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GREvoc magoosh
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Admonish | To admonish means to warn beforehand or to scold after the fact. |
| Alacrity | The GRE has a predilection for words that don’t really sound like what they mean. Alacrity is no exception. Many think the word has a negative connotation. Alacrity, however, means an eager willingness to do something. |
| Ambivalent | For some reason, people often think ambivalent is synonymous with indifferent. This could not be further from the truth. To be ambivalent means to have mixed feelings. |
| Auspicious | This word sounds very sinister. Auspicious is actually the opposite and means favorable. |
| Becoming | Another secondary meaning that changes parts of speech, becoming an adjective. If something is becoming, it matches nicely. |
| Belie | This is ETS’s number one favorite word for harder questions. Period. This is when outward appearances do not match up with reality. That contradiction is the essence of belie. |
| Belligerent | Inclined to fighting |
| Benign | This word is anything but benign if you go into the test not knowing what it means. To be benign is to be harmless. |
| Betray | To betray means to go against one’s country or friends. Right? Well, yes, but not always. Especially on the GRE. To betray means to reveal or make known something, usually unintentionally. |
| Bleak | If one has a very depressing take on life, we say that person has a bleak outlook. Landscapes can be bleak (Siberia in April, the Texas of No Country for Old Men), and writers, too (Dostoevsky, Orwell). |
| Candid | A straightforward and honest look at something is a candid one. |
| Capricious | unpredictable, whimsical |
| Contentious | It doesn’t mean to be content. On the contrary, contentious means argumentative (it comes from the verb contend). GRE loves this word. |
| Contrite | Word roots are often misleading. This word does not mean with triteness (con- meaning with). To be contrite is to feel remorse. |
| Corroborate | to confirm, make stronger |
| Diffident | Nope, diffident does not relate to different, besides the fact that they are different words. Diffident means shy, lacking confidence. |
| Disabuse | To disabuse is not the opposite of abuse. To disabuse is to persuade somebody that his/her belief is not valid. Often, disabuse goes together with the word notion (disabused of the notion...) |
| Disinterested | Everybody assumes that disinterested means not interested. While this is acceptable colloquially, the GRE, as you’ve probably come to learn by now, is anything but colloquial. The definition of “disinterested” is unbiased, neutral. |
| Disparate | If two things are fundamentally different, they are disparate. For instance, verbal skills and math skills are disparate, and as such are usually tested separately, the GRE being no exception. |
| Dissolution | When a group says, “Hey, we’ve had enough. Let’s separate for good”, then we are about to witness the dissolution of that group. Major dissolutions in history are the Roman Empire the dissolution of the Catholic Church under Henry VIII, and the Beatles. |
| Egregious | ‘Greg’ is the Latin root for flock. At one point egregious meant standing out of the flock in a positive way. This definition went out of vogue, after which egregious was used ironically. Nowadays ‘egregious’ means standing out in a bad way. |
| Enervate | Most people think this words means to energize. It actually means to sap the energy from. |
| Engender | To engender is to give rise to something. This something could be your feelings, a situation, or a general state of affairs. |
| Ephemeral | short-lived |
| Equivocate | People tend to think that equivocate has to do with equal. It actually means to speak vaguely, usually with the intention to mislead or deceive. To state something unequivocally is to state it in such a way that there is no room for doubt. |
| Erratic | Unpredictable, often wildly so, erratic is reserved for pretty extreme cases. |
| Erudite | scholarly |
| Esoteric | known to a select few |
| Extant | Many think this word means extinct. Extant is actually "in existence," the opposite of extinct. |
| Fastidious | nitpicky |
| Fleece | If you are thinking Mary Had a Little Lamb (…fleece as white as snow), you have been fleeced by a secondary meaning. To fleece is to deceive. |
| Gratuitous | Starting out, many students think gratuitous is the adjective form of gratuity (as on a restaurant bill). The GRE plays on this misconception. Gratuitous means unnecessary, unwarranted. |
| Gregarious | To be gregarious is to be likely to socialize with others. A good synonym is flocking, like what birds do. But, people can hang out with each other and not necessarily have to chat. Do not confuse gregarious with garrulous, which means talkative. |
| Histrionic | Yep, this GRE word doesn’t relate to history—it relates to acting. To be histrionic means to be overly dramatic. |
| Impetuous | It is a good idea to look before the proverbial leap. However, those who are impetuous do not necessarily think so. Impetuous means recklessly incautious. |
| Inculpate | to charge with wrong-doing; accuse |
| Infinitesimal | Then there is infinitesimal, which means very, very small—not, as many are inclined to think, very, very large or infinite. |
| Ingenuous | To be ingenuous is to be naïve and innocent. So, if you are likely to go along with a devious plan, whether or not it is ingenious, you are ingenuous. Disingenuous means insincere. |
| Innocuous | Something innocuous is harmless and doesn’t produce any ill effects. Many germs are innocuous. Innocuous can also mean inoffensive. An innocuous question is unlikely to upset anyone. |
| Insidious | Something that is subtly destructive is insidious. Plaque is insidious. It slowly eats away at your gum line, as you blithely go own consuming chocolate chip cookies (don’t worry – I’m not admonishing you). |
| Intimate | Just as tender doesn’t relate to two people in love, neither does intimate, at least on the GRE. The secondary meaning for intimate is to suggest something subtly. |
| Intransigent | If somebody is stubborn and will not change his or her views, that person is intransigent. |
| Laconic | Another word that sounds different from what it means. A person is described as laconic when he/she says very few words. |
| Lionize | To treat as a celebrity |
| Loquacious | talkative |
| Magnanimous | big-hearted; generous |
| Maintain | The second definition of this word – and one the new GRE favors – is to assert. One can maintain their innocence. A scientist can maintain that a recent finding support her theory. The latter context is the one you’ll encounter on the GRE. |
| Mercurial | Changing one’s personality often and unpredictably. 2. Animated, sprightly |
| Mettlesome | When you poke your nose in somebody else’s business, you are being meddlesome. If you are mettlesome, on the other hand, you are filled with mettle (no, not the hard stuff), which means courage or valor. |
| Mitigate | To make something less bad is to mitigate it. You can mitigate your hunger by eating. You can mitigate poverty by donating to charitable causes. |
| Paucity | Paucity is a lack of something. In honor of paucity, this entry will have a paucity of words. |
| Peruse | Peruse means to read very carefully. Unfortunately, the colloquial usage not only ignores this definition, but goes so far as to flip this definition on its head. For many people, peruse (incorrectly) means to read over quickly. |
| Perverse | Everyone knows the common definition of perverse (yes, you can chuckle). But, there is a second definition that many do not know - "stubborn." |
| Pragmatic | practical |
| Profuse | If something literally pours out in abundance we say it is profuse. This pouring is usually figurative. |
| Prolific | producing or creating abundantly |
| Prosaic | Prosaic sounds like mosaic, a word many ascribe positive characteristics to. But prosaic does not relate to mosaic; and it does not have a positive connotation. Prosaic means dull, ordinary, lacking imagination. |
| Prosaic | Prosaic conjures up a beautiful mosaic for some. For others, the pro- is clearly positive. So if somebody or something is prosaic, it must surely be good. Once again the GRE confounds expectations. Prosaic means dull and lacking imagination. |
| Pugnacious | Much like the pug dog, which aggressively yaps at things near it, a person who is pugnacious likes to aggressively argue about everything. Verbally combative is another good way to describe pugnacious. |
| Qualify | To qualify is to limit, and is usually used in the context of a statement or opinion. Authors of GRE passages never feel 100% about something. They always think in a nuanced fashion - they qualify their praise/disapproval. |
| Remiss | This word does not mean to miss again. To be remiss means to neglect one’s duty. |
| Reticent | tightlipped, not prone to saying much, reluctant |
| Sanguine | Sanguine just doesn’t sound like its definition: cheerfully optimistic. If anything, it sounds like it means pessimistic. As long as you remain sanguine about how well you will do test day, you shouldn’t mix up this word. |
| Sedulous | Students never seem to remember this word. Perhaps the sed- reminds them of sitting and being idle. To be sedulous, however, is to be anything but idle. If you are sedulously studying for the GRE, you are studying diligently. |
| Solicitous | Maybe solicitous conjures up images of a stranger knocking at your door just as you’re finishing up breakfast (it means very eager to help…there is no peddling of unwanted wares). |
| Soporific | inducing sleep |
| Start | The secondary meaning for start is somewhat similar to the common meaning. To start is to suddenly move or dart in a particular direction. |
| Supercilious | If someone looks down on you contemptuously, that person is being supercilious. For instance, if you roll into a five-star restaurant in Manhattan wearing jeans and t-shirt, the maître d’ is likely to give you a supercilious look. |
| Tender | Tender is a verb, and it does not mean to behave tenderly. When you tender, something you offer it up. For instance, when you tender your resignation, you hand in a piece of paper saying that you are resigning. |
| Undermine | “Undermine” means to weaken and is usually paired with an abstract term, such as authority. It can also have the connotation of slowly or insidiously eroding (insidious mean subtly harmful). |
| Veracity | Veracity sounds a lot like voracity. Whereas many know voracity means full of hunger (the adjective form voracious is more common), few know veracity. Unfortunately, many confuse the two on the test. Veracity means truthful. |
| Wanting | Wanting means lacking. So, if your knowledge of secondary meanings is wanting, this post is a perfect place to start learning. |
| Wax | Melting wax will only lead you astray. The secondary meaning for wax is to increase. The opposite of wax is to wane. |
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scsias
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