Example: Lightning kills six in Mysuru district; downpour worsens traffic snarls in Garden City.
1. Downpour [doun-pawr, -pohr]
Noun: a heavy, drenching rain.
Synonyms: deluge, flood, monsoon, rainstorm, storm, cloudburst, inundation, drencher, torrential rain.
Antonym: sprinkle.
2. Snarl [snahrl]
Verb: to growl threateningly or viciously, especially with a raised upper lip to bare the teeth, as a dog; to speak in a surly or threatening manner suggestive of a dog’s snarl.
Noun: the act of snarling; a snarling sound or utterance.
Synonyms: bark, growl, mutter, abuse, bluster, bully, complain, fulminate, gnarl, mumble, murmur, quarrel, snap, threaten, thunder, yelp.
Antonyms: approve, commend, compliment, defend.
Example: A subsequent tweet by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj carried the news of the amnesty, but did not mention the role played by the Chief Minister of Kerala, leading to questions about jurisdiction of the State in such matters.
3. Amnesty [am-nuh-stee]
Noun: a general pardon for offenses, especially political offenses, against a government, often granted before any trial or conviction; Law. an act of forgiveness for past offenses, especially to a class of persons as a whole; a forgetting or overlooking of any past offense.
Verb: to grant amnesty to; pardon.
Synonyms: forgiveness, immunity, reprieve, absolution, condonation, dispensation.
Example: In the not-too-distant past, all this was welcome because the ‘other’ was either a foreign power or an oligarch or a dictator.
4. Oligarch [ol-i-gahrk]
Noun: one of the rulers in an oligarchy.
Synonyms: autocrat, boss, chief, commander, despot, fascist, leader, tycoon, tyrant, absolutist, adviser, authoritarian.
Antonyms: employee, follower, worker.
5. Dictator [dik-tey-ter, dik-tey-ter]
Noun: a person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary succession.
Synonyms: autocrat, boss, chief, commander, despot, fascist, leader, tycoon, tyrant, absolutist, adviser, authoritarian.
Antonyms: employee, follower, worker.
Example: Today, however, there is a sense of resigned inevitability, even apprehension, about Mr. Gandhi’s imminent ascension, not a sentiment on which a leader would like to coast to the highest office in his party.
6. Imminent [im-uh-nuh nt]
Adjective: likely to occur at any moment; impending; projecting or leaning forward; overhanging.
Synonyms: forthcoming, immediate, impending, inevitable, likely, looming, possible, probable, unavoidable, about to happen, approaching, brewing, close, coming, expectant, fast-approaching, following, gathering, handwriting-on-the-wall, in store, in the air, in the cards, in the offing, in the wind, in view, ineluctable, inescapable.
Antonyms: avoidable, distant, escapable, later.
7. Ascension [uh-sen-shuh n]
Noun: the act of ascending; ascent.
Synonyms: ascent, climbing, flying, mounting, rise, rising, scaling, soaring, escalating, towering.
Example: “Yet we have not been able to buck the trend of English being the key administrative language,” he said.
8. Buck [buhk]
Verb: (of a saddle or pack animal) to leap with arched back and come down with head low and forelegs stiff, in order to dislodge a rider or pack; to resist or oppose obstinately; object strongly.
Synonyms: bull, stag.
Example: Hindi continues to be have servile status while English continues to be language of aristocracy.
9. Servile [sur-vil, -vahyl]
Adjective: slavishly submissive or obsequious; fawning; characteristic of, proper to, or customary for slaves; abject; yielding slavishly; truckling (usually followed by to); extremely imitative, especially in the arts; lacking in originality; being in slavery; oppressed.
Synonyms: abject, base, beggarly, bootlicking, craven, cringing, despicable, eating crow, eating humble pie, fawning, humble, ignoble, low, mean, obedient, obeisant, obsequious, passive, slavish, submissive.
Antonyms: aggressive, dominant.
10. Aristocracy [ar-uh-stok-ruh-see]
Noun: a class of persons holding exceptional rank and privileges, especially the hereditary nobility; a government or state ruled by an aristocracy, elite, or privileged upper class; government by those considered to be the best or most able people in the state.
Synonyms: elite, gentility, gentry, nobility, upper class, upper crust, noblesse, patricians, peerage, society, haut monde, high society, patriciate.
Antonyms: commoners, plebites, proletariat.
eclension, decline, descendancy.
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