1. Plaudit
   Rescind
2. Portent
   Exigent

The U.S. Supreme Court Kentucky v. King 2011 ruling holds that "the exigent circumstances rule applies when the police do not gain entry to the premises by means of an actual or threatened violation of the Fourth Amendment." Thus, warrantless entry for the sake of saving evidence is deemed valid.

1. Onerous
   Modicum
2. Debacle
   Noisome

Pakistan's Hamoodur Rehman Inquiry Commission determined that an intimate group of generals be tried for a debacle that occurred during the Indo-Pakistani War. The Commission concluded that in December 1971, Eastern Pakistani troops surrendered without official orders to do so.

1. Beguile
   Noxious
2. Panacea
   Laconic

In the mid-1990s, the Burmese regime of southeast Asia sought to beguile outside critics by easing its rhetoric concerning then-jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The regime had censured severely the leader who eventually won political power in the country, also called Myanmar.

1. Consign
   Panacea
2. Exigent
   Defunct

In 2010, Thailand's New Politics Party of the People's Alliance for Democracy warned that the Thai government not perceive new national reform panels as a panacea for the country's social ills. New Politics Party leader Suriyasai Katasila was skeptical, asserting that the panels wouldn't help much.

1. Impinge
   Swarthy
2. Freedom
   Defunct

The General National Congress, Libya's defunct parliament, issued a letter to the European Parliament concerning its advice and stance on the 21st-century Libyan crisis. The former legislative body emphasized its support of a united Libya.

1. Hapless
   Surfeit
2. Puerile
   Stamina

In 2005, a customer seeking to open an account in a Manhattan bank was arrested promptly on several counts of bank robbery. The hapless customer was the victim of mistaken identity. He bore a striking resemblance to a thief who had robbed several area banks.

1. Winsome
   Presage
2. Impinge
   Emulate

Richard Stagg, the former British ambassador to Afghanistan, praised the Afghan National Cricket Team for its 2016 achievements. Stagg recommended that the Afghan government emulate the unity that the team had demonstrated in order to achieve wins.

1. Surfeit
   Impinge
2. Connive
   Expunge

In 2014, U.S. Congress members met with the 14th Dalai Lama, a proponent of complete autonomy for China-controlled Tibet. A China spokesperson criticized the U.S., saying "stop interfering in China's internal affairs...cease to connive and support anti-China separatist forces ..."

1. Paucity
   Plaudit
2. Mawkish
   Fatuous

In 1998, Canadian Senator Anne Cools made a fervent speech to the Canadian Senate regarding the country's Divorce Act. Cools criticized the country's hushed stance regarding divorce cases, stating, "This silence is indicative of our human paucity, the paucity and imperfections of human nature ..."

1. Protean
   Noisome
2. Laconic
   Hapless

In 2004, the Filipino Reporter reflected on the terse campaign style of former actor and Philippine presidential frontrunner Fernando Poe Jr. The New York City publication expounded, "[Poe's] laconic speeches do not provide a clue to his economic, social and political programs."

1. Mawkish
   Exigent
2. Puerile
   Noxious

A 2008 article in the Statesman Journal warned Oregon residents to be careful when shopping for plants. The yellow flag iris plant was quarantined in the state because it had been deemed a "noxious weed" and an "aggressive invader."

1. Rescind
   Expunge
2. Expiate
   Espouse

In 2010, the Wisconsin Bar Association implored judges to expunge easily accessible law records that were susceptible to abuse, even if it meant acting beyond state statute limitations. Judges in the state had already been deleting the records of juvenile offenders who had committed minor crimes.

1. Onerous
   Laconic
2. Defunct
   Mawkish

A 1998 item published in London's Financial Times gave commentary concerning Boris Yeltsin's choice for Russian prime minister. Included in the article was a brief analysis of Russia's foreign policy, which the publication styled as "hawkish in rhetoric - however mawkish it may be in practice."

1. Connive
   Espouse
2. Expiate
   Censure

American author Suzanne La Follette, in her 1926 work "Concerning Women," wrote, "Most people, no doubt, when they espouse human rights, make their own mental reservations about the proper application of the word 'human.'" In her book, La Follette champions women's rights.

1. Portent
   Expunge
2. Censure
   Emulate

American screenwriter and novelist Larry McMurty penned "self-parody is the first portent of age" in his 2010 book, "Some Can Whistle." In the novel, McMurty tells a tragic Texas tale about the pitfalls tagged to growing older and wiser.

1. Mawkish
   Exigent
2. Fatuous
   Protean

English journalist Rod Liddle was self-critical in his written rant titled "Fatuous Phrase of the Week" in which he reconciles his failure to produce the column, as he was distracted by trivial issues. A few of the terms that Liddle characterized as silly are "wrong side of history" and "community."

1. Impinge
   Espouse
2. Debauch
   Presage

A 2005 EIU ViewsWire story about South Korean politics took notice of looming issues that have agitated the country's business sector in light of its close proximity to North Korea. Concerning the North's curfew law, the article states, "[i]t did not impinge ... in the South, it was business as usual."

1. Onerous
   Noisome
2. Laconic
   Fatuous

Journalist Michael Gartner offered an illuminating analysis of the word "noisome" in a 1988 Orlando Sentinel article titled "Noisome Has Nothing to Do With Noise." Gartner explains, "Odors are noisome, and urchins are noisome, and slums are noisome, but silence isn't noisome ..."

1. Hapless
   Laconic
2. Protean
   Noisome

Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton coined the phrase, "The Protean Self," in his 1993 text of the same name. In the journal Research in African Literatures, David Dimeo describes the 20th century African "protean man" as "incapable of speaking for his fellow Nubians, who remain voiceless subalterns ..."

1. Freedom
   Stamina
2. Panacea
   Umbrage

In a 2010 piece, Politico reporter Michael Kinsley defines what he terms an "epidemic of umbrage" in American politics. Kinsley says: "Umbrage is the engine that moves election campaigns and the fodder that feeds the media's politics maw."

1. Surfeit
   Rescind
2. Impinge
   Emulate

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded Obama-era guidelines that had served to more directly address sexual violence cases that occur on American campuses. DeVos also aims to overturn the gainful employment rule that requires schools to monitor the ​debt-to-income rates of their graduates.

1. Consign
   Modicum
2. Censure
   Connive

The term "censure" was used frequently during the 1998 and 1999 impeachment hearings for former President Bill Clinton. The U.S. House of Representatives fervently debated whether censure was a viable alternative to impeachment.

1. Protean
   Modicum
2. Panacea
   Debacle

Writer Doug Smith instructs Arkansas Times readers on the proper use of the word "modicum" in a 2006 article. Smith informs that "[m]odicum is a noun meaning 'a moderate or small amount.' It's preceded by a, not the, and it's not a word to describe a person ..."

1. Surfeit
   Winsome
2. Expiate
   Debauch

Writer Andrew Barr gives commentary about alcohol and American cultural history in a 1999 book titled, "Drink: A Social History of America." Barr writes, "Americans have never outgrown their tendency to oscillate between binge drinking and abstinence, between debauch and ineffectual puritanism."

1. Censure
   Presage
2. Beguile
   Expiate

The Economist magazine published a 1995 write-up examining the Bosnian government's culpability in the country's 20th-century war. The article suggests, "a truly democratic federation, generous towards the Serbs and Croats ... could expiate some of the sins ..."

1. Puerile
   Maudlin
2. Onerous
   Swarthy

Satisfactory use of the word "puerile" is demonstrated in a review of the less-than-high-brow art history book, "Art For Dummies." About the book, critic Douglas Smith writes, "The sole drawbacks are the insulting series title ... and the collection of pithy, puerile cartoons that epigrammatically open each chapter."

1. Puerile
   Mawkish
2. Maudlin
   Winsome

In her review of Anne de Courcy's "Daddy's Girl," New Statesman reviewer Lillian Pizzichini gives her own biographical account of the book's subject, former heiress Diana Mosley. Pizzichini comments, "She married at 18 to the worshipful, winsome and rather weedy Bryan Guinness."

1. Impinge
   Debauch
2. Connive
   Presage

Writer Georgie Anne Geyer compares past events to 21st-century horrors in the Middle East. In a 2004 Chicago Tribune article, Geyer considers that the '80s saw the emergence of the Islamic group in the region, which "would come to presage ... many of the tactics of today's 'terrorists.'"

1. Puerile
   Paucity
2. Onerous
   Noisome

Brian Concannon Jr. expounds on Haiti's national debt crisis in a 2006 Boston Haitian Reporter article titled "Apre Bal, Tanbou Lou." Concannon discusses that "[o]nerous debt is one that a poor country simply cannot afford to repay without making life unacceptably difficult for its citizens."

1. Swarthy
   Winsome
2. Maudlin
   Onerous

In a 1998 issue of Interrace, Christopher Appling offers insight concerning the alleged hidden heritage of some of America's former presidents. Appling refers to the 16th president as "Abraham Africanus the First," urging that Lincoln's father was of "swarthy complexion ​..."

1. Plaudit
   Portent
2. Panacea
   Modicum

In a review of Louis Auchincloss' book titled, "Theodore Roosevelt," Gilbert Taylor from The Booklist reconsiders Auchincloss' reasons for praising the former U.S. president. For Gilbert, "it was TR's vigorous leadership as a progressive president ... that earns him the plaudit."

1. Protean
   Fatuous
2. Surfeit
   Modicum

In 1998, journalist Richard Dooling of the New York Times explored possible causes for former U.S. President Bill Clinton's "unpopular impeachment." In an article, Dooling blames "the surfeit of intrusive laws that would make criminals of almost anyone the Government decides to investigate."

1. Stamina
   Maudlin
2. Debauch
   Beguile

Tanya Lehr, a writer for Horse & Rider magazine, reviews the American Morgan breed of horse. Lehr comments in a 1999 issue: "This is a suitable breed for you if your horse-shopping checklist includes: versatility ... intelligence; loyalty; stamina; ability to adapt to different riding levels ..."

1. Paucity
   Protean
2. Umbrage
   Freedom

In his "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King Jr. nuanced the meaning of freedom as it relates to the nation's oppressed groups. King expressed empathy: "Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution ..."

1. Winsome
   Maudlin
2. Portent
   Defunct

In a review of an art show held at London's Barbican Art Gallery in 1995, The Economist magazine references the work of English artists. The magazine submits that "the pictures of many of the English artists are derivative and maudlin. They lack ... swift delight in heightened sensation ..."