Page 321 - WEBSTER Essential vocabulary

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O – P

obsolete (AHB sil EET) adj. out of fashion; no longer used; no longer current;
discarded
• North American Aviation’s P-51 Mustang is an obsolete fighter plane but
was the best fighter of World War II.
• The horse and buggy is an obsolete form of transportation.
• The dial telephone has been obsolete for years.
[Syn. passé]
occult (uh KULT) adj. 1. secret; mysterious; 2. hidden; 3. having powers beyond
human understanding
• Some people believe that practitioners of voodoo have occult powers.
• Sarah wanted her study of Tae Kwan Do to stay occult.
• Rasputin is an occult figure in Russian history.
[ly adv.] [Syn. esoteric]
odious (OH dee uhs) adj. deserving or causing hatred, loathing, and so on
• Stalin, when leading the USSR, was guilty of some very odious deeds.
• No one has ever been as odious as Adolph Hitler.
[-ly adv.] [Syn. hateful]
odium (OH dee uhm) n. 1. the condition of being hated; 2. hatred, especially
toward a person or despised thing; 3. the disgrace caused by hateful action;
opprobrium
• The odium of those hurt by the Nazi regime was quite well earned.
• Odium toward Saddam Hussein still exists among Iraqis who sought refuge
in other countries.
oligarchy (OH li GAHR kee) n. a form of government in which power belongs
to few; an aristocracy
• An oligarchy traditionally consisted of rulers from the aristocratic class of
nobles.
• The government of Communist China is (as of this writing) an oligarchy,
with power in the hands of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
opaque (oh PAYK) adj.1. incapable of allowing light to pass through, as distinct
from transparent or translucent; 2. hard to understand; obscure
• Room-darkening shades are opaque so that light cannot pass through them.
• To all but a few people, nuclear physics is an opaque subject.
[-ly adv.] [Syn. obscure]
opprobrium (uh PROH bree uhm) n. 1. the disgrace or infamy brought on by
association with a very shameful or reproachful act or event; 2. anything bringing
shame or disgrace
• Opprobrium greeted the regime of Benito Mussolini for its invasion of what
is now Ethiopia in the 1930s.
• Any person or country that infringes on the civil rights of any person or
group is deserving of opprobrium.
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