Invidious is a formal word used to describe things that are unpleasant and likely to cause bad feelings in other people. Such bad feelings may include resentment, discontent, animosity, or envy.
// Psychologists caution against drawing invidious comparisons between other people’s lives as portrayed on social media and one’s own.
Torpor is a formal word for a state of inactivity and sluggishness. It can also be used, especially in the context of hibernating and estivating animals, to refer to a state of lowered physiological activity.
// The magazine offers lots of ideas for activities designed to shake off the torpor of a rainy day.
Colloquial is used with words like term and word and expression to describe language that is used in familiar and informal conversation.
// The author can switch from formal academic language to a charmingly colloquial style, depending on the audience and subject of her writing.
To mitigate something is to make it less severe, harmful, or painful.
// One way we can mitigate the impact the construction project will have on residents is to commit to completing it in the allotted time.
Spindrift refers to spray blown from waves during a gale or to fine wind-borne snow or sand.
// Our whale-watching cruise was a whirlwind of flukes, fins, and clinging to the handrails amid the waves and salty blasts of spindrift.
Comely is an adjective with an old-fashioned and literary feel that describes someone or something that has a pleasing appearance, or that is pretty or attractive.
// The newlyweds make quite a comely couple.
To inveigle someone is to persuade them in a clever or deceptive way to do something. Inveigle can also mean “to get something in a clever or deceptive way.”
// According to rumors, the company inveigled employees into signing the agreement.
// Their attempts to inveigle the information from her were, eventually, fruitful.
A kludge is a haphazard or makeshift solution to a problem and especially to a computer or programming problem. // Andy knocked out a hasty kludge to circumvent the glitch until a more robust solution could be developed.