Mystery Words 2: What do These Mean?

Question 1

The peace talks were otiose to the desired outcome.

Accepted Answer

ineffective or futile

Question 2

Because "tradition" has served as a strong heuristic term, we are in danger of confirming it.

Accepted Answer

serving to indicate or point out

Question 3

The top brass benefit from sinecures in and payouts from this empire.

Accepted Answer

an office or position requiring little or no work

Question 4

Savor the fugacious pleasures of life as intensely as the more enduring ones.

Accepted Answer

fleeting or transitory

Question 5

The serious message of the film is ruined by the bathos of its ridiculous ending.

Accepted Answer

descent from the lofty to the commonplace

Question 6

The president had defalcated, and lost the election.

Accepted Answer

misused money

Question 7

Gru felt great schadenfreude when his plan was successful.

Accepted Answer

satisfaction felt at someone else's misfortune

Question 8

Ads for clothing in which drug addiction and other forms of moral turpitude are depicted.

Accepted Answer

a vile or depraved act

Question 9

A protean actor who is equally comfortable with light comedy and serious drama.

Accepted Answer

changeable in shape or form

Question 10

In those tenebrous days Thomas Paine wrote, “These are the times that try men's souls”.

Accepted Answer

dark or gloomy

Question 11

Blandished her into doing their work for them by complimenting her.

Accepted Answer

to coax or influence by gentle flattery

Question 12

Headaches often occur during the tertiary stage of the illness.

Accepted Answer

the third

Question 13

One of the nation's most puissant advocates for the rights of minorities.

Accepted Answer

powerful or mighty

Question 14

The encomiums bestowed on a teacher at her retirement ceremonies.

Accepted Answer

high praise

Question 15

The strife in Bloody Kansas in the 1850s adumbrated the civil war.

Accepted Answer

to foreshadow; prefigure.

Question 16

He has antediluvian notions about the role of women in the workplace.

Accepted Answer

old-fashioned

Question 17

Advocates of this point to his short attention span and solipsism as evidence.

Accepted Answer

the theory that only the self exists

Question 18

A captious and cranky eater who's never met a vegetable he didn't hate.

Accepted Answer

difficult to please

Question 19

They discussed the national government's hegemony over their tribal community.

Accepted Answer

leadership; predominance

Question 20

I had never seen a defenestration until I saw Todd and Mary break up.

Accepted Answer

the act of throwing a thing something out of a window

Questions 20