Unbeknownst means “without being known about by (a specified person or group of people).”

// Unbeknownst to the students, the teacher had entered the room.

When used literally, lodestone refers to the mineral magnetite, a magnetic iron ore. Lodestone is also used figuratively to refer to something that, like a magnet, strongly attracts things.

// The city is a lodestone for aspiring musicians of all genres.

Efficacious is a formal word used to describe something—often a treatment, medicine, or remedy—that has the power to produce a desired result or effect.

// Companies like to tout the number of efficacious natural ingredients in their beauty products.

1. fundamentally different or distinct in quality or kind

2. including markedly dissimilar elements

To foment something, such as hostility or opposition, is to cause it, or try to cause it, to grow or develop. Foment is used synonymously with incite.

// Rumors that the will was a fake fomented distrust between the two families.

Consternation is a formal word that refers to a strong feeling of surprise or sudden disappointment that causes confusion.

// The candidate caused consternation among his supporters by changing positions on a key issue.

When you go incognito, your true identity is kept secret (as through the use of a different name or a disguise). Incognito can be used either as an adverb or an adjective with the same meaning.

// The food critic made an incognito visit to the restaurant.

// The pop star travels incognito as much as possible, using a fake name and wearing a wig and heavy makeup to avoid the paparazzi.

To gossip is to talk about the personal lives of other people.

// The two siblings often gossip with each other about their neighbors via texting.

Moxie can refer to courage and determination (aka nerve), energy and pep (aka verve), or know-how (as, say, reflected in one’s oeuvre).

// They showed a lot of moxie in questioning their company’s policy.

// She clearly doesn’t need coffee to start her day full of moxie.

// The lead actor’s musical moxie inspired the addition of a serenade at the close of the play’s first act.

Someone described as affluent has a large amount of money and owns many expensive things. Something, such as a place or institution, described as affluent is similarly rich or wealthy.

// The affluent suburb sports some of the finest public schools in the county owing to its considerable tax base.