SAT Study Words -- A

Description:	1000 Most Common Vocabulary Words on the SAT
Category:	SAT
Created by:	Karina Geneva on 2009-08-09

Word	Definition	Sentence
abate	(v) to reduce, lessen	The rain poured down for a while, then ABATED.
abdicate	(v) to give up a position, usually one of leadership	When he realized that the revolutionaries would surely win, the king ABDICATED his throne.
abduct	(v) to kidnap, take by force	The evildoers ABDUCTED the fairy princess from her happy home.
aberration	(n) something that differs from the norm
abet	(v) to aid, help, encourage	The spy succeeded only because he had a friend on the inside to abet him.
abhor	(v) to hate, detest	Because he always wound up kicking himself in the head when he tried to play soccer, Oswald began to ABHOR the sport.
abide	(v) to put up with; (v) to remain	Though he did not agree with the decision, chuck decided to ABIDE by it. Despite the beating they've taken from the weather throughout the millennia, the mountains ABIDE.
abject	(adj) wretched, pitiful	After losing her money, falling into a puddle, and breaking her ankle, Eloise was ABJECT.
abjure	(v) to reject, renounce	To prove his honesty, the President ABJURED the evil policies of his wicked predecessor.
abnegation	(n) denial of comfort to oneself	The holy man slept on the floor, took only cold showers, and generally followed other practices of ABNEGATION.
abort	(v) to give up on a half-finished project or effort	After they ran out of food, the men attempting to jump rope around the world had to abort and go home.
abridge	(v) to cut down, shorten	The publisher thought the dictionary was too long and ABRIDGED it.
abridged	(adj) shortened	Moby Dick is such a long book that even the ABRIDGED version is longer than most normal books.
abrogate	(v) to abolish, usually by authority	The Bill of Rights assures that the government cannot ABROGATE our right to a free press.
abscond	(v) to sneak away and hide	In the confusion, the super spy ABSCONDED into the night with the secret plans.
absolution	(n) release or forgiveness from blame, guilt, sin	Once all the facts were known, the jury gave Angela ABSOLUTION by giving a verdict of not guilty.
abstain	(v) to freely choose not to commit an action	Everyone demanded that Angus put on the kilt, but he did not want to do it and ABSTAINED.
abstruse	(adj) hard to comprehend	Everyone else in the class understood geometry easily, but John found the subject ABSTRUSE.
accede	(v) to agree, sometimes reluctantly	When the class asked the teacher whether they could play baseball instead of learn grammar they expected him to refuse, but instead he acceded to their request.
accentuate	(v) to stress, highlight	Psychologists agree that those people who are happiest ACCENTUATE the positive in life.
accessible	(adj) obtainable, reachable	After studying and getting a great score on the SAT, Marlena happily realized that her goal of getting into an Ivy League college was ACCESSIBLE.
acclaim	(n) high praise	Greg's excellent poem on the ACCLAIM of his friends.
accolade	(n) high praise, special distinction	Everyone offered ACCOLADES to Sam after he won the Nobel Prize.
accommodating	(adj) helpful, obliging, polite (usually by making adjustments or adapting)	Although the apartment was not big enough for three people, Ann, Sue and Beth were all friends and were ACCOMMODATING to each other.
accord	(n) an agreement	After much negotiating, England and Iceland finally came to a mutually-beneficial ACCORD about fishing rights off the coast of Greenland.
abase	(v) to humiliate, degrade	After being overthrown and ABASED, the deposed leader offered to bow down to his conqueror.