‘Higher’ Frequency TOEFL Vocabulary: Words of Deep Emotion

• Fulminate: The Verb ‘Fulminate’ takes it birth from the Latin word ‘Fulminatus’ which means a thundered explosion. To fulminate is to show vehement denunciation of something. It is condemning something from your gut. A deep rooted emotion indeed!

• Enthralled: What will your state of mind be, when some one walks in holding air tickets for you to go on a world-tour all of a sudden, out of blue??!! Won’t you feel heavenly? Will there not be a permanent glee on your face. And a feeling of some fountain of mirth pouring inside your heart. In simpler words you feel ‘enthralled’ to the hilt! To enthrall is to captivate, mesmerize, engross and grip.

• Harangue: In better words, I mean understandable words ‘Harangue is a long, boring speech’. Usually politicians make such speeches during campaigns before elections. These speeches generate perpetual boredom for they go on and on and on.

• Acclaim: The word acclaim also has its roots in Latin. Acclamos in Latin means to ‘call out’. To acclaim is to compliment, praise and approve.

• Abominate: To abominate something is to hate it from gut. Some people detest the sight of lizards. Some hate the smell of eggs. Abominate is a deep rooted feeling of hatred.

• Adulate: When a person is adulated he is praised excessively. It is not a simple praise. The Adulator does that subserviently, slavishly. This makes everything a murky deal/affair. To adulate someone is to praise someone without any limits and bounds. ( Some synonyms for the word are lionize, revere, adore, flatter)

• Expostulate: To expostulate is to deny something earnestly. Well consider a situation wherein your friend proposes to you a theory which he/she firmly believes in. You do not object totally, however you try to deny some things in the theory which you find not very rational. You explain your denial step-wise.

• Obsessed: Being obsessed is being preoccupied in thought that keeps haunting us unendingly. Obsession is domination of one’s feelings by a persistent idea, image or desire. Obsession can be both good and bad. If obsession is channeled into action, constructive that too you will be successful. On the other hand your thoughts alone are obsessed then you will be labeled a ‘day dreamer’ shortly. Smiles!!

Some effective techniques to memorize words:

1. Work with the word.

2. Expand its meaning into a suitable context.

3. Relate it to the person or situation you know.

4. Share the word with your friends, colleagues

5. Try to pronounce the word aloud at least five times