Example: Collegium and transparency.
1. Collegium [kuh-lee-jee-uh m]
Noun, plural collegia [kuh-lee-jee-uh] (Show IPA), collegiums; a group of ruling officials each with equal rank and power, especially one that formerly administered a Soviet commissariat.
Example: These results, the resolution added, will be accompanied by the reasons underpinning the collegium’s choices.
2. Underpin [uhn-der-pin]
Verb: to prop up or support from below; strengthen, as by reinforcing a foundation; to replace or strengthen the foundation of (a building or the like); to furnish a foundation for; corroborate.
Synonyms: build, construct, depend, derive, establish, found, ground, hinge, locate, plant, predicate, prop, rest.
Antonyms: demolish, destroy, disestablish, dismantle.
Example: At first blush, the move strikes us as both necessary and important, as bringing transparency into a system that has been notorious for its opacity.
3. Blush [bluhsh]
Verb: to redden, as from embarrassment or shame; to feel shame or embarrassment (often followed by at or for).
Synonyms: bloom, blossom, burning, color, flush, flushing, glow, glowing, mantling, reddening, redness, rosiness, ruddiness, scarlet, pink tinge, rosy tint.
Antonyms: paleness, pallidity, whiteness.
4. Notorious [noh-tawr-ee-uh s, -tohr-, nuh-]
Adjective: widely and unfavorably known.
Synonyms: infamous, egregious, outrageous, arrant, flagrant, disreputable.
Antonyms: inconspicuous, moral, unknown.
5. Opacity [oh-pas-i-tee]
Noun: the state or quality of being opaque; something opaque; the degree to which a substance is opaque; capacity for being opaque; the proportion of the light that is absorbed by the emulsion on any given area of a film or plate.
Synonyms: darkness, murkiness, obscurity.
Example: But when probed deeper, on even a bare reading of the first set of publications released by the collegium, it becomes clear that the initiative adds, at best, a veneer of respectability to a mechanism that lacks any constitutional basis.
6. Probe [prohb]
Verb: to search into or examine thoroughly; question closely; to examine or explore with a probe; to examine or explore with or as if with a probe.
Noun: the act of probing; a slender surgical instrument for exploring the depth or direction of a wound, sinus, or the like; an investigation, especially by a legislative committee, of suspected illegal activity.
Synonyms: examination, exploration, inquest, inquiry, research, scrutiny, study, delving, detection, inquisition, probing, quest, fishing expedition, legwork, third degree.
7. Bare [bair]
Adjective: without the usual furnishings, contents, etc.
8. Veneer [vuh-neer]
Noun: a thin layer of wood or other material for facing or inlaying wood; any of the thin layers of wood glued together to form plywood; to give a superficially valuable or pleasing appearance to.
Synonyms: coating, exterior, facade, gloss, layer, mask, semblance, appearance, cover, covering, disguise, face, finish, guise, leaf, overlay, show, surface, window dressing.
Antonym: reality.
Example: Perplexing reasons.
9. Perplex [per-pleks]
Verb: to cause to be puzzled or bewildered over what is not understood or certain; confuse mentally; to make complicated or confused, as a matter or question; to hamper with complications, confusion, or uncertainty.
Synonyms: baffling, complicated, confusing, convoluted, disconcerting, knotty, mysterious, mystifying, puzzling, thorny, worrying, involved, taxing, beyond one, impenetrable, intricate.
Antonyms: clear, easy, simple, straightforward.
Example: Consider some of the reasons professed thus far.
10. Profess [pruh-fes]
Verb: to lay claim to, often insincerely; pretend to.
Synonyms: acknowledge, admit, affirm, avow, confess, feign, pretend, proclaim, stump, allege, announce, asseverate, aver, avouch, certify, claim, confirm, croon, depose, dissemble, fake, maintain, own, predicate, purport, sing, spiel, spout.
Antonyms: conceal, deny, disavow, disown.