The word “similitude” means “being similar to something else.” This is better than several of the tempting options, such as “replication,” “redundancy,” and “clone,” all of which imply likeness too strongly. The sentence’s “barely” needs a weaker word, for being “barely” a replication really would mean that something is almost identical—which clearly does not seem to be the case, given that few would have recognized the man thus honored. The word “similitude” is related to English words like “similar” and “similarity.”

One who is “munificent” is extremely generous. The word is derived from the Latin “munus,” which means gift but also office. Hence, it has derived English words like “municipality” as well as “remuneration.” The ending “-ficent” comes from the same root as ending like “-fy” and “-ficate,” meaning to do or make and found in many English words.

This is a strange sentence, but it leads you directly to your word. The poor old ambassador above all has knee damage.

The “genu-“ of “genuflection” comes from the Latin word for knee, while the “-flection” means related to bending. There are many related English words like “flexible,” “reflect,” “inflect,” and so forth.

Here, the key is to note that the person in question used to be important. Such a person does not merely have a throng around him (though the group of assistants might improperly be called that).

The proper word is “retinue.”  To remember the word, think of other related words like “retain,” “sustain,” and “contain”—all words dealing with holding. (This is due to their common Latin root). A person's “retinue” are the people they hold on to for their own usage.

Here, the word “pleb,” though odd, captures the sense best of all. There are no negative or slavish implications in the description of Robert’s apparent humble beginnings.  The word is a shortened form of “plebeian,” which means a commoner. It is basically an import from the Latin “plebs” which means basically the same thing.

Although many of the other instruments listed here are tempting, we know that the most appropriate tool would be that which would most definitely be used for charting stars. Such a tool is an “astrolabe,” which was used in navigation based on the stars. It means literally to take the stars. You should know the “astro-” root word, which is found in words like “astronaut” and “astronomy.”

A “constitution” in general regards the makeup of something. (One can say that something is “constituted of” a number of parts). When applied to a person, it often carries with it the sense of signifying that person’s physical state and vigor. Since the sentence focus not on Donald’s immune system as much as his “little natural vigor,” it is better to choose “constitution” than some of the other potential options like “immunity” or perhaps (for the biologists) “leukocytes.”

A “wastrel” is quite literally a total “waste.” Such a person is not merely a “mooch” or an “idler” or anything of that sort. Instead, the person really has no redeeming qualities, quite like Henry in our description.

A “premonition” is a “pre-warning” or a sense of doom that occurs before something bad actually happens. This is better than even “intuition” or “hunch” because Megan clearly had a sense that something bad would happen. The “-monition” portion of the word comes form the Latin “monere,” meaning to warn, that is used in the word “admonish.”

Although the programmer might have been perplexed, mystified, or vexed (or have frittered away time), we are not able to go beyond the literal sense of our sentence. All that we can say is that the problem had absorbed his thought many hours; therefore, we can say that he had to “cogitate” which means to think over something insistently. It is related to words like “cognition,” though it also literally could be taken to mean to turn over as in “to turn over and over in one’s mind.”