Vocabulary Word Meanings: From Chasten, Chastise to Contrite

Get top class preparation for competitive exams right from your home: get questions, notes, tests, video lectures and more- for all subjects of your exam.

Chasten

verb- punish; discipline; castigate

Note: don՚t confuse with “chaste” which means “pure” .

Harshly chastened by his owner, the dog hid under the porch for three days.

verb- scold; punish; castigate

Also used as: Chastisement (noun)

Roberta chastised her son for his low grades.

noun- anger

Also used as: Choleric (adj)

Frustration and choler swept through the prison population.

noun- harshness of sound; opposite of harmony

Also used as: Cacophonous (aj) ; cacophonously (adv)

Note: The root “phone” has to do with sound as in “telephone”

New visitors to the rainforest are struck by the cacophony.

verb- scold; punish

Synonyms: Admonish, berate, censure, chasten, chastise, denounce, disparage, objurgate, rebuke, reprimand, reprove, upbraid.

The angry judge castigated the lawyer.

noun- speed

Accelerate.

Drivers stuck in traffic may dream of celerity

verb- surrender; yield

Also used as: Capitulation (noun)

The police refused to capitulate to the demands of the kidnapper.

berb- to overlook, excuse, or pardon forgive

Note: don՚t confuse with “condemn” which means “to criticize”

it՚s hard to condone such rude behavior.

verb- to mix up (in your own mind) or to confuse someone selse

Confounded- adj; confoundedly- adv

Consonance: noun- a blending of distracting movement.

Also used as: Consonant- adj

A committee starts out with many differing ideas but tries to work toward consonance.

adj- sorry; penitent

Also used as: Contrition- noun

Genuinely contrite, Debbie confessed to eating all the doughnuts.

Conundrum: noun- riddle; mystery

The more scientists learn about the universe, the more of a conundrum it appears to be.