1. Languish – lose or lack vitality; grow weak.
Synonyms: weaken, deteriorate, decline, wither, droop, flag, wilt, fade
Antonyms: thrive, flourish
Usage: When the judge sentences the murderer, I hope he gives him a lifetime to languish in prison.
2. Qualm – an uneasy feeling of doubt, worry, or fear, especially about one’s own conduct; a misgiving.
Synonyms: disinclination, apprehension, trepidation, disquiet, disquietude, uneasiness
Antonyms: comfort, confidence, certainty, certitude, assurance
Usage: Without any qualm, the killer shot the young woman in the face.
3. Sidestep – avoid dealing with or discussing (something problematic or disagreeable).
Synonyms: avoid, evade, dodge, escape, elude, circumvent, shirk
Antonyms: confront, show, interact, collide
Usage: The minister neatly sidestepped the questions about riots
4. Stratify – arrange or classify
Synonyms: laminate, layer, separate, balance, control, inseminate
Usage: The sample drawn from the university’s student register was stratified by age and gender
5. Spurious – not being what it purports to be; false or fake.
Synonyms: counterfeit, fraudulent, pseudo, fictitious, imitation
Antonyms: authentic, legitimate, factual, reliable, vertible
Usage: To win elections, politicians often make spurious promises to voters.
6. Unfetter – release from restraint or inhibition.
Synonyms: liberate, unchain, manumit, disengage, unshackle, loose
Antonyms: imprison, restrain, detain, suppress
Usage: Once the bird was unfettered and out of the cage, it flew up into the sky.
7. Eerie – strange and frightening.
Synonyms: uncanny, sinister, ghostly, spectral, unnatural, unearthly, preternatural, supernatural
Antonyms: familiar, normal, sedative, unexceptional, predictable
Usage: The sky became dark quickly, causing an eerie glow from the oncoming storm.
8. Panoptic – showing or seeing the whole at one view.
Synonyms: encompassing, extensive, omnibus, comprehensive, broad
Antonyms: invisible, noncomprehensive, unseeable, contained
Usage: The panoptic view from the hot air balloon allowed us to see all of the city.
9. Knotty – extremely difficult or complex.
Synonyms: complicated, involved, intricate, convoluted, Byzantine, tangled
Antonyms: straightforward, simple
Usage: BRICS as a body can hardly help China in dealing with a knotty problem like North Korea.
10. Slant – present or view (information) from a particular angle, especially in a biased or unfair way.
Synonyms: bias, distort, twist, skew, colour, weight, spin, angle, orient
Usage: It doesn’t automatically follow that their findings will be slanted in favour of their own beliefs