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SAT Gold Vocab-edit
Lessons from SAT book
Question | Answer |
---|---|
aegis | shield |
altruism | concern for others |
factious | causing disagreement |
ignoble | dishonorable; shameful |
boor | rude, impolite person |
perspicacity | keenness of judgment |
fervent | eager; earnest |
rectify | correct; make right |
enervate | to weaken |
besiege | to overwhelm; to surround and attack |
ephemeral | lasting only a short time; short-lived |
carrion | decaying flesh |
erotic | pertaining to sexual love |
amorphous | shapeless, formless |
opulent | rich, luxurious; wealthy |
impotent | powerless; lacking strength |
antithesis | an exact opposite; an opposite extreme |
maelstrom | whirlpool; turbulence; agitated state of mind |
emendation | a correction |
chagrin | embarrassment; a complete lack of courage |
bauble | a showy but useless thing |
diaphanous | very sheer and light |
labyrinth | complicated network of winding passages; a maze |
gloat | to look at or think about with great satisfaction |
impediment | a barrier; obstruction |
bestial | savage; brutal |
effete | warren out; barren |
shard | a fragment |
bland | mild;tasteless; dull |
nihilism | total rejection of established laws |
pedestrian | ordinary or dull |
bona fide | in good faith |
adventitious | accidental; nonessential |
fecund | fertile, productive |
deviate | to turn aside from a course, to stray |
obfuscate | to confuse, bewilder |
impale | to pierce with a sharp stick through the body |
extenuate | to lessen the seriousness by providing partial excuses |
parochial | local; narrow; limited |
glower | to stare angrily |
edify | to improve someone morally |
ambiguous | open to more than one interpretation |
cataclysm | a violent change |
optimum | best; most favorable; ideal |
importune | to ask persistently; to beg |
celibate | abstaining from intercourse |
fortuitous | lucky; by chance |
recapitulate | to summarize; to repeat briefly |
perfunctory | done without care; in a routine fashion |
baroque | overly decorated |
hedonism | pursuit of pleasure, especially of the senses |
obloquy | strong disapproval; a bad reputation resulting from public criticism |
debacle | a complete failure; a total collapse |
quasi- | resembling; seeming; half |
besmirch | to make dirty; to stain |
imperative | extremely necessary; vitally important |
sacrosanct | extremely holy |
sadistic | deriving pleasure from inflicting pain on others |
demeanor | behavior; manner of conducting oneself |
facetious | comical; jocular; flippant |
Fop | An excessively fashion-conscious man |
Imprecation | A curse |
Non sequitur | Something that does not logically follow |
Sanguine | Cheerful; optimistic |
Bowdlerize | To remove offensive passages of a play, novel |
Impair | To weaken; to cause to become worse |
Panegyric | An expression of praise |
Quandary | A puzzling situation; a dilemma |
Ebullient | Enthusiastic |
Deference | Respect; consideration |
Carnal | Relating to physical appetite, especially sexual |
Nebulous | Hazy; vague; uncertain |
Rakish | Dashingly stylish and confident |
Elegy | A sad or mournful poem |
Pedantic | Tending to show off one's learning |