(adj) humiliating and miserable

(slaves on their way to the Americas endured abject conditions in crowded, disease-ridden ships)

(adj) contemptible

(abjection (n); abjectly (adv))

(Those who kill baby seals to sell their skins are abject in the eyes of animal lovers.) 

(v) to cause faster movement; to go faster

(Heat caused the chemical reaction to accelerate)

(n) swiftness; quickness, speed

(Atalanta, outrunning all but one who challenged her in a footrace, is a mythological example of celerity)

(v) to agree, to cooperate

(conflicts arise when parents do not concur on methods of child-rearing)

(v) to coincide; to happen simultaneously 

(In Shakespeare's plays human violence often concurs with storms and earthquakes)

(n) a collection of unrelated things

(conglomerate, (n) and (adj))

(At the flea market we sifted through a conglomeration of tools, lamps, jewelry and clothing.)

(n) an opinion formed from inclusive evidence; a guess

(The number of galaxies in the universe is still a matter of conjecture)

(v) To conclude from insufficient evidence

(People have conjectured for centuries about the fate of the lost civilization of Atlantis)

(n) conversation

(before the advent of movies and television, lively discourse as a popular amusement.

(n) formal discussion of a subject in speech of writing

(v) to talk; to discuss formally in speech or writing

(sometimes considered the most learned woman of the 19th century, Margaret Fuller could discourse with scholars on both sides of the Atlantic) 

(v) to meet with, to run into; to bring upon oneself

(The Greek hero Odysseus incurred the anger of the giant Polyphemus by poking out his single eye with a burning stick).

(n) a word or phrase sometimes inserted between other words, often expressing emotion; a word not linked grammatically to other words in a sentence.

"Oh!" and "Ouch!" are interjections.

(interject (n))

(n) forerunner

(precursory, adj)

(the precursor of American baseball is the English game of rounders) 

(n) help in time of distress

(The Red Cross gives succor to victims of flood, fire and famine)

(v) to render help to

(to succor her needy family, Jo March writes stories for magazines and even sells her hair in Little Women)

(v) to attack violently, to assault

(mistaking distant windmills for unfriendly giants, the legendary Don Quixote assails one of them with his lance)

(v) to attack with words; to ridicule or criticize harshly

(assailant (n))

(v) to use to one's own advantage (to avail oneself of)

(the salient characteristic of heroes in Horatio Alger stories is the ability to avail themselves of every chance to prosper)

(v) to recover health after illness

(until recently, tuberculosis patients would be expected to convalesce slowly in a sanitarium for a year)

(convalescence, (n))

(adj) jumping from one thing to another, rambling

(after hearing 5 desultory oral book reports, the class rejoiced when the bell rang)

(adj) haphazard or random

(after a desultory search for the lost ball, the golfers gave up)

(v) to develop gradually 

(books evolved from handwriting on papyrus to printing with movable type)

(v) to change from a simpler to a more complex form of animal or plant life

(biologists suggest all living things evolved to their present forms through successive generations)

(v) to rejoice greatly; to be triumphant

(Althea Gibson exulted when she won Wimbledon)

(exultant (adj); exultantly (adv); exultation (n))

(adj) widely occurring or in general use

(destruction of rain forests continues to be prevalent, causing harmful changes in global weather)

(prevail (v), prevalence (n))

(adj) capable of returning to the original shape after being bent or stretched

(rubber is a resilient material)

(adj) buoyant; recovering quickly from illness, change, or misfortune 

(the resilient Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France 4 times since surviving cancer)

(resilience, (n))

(adj)  conspicuous, striking

(The salient landmark in St. Louis is the Gateway Arch)

(adj) projecting up or out

(the roofs of Chinese pagodas curve up, ending with salient figures such as dragons)

(saliently (adv))

(n) heroic courage; bravery

(Edith proved her valor by protecting Allied soldiers from discovery)

(valorous (adj))

(adj) speaking in a steady, easy flow of words; talkative; glib

(parents often become voluble when explaining how things were when they were young)

(volubility (n); volubly (adv))