Advanced Vocabulary

Advanced Vocabulary – 1

|ambiguity |A sentence/expression can be ambiguous if it has two possible meanings, and it is not clear what the |
|(adj = ambiguous) |writer/speaker wants to say |
|Although she said she was committed to the scheme, there was some ambiguity in her voice. |
|Christians are not ambiguous about life after death: they believe in it as an article of faith. |

|recidivist |Someone who keeps repeating the same crime, who keeps relapsing into bad old habits of behaviour – usually|
|(usually used as noun) |criminal. |
|Norman Stanley Fletcher was a habitual criminal, whom the judge described as a recidivist, because he could not or would not alter his |
|behaviour. |

|platitude |A saying or proverb which may once have been wise but has become worn out by repeating; an easy truth; a |
|(usually used as noun) |truism; a cliché. |
|‘The grass is always greener’ has become something of a platitude in our times, and can deter people for aspiring to better things – better the |
|devil you know, and all those clichés. |

|coerce |To force someone to do something, to compel, often by physical strength, but not necessarily so. |
|(noun = coercion)