| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | small in amount, content |
| Synonyms: | casual, digestible, faint, fractional, fragmentary, frivolous, frugal, gentle, hardly any, hardly enough, inadequate, inconsequential, inconsiderable, indistinct, insignificant, insufficient, mild, minor, minuscule, minute, moderate, modest, not many, not much, not rich, puny, restricted, scanty, shoestring, slight, soft, sparse, superficial, thin, tiny, trifling, trivial, unimportant, unsubstantial, weak, wee |
| Antonyms: | heavy |
| Main Entry: | light-headed |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | silly; feeling faint |
| Synonyms: | changeable, delirious, dizzy, empty, featherbrained, fickle, flighty, flippant, foolish, frivolous, gaga, giddy, harebrained, hazy, punchy, reeling, rocky, scatterbrained, shallow, superficial, swimming, swimmy, tired, trifling, vertiginous, whirling, woozy |
| Antonyms: | healthy, ok, sober |
| Main Entry: | meretricious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | gaudy, flashy |
| Synonyms: | blatant, bogus, brazen, chintzy, counterfeit, garish, glaring, insincere, loud, misleading, ornate, phony, plastic, put-on, sham, showy, spurious, superficial, tawdry, tinsel, trashy |
| Notes: | meretricious means of or pertaining to prostitutes - alluring by vulgar or flashy display - based on pretense or insincerity; meritorious means deserving reward or praise |
| Antonyms: | genuine, real, undecorated, unembellished |
| Main Entry: | ornate |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | fancily decorated |
| Synonyms: | adorned, aureate, baroque, beautiful, bedecked, bright, brilliant, busy, colored, convoluted, dazzling, elaborate, elegant, embroidered, fancy, fine, flamboyant, flashy, flaunting, florid, flowery, fussy, gaudy, gilded, glamorous, glitzy, glossy, high-wrought, jeweled, lavish, luscious, magnificent, meretricious, opulent, ornamented, ostentatious, overdone, overelaborate, pretentious, resplendent, rich, rococo, showy, sparkling, splashy, sumptuous, superficial, tawdry, variegated |
| Notes: | ornamental means serving an esthetic rather than a useful purpose, while ornate means elaborately or excessively decorated or adorned |
| Antonyms: | plain, simple |
| Main Entry: | ostensible |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | alleged, supposed |
| Synonyms: | apparent, avowed, colorable, demonstrative, exhibited, illusive, illusory, likely, manifest, notable, outward, plausible, pretended, professed, purported, quasi, seeming, semblant, so-called, specious, superficial |
| Antonyms: | improbable, obscure, unlikely, vague |
| Main Entry: | outer |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | external, exposed |
| Synonyms: | alien, beyond, exoteric, exterior, extraneous, extrinsic, outermost, outlying, outmost, outside, outward, over, peripheral, remote, superficial, surface, without |
| Antonyms: | central, inner, interior |
| Main Entry: | outward |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | visible; for appearances |
| Synonyms: | apparent, evident, exterior, external, from within, noticeable, observable, obvious, on the surface, open, ostensible, out, outer, outside, over, perceptible, superficial, surface, to the eye, toward the edge |
| Antonyms: | invisible, inward |
| Main Entry: | passing |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | brief, casual |
| Synonyms: | cursory, ephemeral, evanescent, fleeting, fugacious, fugitive, glancing, hasty, impermanent, momentary, quick, shallow, short, short-lived, slight, superficial, temporary, transient, transitory |
| Antonyms: | lasting, long-lasting, permanent |
| Main Entry: | perfunctory |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | automatic, unthinking |
| Synonyms: | apathetic, careless, cool, cursory, disinterested, going through the motions, heedless, impersonal, inattentive, indifferent, involuntary, lackadaisical, laid-back*, mechanical, negligent, offhand, phoning it in, routine, sketchy, slipshod, slovenly, standard, stereotyped, stock, superficial, unaware, unconcerned, uninterested, usual, walking through it, wooden |
| Notes: | perfunctory is from Latin per- 'through' and fungi 'discharge; perform' meaning 'getting through the doing'; to do something carelessly is to perfunctorize or perfuncturate |
| Antonyms: | careful, precise, thoughtful |