IM- / IN- / IL- / IR-        Not

Incompatible (adj) – Unable to exist together peacefully; not easy to combine harmoniously

Synonym: antagonistic
Antonyms: compatible, harmonious
Helpful Hint: When describing people, this word indicates personality conflicts. When describing objects, it suggests that the items cannot be used together – they will not function together
Sample Sentence: Even though the musicians were wonderfully talented together, the band had to break up, because their personalities were incompatible.

Indiscriminate (adj) – Done at random without careful thought; careless

Synonyms: nonselective, haphazard; thoughtless, unthinking
Antonyms: selective; thoughtful
Sample Sentence: The city was stunned by the rise in indiscriminate violence; no single group or subsection of the student population was targeted specifically.

AD-     Toward

Advent (n) – A coming in to view, use, or being; an arrival

Synonyms: arrival, birth, dawn, appearance, onset
Antonyms: departure, end
Helpful Hint: An advent calendar gives a countdown to the arrival of Christmas
Sample Sentence: The advent of the mobile phone created a new social system in which it became much easier to be in contact with friends and family.

Advocate (v) – To speak or write in favor of; to support or urge by argument; to recommend publicly

Synonyms: champion, promote, endorse, espouse
Antonyms: oppose
Sample Sentence: After the rise in motorcycle injuries, many advocated for the mandatory use of helmets.

ANTI-     Against

Antipathy (n) – Disgust, abhorrence, detestation, hatred

Synonyms: aversion, loathing, repulsion, antagonism
Antonyms: admiration, appreciation, approval, esteem
Sample Sentence: The fan in the Yankees hat at Fenway Park could sense the antipathy that most of his neighbors in his section felt toward him, based on the insults and the shower of peanut shells from every direction.

Antithesis (n) – The direct opposite

Synonyms: contrast, converse
Antonyms: same
Sample Sentence: Even though they were identical twin sisters, Maud was Belle’s antithesis, and their personalities could not have been further apart.

-IC     Having to do with

Bombastic (adj) – Using impressive-sounding but mostly meaningless words to try to seem important

Synonyms: overblown, pompous, pretentious, highfalutin
Antonyms: humble, quiet, reserved
Sample Sentence: Many voters were put off by the senator’s bombastic speech, in which he seemed to think that his fancy talk would make him seem intelligent.

Exotic (adj) – 1. Not native or familiar to a specific place  2. unusual or strange

Synonyms: foreign, odd
Antonyms: native, normal

Helpful Hint: What we might consider exotic is relative – sushi is more exotic to residents of Woburn, for instance, than it is to residents of Tokyo, and while we do not think of pizza as exciting or strange, it is pretty scarce in England, so pizza is a more exotic food in the UK than it is here.
Sample Sentence: Alicia liked predictability and rarely tried any of the exotic restaurants in her city.

-MENT     Condition of

Embodiment (n) – An example, representation, or expression of something

Synonyms: manifestation, encompassment, symbol
Antonyms: original; exclusion
Sample Sentence: The soccer team was the embodiment of sportsmanship, as they voluntarily congratulated the team that defeated them after the long, grueling game.

Enhancement (n) – A raising of quality, value or degree

Synonyms: improvement, increase
Antonym: reduction
Sample Sentence: The car salesman tried to increase the price of the car by adding enhancements that the customer didn’t necessarily want.

NEO-    New

Neologism (n) – 1. A new word, meaning, usage, or phrase  2. The introduction or use of new words, or new senses of existing words

Synonyms: buzz word, coinage
Antonyms: archaism
Sample Sentence: With the advent of Twitter, hashtag became a neologism that oozed its way into America’s vocabulary.

Neophyte (n) – A beginner or novice

Synonyms: amateur, fledgling, rookie
Antonyms: expert, veteran
Sample Sentence: Most people presumed that Dale was a neophyte when they watched him golf, but in fact, he had simply been a terrible golfer for a long, long time.

POST     After

Post Meridiem (n) – Afternoon

Synonyms: P.M.
Antonyms: morning

Helpful Hints: If you know that “Carpe Diem” means “Seize the DAY,” then you’ll remember the spelling for Post Meridiem, which means “After the Middle of the Day.” Also, the abbreviation for Post Meridiem is P.M. (School concludes at 2:00 P.M. ).
Sample Sentence: The train conductor was quirky and would announce the arrival times by adding “post meridiem” even though it was obviously after noon.

Posterior (adj) – 1. Situated behind or at the rear of  2. Coming in after time; later; subsequent

Synonyms: hind, hindmost, dorsal
Antonyms: front, anterior
Sample Sentence: In the battle, the front lines took heavy casualties, while the posterior companies lost hardly any soldiers.

VER     Truth

Aver (v) – To assert or affirm as true

Synonyms: avouch, avow, profess
Antonyms: contradict, deny, repudiate
Helpful Hints: Do not be tricked by the A-/AN- prefix from chapter 1 – In this case, the A- prefix is a shortened form of AD- from this unit; to aver is to literally “go toward the truth”
Sample Sentence: The sincerity with which Donna averred her innocence made her parents believe that she actually hadn’t broken the vase.

Veracity (n) – 1. Complete honesty, truth 2. An assumption that something is true, usually on reasonable grounds or probable evidence

Synonyms: credibility, integrity, accuracy, authenticity
Antonyms: falsehood, falsity
Helpful Hints: With any VER word, you might use your foreign language study to help you. The common French, Spanish, and Italian words for “True” all stem from this Latin root
Sample Sentence: A good English teacher always checks the veracity of the essays that he or she receives. Don’t plagiarize.

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