Cool words
As a second-language learner of English, there are a lot of interesting words I've come across that have stood out to me. Here's a mini collection of them:
Abandon (n.) — complete lack of inhibition or restraint (e.g., she sings with total abandon)
Ataraxia (n.) — calmness or peace of mind; tranquility of the soul; a state of freedom from emotional disturbance and anxiety
Adultescent (n.) — a young adult or middle-aged person who has interests, traits, etc that are usually associated with teenagers
Agnostic (n.) — a description of a person that is skeptical whether a supreme being exists and won't be sure until there is proof
Bacchanalia — (n.) a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity (named after an ancient Greek/Roman festival)
Bibulous (adj.) — excessively fond of drinking alcohol (e.g., he was known as the bibulous editor at the publishing firm)
Bildungsroman (n.) — a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist
Brainchild (n.) — an idea or invention considered to be a particular person's invention (e.g., this statue is the brainchild of the local artist)
Bromide (n.) — a trite or unoriginal remark, typically to soothe or placate (e.g., "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade")
Conjecture — (n.) an opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information; guess; speculation; belief
Contingency — (n.) a future event or circumstance that is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty
Debauchery — (n.) extreme indulgence in sensual pleasures
Denouement (n.) — the resolution of a story/play/movie; finale; ending
Deterrence (n.) — the act of discouraging an action or event through instilling doubt or fear of the consequences
Diplomacy (n.) — the art of dealing with people in a sensitive and effective way; tact; sensitivity; discretion; subtlety
Equanimity (n.) — a state of psychological stability and composure which is undisturbed by experience of or exposure to emotions, pain, or other phenomena that may cause others to lose the balance of their mind
Esemplastic (adj.) — having the ability to shape diverse elements/concepts into a unified whole (e.g., the esemplastic power of a great mind to simplify the difficult)
Fester — (v.) (of a wound or sore) become septic; (of a negative feeling or problem) become worse or more intense, especially through long-term neglect or indifference
Festooned — (v.) decorated with festoons (garland of things suspended in a curve between two points)
Gaucherie (n.) — lack of social grace/sensitivity/acuteness; awkwardness; tactlessness
Half-baked — (adj.) not fully thought-through or lacking a sound basis; foolish (e.g., half-baked ideas)
Hamartia — (n.) the flaw/error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall
Hagiography — (n.) biography that idealizes its subject; the writing of the lives of saints
Hypocorism (n.) — a pet name; a nickname that shows affection or closeness; the use of forms of speech imitative of baby talk, especially by adults; "play the child" (Greek origin)
Inculcate (v.) — instill (an attitude, idea, or habit) by persistent instruction; instill in
Indelible (adj.) — not able to be forgotten or removed (e.g., the movie made an indelible impression on me)
Inexorable (adj.) — impossible to stop or prevent; relentless; unavoidable
Inveterate (adj.) — settle or confirmed in a habit, practice, feeling, etc. (e.g., an inveterate gambler)
Kinkeeping (n.) — the labor involved in maintaining and strengthening family ties (e.g., organizing social occasions, remembering birthdays, sending gifts)
Lilt (n.) — a characteristic rising and falling of the voice when speaking; a pleasant gentle accent; a pleasant, gently swinging rhythm in a song or tune
Mawkish (adj.) — overly or childishly emotional or sentimental
Nixie (n.) — a letter/parcel that is undeliverable because of a faulty or illegible address
Numinous (adj.) — having a strong religious or spiritual quality; indicating or suggesting the presence of a divinity
Ostensible (adj.) — outwardly appearing as such; pretended (e.g., an ostensible cheerfulness concealing sadness)
Paraph (n.) — a flourish made after a signature, as in a document, originally as a precaution against forgery
Pareidolia (n.) — the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous / amorphous stimulus, such as perceiving recognizable shapes in clouds or rock formations
Parsimony (n.) — extreme frugality; adoption of the simplest assumption in the formulation of a theory or in the interpretation of data (e.g., science should adopt the most parsimonious explanation that fits the evidence)
Pernicious (adj.) — having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way
Perturbation (n.) — anxiety or mental uneasiness; a deviation of a system or process from its normal state, caused by an outside influence (e.g., brain perturbations can inform us about the neural underpinnings of cognitive functions)
Piquant (adj.) — having a pleasantly sharp taste or appetizing flavor
Polymath (n.) — a person with wide-ranging knowledge or learning (e.g., the trivia team had a polymath who knew lots of random facts)
Putative (adj.) — generally considered or reputed to be; supposed; assumed
Quixotic — (adj.) exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical (e.g., quixotic hope increases depression among students)
Self-preservation — (n.) the protection of oneself from harm or death, especially regarded as a basic instinct in human beings and animals
Sententious — (adj.) abounding in pithy aphorisms or maxims (e.g., a sententious book)
Sobriquet — (n.) an affectionate or humorous nickname
Solipsism — (n.) being very self-centered or selfish; the philosophical idea that only the self (i.e., your own mind and experiences) exists
Temperance (n.) — abstinence from alcoholic drink; moderation or self restraint, especially in eating and drinking
Umbrage (n.) — offense or annoyance (e.g., she took umbrage at his remarks); (archaic) shade or shadow, especially cast by trees
Verbiage (n.) — speech or writing that uses too many words or excessively technical expressions
Wordmonger (n.) — a writer/speaker who uses words pretentiously or with careless disregard for meaning
Zeitgeist (n.) — the defining spirit/outlook/mood of a particular period in history, as shown by the prevailing ideas or beliefs of the time; the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era (e.g., the story captured the Zeitgeist of the 1960's)
Zeugma (n.) — the use of a word to modify 2 or more words when it is appropriate to only one of them or is appropriate to each of them but in a different way (e.g., he caught three fishes and a cold; John and his license expired last week)