61. Paramount
Definition: superior, supreme
Example: The issue of paramount importance is whether the baby is healthy. Everything else is something we can deal with.
62. Peruse
Definition: skim, review
Example: Alexis was annoyed when Dan only perused the document before declaring her work unimpressive.
63. Philistine
Definition: a person who is lacking in or hostile toward accepted cultural values or social refinement
Example: You don’t like Shiraz? You philistine!
64. Polemic
Definition: highly controversial
Example: The prostate cancer awareness advertisements featuring male celebrities in the buff (with only their key parts covered) is polemic, but effective.
65. Proclivity
Definition: natural tendency, disposition
Example: Trying to curb her proclivity for micromanagement, Diamond gave her employee carte blanche on the first draft of the proposal.
66. Procure
Definition: to seek and gain ownership of something
Example: Michelle was able to procure a computer that was able to read a floppy disk.
67. Proxy
Definition: the authority to represent someone else in an official capacity
Example: Rosalida acted as a proxy, paying the bills and taking care of her siblings while her mother took a month-long business trip.
68. Quid pro quo
Definition: something given for something taken (you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours)
Example: Jazmin and Nathan had a quid pro quo arrangement — she took his desk near her friend and he got her desk near the girl he has a crush on.
69. Quintessential
Definition: a perfect example or the pure essence of something
Example: Having learned to cook from her mother, who’s from Cabo San Lucas, Lisa had confidence she could open the quintessential Mexican restaurant in the states.
70. Quixotic
Definition: pursuing a seemingly unreachable or ambitious goal; idealist, impractical or both
Example: Dawn’s quixotic vision paid off when, to her boss’s surprise, her formula worked.
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