon, catechism, church, confession, conviction, cult, Weltanschauung, articles of faith.
- Antonyms: agnosticism, atheism, disbelief, doubt.
Example: With her natural instinct for caution and pragmatism, Ms. Merkel embodied such a stance, one that was seen as a national trait assiduously cultivated to definitively turn the page on the country’s Nazi past.
4. Pragmatism [prag-muh-tiz-uh m]
- Noun: character or conduct that emphasizes practicality; a philosophical movement or system having various forms, but generally stressing practical consequences as constituting the essential criterion in determining meaning, truth, or value.
- Synonyms: advantage, advantageousness, advisability, appositeness, aptness, benefit, convenience, desirability, effectiveness, efficiency, fitness, helpfulness, judiciousness, meetness, opportunism, opportunity, order, policy, practicality, profitability, profitableness, properness, propitiousness, propriety.
- Antonyms: disadvantage, inappropriateness.
5. Assiduous [uh-sij-oo-uh s]
- Adjective: constant; unremitting; constant in application or effort; working diligently at a task; persevering; industrious; attentive.
- Synonyms: ardently, carefully, diligently, eagerly, earnestly, energetically, enthusiastically, hastily, hurriedly, laboriously, nimbly, painstakingly, purposefully, restlessly, vigorously, agilely, animatedly, arduously, briskly, expeditiously, fervently.
- Antonyms: idly, inactively, quietly.
Example: To be sure, this seemingly anodyne approach came under sharp attack for its ideological ambiguity, but it was a tactic that Ms. Merkel deftly deployed to blunt the opposition.
6. Anodyne [an-uh-dahyn]
- Noun: a medicine that relieves or allays pain; anything that relieves distress or pain.
- Adjective: relieving pain; soothing to the mind or feelings.
- Synonyms: anesthetic, narcotic, sedative, soother.
7. Blunt [bluhnt]
- Adjective: having an obtuse, thick, or dull edge or point; rounded; not sharp; abrupt in address or manner; slow in perception or understanding; obtuse.
- Verb: to make blunt or dull; to weaken or impair the force, keenness, or susceptibility of; to become blunt or dull.
- Noun: something blunt, as a small-game arrow, a short sewing needle, or a short, thick cigar.
- Synonyms: dulled, rounded, dull, round, insensitive, obtuse, pointless, edgeless, unsharpened.
- Antonyms: needled, pointed, polite, sharp.
Example: It is, however, nearly impossible to accuse the Chancellor of pandering to the extreme right, so characteristic of the centre-right leadership in several European states in the face of the populist surge against the expansion of the EU and globalisation.
8. Pander [pan-der]
- Noun: a person who furnishes clients for a prostitute or supplies persons for illicit sexual intercourse; procurer; pimp; a person who caters to or profits from the weaknesses or vices of others; a go-between in amorous intrigues.
- Verb: to act as a pander; cater basely.
- Synonyms: cajole, gratify, massage, please, satisfy, snow, soap, stroke, brownnose, fall all over, lay it on, play the game, play up to, politic, soften up, suck up to.
- Antonyms: anger, annoy, disappoint, disturb.
9. Surge [surj]
- Noun: a strong, wavelike, forward movement, rush, or sweep; a strong, swelling, wavelike volume or body of something; a sudden, strong increase or burst.
- Synonyms: deluge, flood, flow, growth, outpouring, rise, swell, upsurge, wave, billow, breaker, efflux, gush, intensification, roll, surf.
- Antonyms: decline, decrease.
Example: Angela Merkel’s return for a fourth consecutive term as Chancellor, with a much-reduced mandate for her Christian Democratic Union, marks a watershed moment in Germany’s post-War history.
10. Watershed [waw-ter-shed, wot-er-]
- Noun: dividing two drainage areas; water parting; divide; the region or area drained by a river, stream, etc.; drainage area; an important point of division or transition between two phases, conditions, etc.
- Adjective: constituting a watershed.
- Synonyms: bowl, lagoon, pan, pool, pot, tub, valley, bay, concavity, depression, dip, ewer, gulf, hole, hollow, sag, sink, sinkhole, vessel, washbasin, washbowl, sinkage.
- Antonyms: increase, rise, solid.