1. Audacious – Showing willingness to take bold risks.
Synonyms: bold, daring, temeritous, temerarious
Antonyms: shy, cautious, prudent
Usage: The murders were barbaric, audacious and riveting.
2. Riveting – Commanding the attention of spectators.
Synonyms: fascinating, interesting, captivating, enthralling, intriguing
Antonyms: boring, tedious, annoying, deadening, irksome, arid, dull
Usage: The murders were barbaric, audacious and riveting.
3. Cassandra – A person who makes dire predictions.
Synonyms: doomsayer, pessimist, cynic, alarmist, malcontent
Usage: Ignore the Cassandras.
4. Blip – A brief and usually minor aberration or deviation from what is expected or normal.
Synonyms: glitch, spot, expurgate, censor
Antonyms: unfeeling, bathe, examine, perform
Usage: The dip in India’s economic growth is a tempo blip.
5. Eschew – To avoid
Synonyms: avoid, shun, evade, elude, abstain, renounce, refrain, sacrifice, deny
Antonyms: embrace, pursue, intervene, confront, adopt, accept, deliver, admit
Usage: Eschewing such a debate would be harmful in long run.
6. Mayhem – A state or situation of great confusion
Synonyms: havoc, chaos, disorder, confusion, violence, rumpus, maim, disruption, damage, unrest
Antonyms: hierarchy, calm, harmony, peace, accordance, integrity, cure, civilisation
Usage: It led to the partition of the Subcontinent amidst murders and mayhem.
7. Fraught – Marked by or causing distress
Synonyms: anxious, tense, loaded, creepy, diligent, upsetting, stressful, traumatic
Antonyms: devoid, destitute, calm, tranquil, comfortable
Usage: The politicians refuse to recognise that the willful rewriting of history to further sectarian interests is political fraught.
8. Lumber – To move clumsily.
Synonyms: plod, shamble, stump, flounder
Antonyms: stream, glide, relieve, sustain, absolve
Usage: A man was found lumbering into a tattoo studio.
9. Quail – To lose heart or courage
Synonyms: shrink, flinch, tremble, shy, cower, cringe
Antonyms: calm, steady, face, meet
Usage: The cowardly lion was afraid that he would quail in the face of danger.
10. Quandary – A state of not knowing what to decide
Synonyms: dilemma, perplexity, uncertainty, predicament, difficulty, problem
Antonyms: solution, certainty, advantage, anticipate, clarification
Usage: She was in a quandary.