ex

exacerbate (v.) to make more violent, intense (The gruesome and scary movie I saw last night exacerbated my fears of the dark.)

exalt (v.) to glorify, praise (Michael Jordan is the figure in basketball we exalt the most.)

exasperate (v.) to irritate, irk (George’s endless complaints exasperated his roomate.)

excavate (v.) to dig out of the ground and remove (The pharaoh’s treasures were excavated by archeologists in Egypt.)

exculpate (v.) to free from guilt or blame, exonerate (My discovery of the ring behind the dresser exculpated me from the charge of having stolen it.)

excursion (n.) a trip or outing (After taking an excursion to the Bronx Zoo, I dreamed about pandas and monkeys.)

execrable (adj.) loathsome, detestable (Her pudding is so execrable that it makes me sick.)

exhort (v.) to urge, prod, spur (Henry exhorted his colleagues to join him in protesting against the university’s hiring policies.)

exigent (adj.) urgent, critical (The patient has an exigent need for medication, or else he will lose his sight.)

exonerate (v.) to free from guilt or blame, exculpate (The true thief’s confession exonerated the man who had been held in custody for the crime.)

exorbitant (adj.) excessive (Her exorbitant praise made me blush and squirm in my seat.)

expedient (adj.) advisable, advantageous, serving one’s self-interest (In his bid for reelection, the governor made an expedient move by tabling all controversial legislation.)

expiate (v.) to make amends for, atone (To expiate my selfishness, I gave all my profits to

charity.)

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expunge (v.) to obliterate, eradicate (Fearful of an IRS investigation, Paul tried to expunge all incriminating evidence from his tax files.)

expurgate (v.) to remove offensive or incorrect parts, usually of a book (The history editors expurgated from the text all disparaging and inflammatory comments about the Republican Party.)

extant (adj.) existing, not destroyed or lost (My mother’s extant love letters to my father are in the attic trunk.)

extol (v.) to praise, revere (Violet extolled the virtues of a vegetarian diet to her meat-loving brother.)

extraneous (adj.) irrelevant, extra, not necessary (Personal political ambitions should always remain extraneous to legislative policy, but, unfortunately, they rarely are.)

extricate (v.) to disentangle (Instead of trying to mediate between my brother and sister, I extricated myself from the family tension entirely and left the house for the day.)

exult (v.) to rejoice (When she found out she won the literature prize, Mary exulted by dancing and singing through the school’s halls.)