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GRE words
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| abate | to lessen in intensity or degree |
| abberant | deviating from the norm |
| abjure | to renounce or reject solemnly |
| abrogate | to repeal; to revoke |
| abstemonious | eating and drinking in moderation |
| accolade | an expression of praise |
| acerbic | having a sour or bitter taste. sharp and forthright |
| acumen | quick, keen, or accurate knowledge or insight |
| admonish | to reprove; to express warning or disapproval |
| adroit | adept; dexterous |
| adulation | excessive praise; intense adoration |
| adulterate | to reduce purity by combining with inferior ingredients |
| aesthetic | dealing with, appreciative of, or responsive to art or beauty |
| aggrandize | to increase in intensity, power, or prestige |
| alacrity | eager and enthusiastic willingness |
| alchemy | a medieval science aimed to transmute metals into gold |
| amalgamate | to combine several elements into a whole |
| amenable | aggreable; responsive to suggestion |
| anachronistic | out of place in terms of historical or chronological context |
| anathema | a solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse; a cursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing |
| anomaly | deviation from the normal order, form, or rule; abnormality |
| antipathy | aversion; dislike |
| antithetical | diametrically opposed; as in antithesis |
| apocryphal | of dubious authenticity or origin; spurious |
| apogee | farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith |
| apostate | one who abandons log-held religious or political convictions |
| apotheosis | deification; supreme example |
| apposite | appropriate; pertinent; relevent; suitable |
| apprise | to give notice to; to inform; notify |
| approbation | an expression of approval or praise |
| arcane | mysterious; esoteric |
| arabesque | a complex, ornate design; also a dance position |
| archaic | outdated; associated with an earlier perhaps more primitive time |
| artless | completely without guile; unsophisticated |
| ascetic | someone practicing self-denial |
| aspersion | an act of defamation or maligning; slander |
| assay | to put to a test |
| assiduous | diligent; hard-working |
| assuage | to ease or lessen; to appease or pacify |
| astringent | biting; severe |
| atrophy | to waste away or deteriorate |
| attenuate | to weaken or make thinner |
| audacious | daring and fearless; recklessly bold |
| augury | omen; potent; indication |
| auspices | protection or support |
| auspicious | favorable |
| avarice | greed, especially for wealth |
| aver | to state as fact; to confirm or support |
| baleful | sinister; ominous |
| beatify | to bless, make happy, or ascribe a virtue to |
| behemoth | something enormous; a gigantic creature |
| beleaguer | to beset; to beseige |
| belie | to give a false impression of |
| bellicose | belligerant; warlike |
| boisterous | loud; noisy; lacking restraint |
| bolster | to provide support |
| bombast | self-important or pompous writing or speech |
| boor | a rude or insensitive person |
| burgeon | to grow rapidly or flourish |
| burnish | to make smooth; to rub to a shine |
| byzantine | labyrinthine; complex |
| cabal | a scheme or plot; a group of plotters |
| cachinnate | to laugh loudly |
| cacophony | harsh, jarring, discordant sound; dissonance |
| cajole | to inveigle; to coax through flattery |
| calumny | slander |
| calumniate | to slander |
| canon | an established set of principles or code of laws, often religious in nature |
| capricious | inclined to change one's mind impulsively or unpredictably |
| captious | calculated to confuse or entrap in argument |
| castigate | to severely criticize or punish |
| catalyst | a substance that accelerates the rate of a chemical reaction without changing; a person who causes change |
| caustic | burning or stinging, causing corrosion |
| celerity | speed |
| censure | to criticize severly; to officially rebuke |
| chary | wary; cautious, sparing |
| chasten | to restrain or correct |
| chauvinist | a blindly devoted patriot |
| chicanery | trickery or subterfuge |
| chimera | an illusion; originally, an imaginary fire-breathing monster |
| churlish | vulgar; difficult and intractable |
| coalesce | to come together or unite |
| coda | a concluding section of a musical or literary piece |
| cogent | appealing forcibly to the mind or reason; convincing |
| commensurate | matching; corresponding in degree, size, or amount |
| complaisance | the willingness to comply with the wishes of others |
| connoisseur | an informed and astute judge in matters of taste; expert |
| contiguous | sharing a border; touching; adjacent |
| contrite | regretful, penitent; seeking forgiveness |
| convention | a generally agreed-upon practice or attitude |
| corrigible | capable of being set right; correctable |
| cosset | to coddle |
| countenance | to approve of or tolerate |
| cozen | to deceive, beguile, or hoodwink |
| craven | contemptibly fainthearted; lacking any courage |
| credulous | tending to believe too readily |
| crestfallen | dejected; disappointed |
| curmudgeon | an irritable, ill-tempered person |
| cursory | hasty; done with little attention |
| cynicism | an attitude or quality of belief that all people are motivated by selfishness |
| daunt | to cow or dismay; to make (someone) feel intimdated or apprehensive |
| dearth | smallness of quantity or number; scarcity; a lack |
| debacle | rouse; fiasco; complete failure; a sudden and ignominious failure |
| decorous | correct; formal; marked by decorum |
| decorum | polite or appropriate conduct or behavior |
| demur | to question or oppose |
| denigrate | to belittle; to defame |
| denizen | inhabitant; one who frequents a place |
| denouement | an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot |
| deposition | official testimony |
| deprecate | to disparage or put down |
| derision | scorn; ridicule; contemptuous treatment |
| derivative | unoriginal; obtained from another source |
| descry | to observe or discern |
| desecrate | to violate the sanctity of |
| desiccate | to dry out; to make dull or dry |
| desuetude | the state of not being used |
| desultory | random; disconnected |
| detraction | slandering, verbal attack; aspersion |
| diaphanous | transparent; gauzy; translucent |
| diatribe | a harsh denunciation; fulmination |
| didactic | intended to teach or instruct |
| diffident | reserved; shy; lacking in self-confidence |
| dilatory | causing delay |
| dilettante | one with an amateurish or superficial interest in the arts or branch of knowledge |
| din | loud, sustained sounds |
| dirge | a song or poem of grief |
| discomfit | to embarrass or perplex; make (someone) feel uneasy or embarrassed |
| discordant | conflicting; dissonant or harsh in sound |
| discretion | cautious or reserve in speech; ability to make responsible decisions |
| discursive | digressive; passing from one topic to another |
| disinterested | unbiased, neutral, or free from personal motive |
| disparage | to slight or belittle |
| disparate | fundamentally distinct or dissimilar |
| dissemble | to disguise or conceal; to mislead |
| distention | the state or act of extending or being swollen out of shape |
| divulge | to disclose something secret |
| diggerel | trivial or poorly constructed verse; limerick |
| dogmatic | stubbornly opinionated |
| dormant | inactive; in abeyance |
| dross | slag; worthless matter; impurity |
| dulcet | melodious; pleasant-sounding |
| dynamo | generator; forceful, energetic person |
| ebullience | the quality of lively or enthusiastic expression of thoughts and feelings |
| eccentric | departing from norms or conventions |
| eclectic | culled from many sources |
| edifying | enlightening |
| effluvium | an unpleasant or harmful odor, secretion, or discharge |
| effrontery | boldness; arrogence; insolent or impertinent behavior |
| effulsive | gushing; excessively demonstrative |
| egress | a path to go out; the right to go out |
| elegy | a mournful poem, especially one lamenting the dead |
| eloquent | well-spoken; expressive |
| emollient | soothing, especially to the skin; making less harsh |
| empirical | based on observation or experiment |
| encomium | glowing and enthusiastic praise |
| endemic | characteristic of or often found in a particular locality, region, or people |
| enervate | to weaken; to reduce in vitality |
| engender | to cause; to give rise to |
| enigmatic | mysterious; obscure; difficult to understand |
| ennui | dissatisfaction or restlessness resulting from boredom or apathy |
| enormity | excessive wickedness; evil |
| ephemeral | fleeting; short-lived |
| epicure | one devoted to sensual pleasure, particular food and drink |
| episodic | loosely connected; sporadic |
| epithet | disparaging or descriptive word or phrase; slur |
| epitome | embodiment or quintessence |
| equanimity | composure; self-possession; calmness |
| equivocate | to use ambiguous language with a deceptive intent |
| errant | wandering; straying |
| erudite | learned; scholerly |
| enchew | to avoid; to shun |
| esoteric | intended for or understood by a small, specific group |
| estimable | worthy; formidable |
| evanescent | tending to disappear like vapor; vanishing |
| evince | to show clearly |
| exacerbate | to make worse or more severe |
| excoriate | to censure scathingly |
| exculpate | to exonerate; to clear of blame |
| exegesis | critical examination; explication |
| exemplar | typical or standard speciman; model |
| exigent | urgent; pressing; requiring immediate action or attention |
| exonerate | to remove blame |
| expurgate | to remove obscenity, especially from a book |
| extirpate | to destroy; to exterminate; to cut out |
| fallacy | an invalid or incorrect notion; a mistaken belief |
| fallow | unseeded; inactive; dormant |
| fatuous | silly; foolish |
| fawn | to flatter or praise excessively |
| feckless | ineffectual; irresponsible |
| felicitous | apt; suitablely expressed; well chosen |
| fervent | greatly emotional or zealous |
| fetid | stinking; smelly |
| fetter | to shackle; to put in chains |
| filibuster | intentional obstruction, especially using prolonged speechmaking to delay legislative action |
| filigree | an ornamental work, especially of delicate lace-like patterns |
| florid | flowery; ornate; ruddy |
| flout | to demonstrate contempt for, as in a rule or convention |
| foment | to incite; to rouse |
| forbearance | patience; willingness to wait |
| forestall | to prevent or obstruct by taking action ahead of time |
| forswear | to renounce; repudiate; to refuse to accept or be associated with |
| fortuitous | happening by fortunate accident or chance |
| founder | to sink; to fail completely |
| fracas | noisy quarrel; brawl |
| fractious | quarrelsome; unruly |
| frieze | a semi-sculptural, raised-surface strip of ornamental facade on a building |
| furtive | marked by stealth; covert; surreptitious |
| gainsay | to deny; to oppose |
| gambol | to skip about playfully |
| garner | to gather and save; to store up |
| garrulous | pointlessly talkative; talking too much |
| gauche | crude; awkward; tactless |
| germane | relevant to the subject at hand; appropriate in subject matter |
| glib | marked by ease or informality; fluent and voluble but insincere and shallow; lacking in depth |
| gossamer | delicate; insubstantial or tenuous |
| grandiloquence | pompous speech or expression |
| gratuitous | unnecessary; uncalled for |
| gregarious | sociable; outgoing; enjoying the company of other people |
| guile | artfullness; trickery; duplicity; sly or cunning intelligence |
| hackneyed | rendered trite or commonplace by frequent usage |
| halcyon | calm and peaceful |
| hallowed | holy; consecrated |
| harangue | to deliver a pompous speech or tirate |
| harbinger | something that signals what is to come |
| harrow | to distress; to cause agony to |
| hedonism | devotion to pleasurable pursuits, especially to the pleasures of the senses |
| hegemony | the consistent dominance of one state or ideology over others |
| heretical | dissenting from established dogma |
| hermetic | sealed; airtight |
| heterodox | unorthodox; iconoclastic |
| homily | a sermon or morally instructive lecture |
| hubris | arrogant presumption or pride |
| iconoclast | one who attacks or undermines traditional conventions or institutions |
| iconoclastic | attacking cherished beliefs |
| idolatrous | given to intense or excessive devotion to something |
| idyll | a carefree, lighthearted pastoral or romantic episode |
| ignominious | shameful; undignified |
| imbroglio | difficult or bitter situation |
| imminent | about to happen |
| immutable | not capable of change |
| impassive | revealing no emotion |
| impecunious | lacking funds; without money |
| imperious | commanding; arrogant; haughty |
| imperturbable | marked by extreme calm, impassivity, and steadiness |
| impetuous | hastily or rashly energetic; impulsive and vehement |
| implacable | not capable of being appeased or significantly changed |
| importune | to ask incessantly; to beg; to nag |
| impunge | to challenge; to call into question |
| impunity | immunity from punishment or penalty |
| inchoate | in an initial stage; not fully formed |
| incipient | beginning to come into being or become apparent |
| indefatigable | dogged; tireless |
| indifferent | having no interest or concern; showing no bias or prejudice |
| indolent | lazy; listless |
| ineptitude | incompetence |
| inert | unmoving; lethargic; sluggish |
| infelicitous | unfortunate; inappropriate |
| ingenuous | artless; frank and candid; lacking in sophistication; naive |
| inherent | ingrained within one's nature |
| inimical | tending to obstruct or harm; unfriendly, hostile |
| iniquity | gross injustice; wickedness |
| innocuous | harmless; causing no damage |
| inscrutable | incapable of being discovered or understood |
| insensible | unconscious; unresponsive |
| insipid | without taste or flavor; lacking in spirit |
| insouciant | unconcerned; carefree; heedless |
| insular | provincial; narrow-minded |
| intractable | not easily managed or directed |
| intransigent | refusing to compromise |
| intrepid | steadfast and courageous |
| inured | accustomed to accepting something undesirable |
| inveigle | to obtain by deception or flattery |
| irascible | easily angered; prone to temperamental outbursts |
| itinerant | traveling from place to place |
| jejune | vapid; uninteresting; immature |
| jetison | to throw overboard |
| jibe | to agree; to be in accord |
| jocular | humorous; joking |
| kinetic | characterized by motion |
| laconic | using few words |
| lambaste | to excoriate; to berate |
| laud | to praise highly |
| libertine | someone unrestrained by morality or convention |
| limn | to draw; to outline in detail |
| limpid | transparent; serene; untroubled |
| lissome | supple; graceful |
| loquacious | extremely talkative |
| lubricious | lewd; wanton; slippery |
| luminous | characterized by brightness and the emission of light |
| maculate | marked with spots or blotches; impure |
| magnanimous | to be generous or forgiving, esp. toward a rival or someone less powerful than oneself |
| malevolent | having or showing often vicious ill will, spite, or hatred |
| malinger | to feign illness to avoid work |
| malleable | capable of being shaped or formed; tractable |
| martial | associated with war and armed forces |
| maverick | an independent individual who does not go along with the group |
| mellifluous | sweetly flowing, often used to describe a voice |
| mendacity | the condition of being untruthful |
| mendicant | beggar; supplicant |
| mercurial | characterized by rapid and unpredictable change in mood |
| meretricious | flashy; gaudy |
| meticulous | characterized by extreme care and precision; attentive to detail |
| mettle | strength of spirit; courage |
| minatory | menacing; threatening |
| misanthrope | one who hates all other humans |
| misogynist | one who hates women |
| mitigate | to make or become less severe or intense; to moderate |
| mollify | to calm or soothe; to reduce in emotional intensity |
| morose | sad; sullen |
| mundane | of the world; typical of or concerned with the ordinary |
| munificence | generosity |
| nadir | low point |
| nascent | coming into being; in early developmental stages |
| natty | trimly neat and tidy |
| nebulous | vague; cloudy; lacking clearly defined form |
| nefarious | wicked |
| neologism | a new word, expression, or usage |
| neophyte | a recent convert; a beginner |
| nexus | a connection; tie or link |
| noisome | offensive, especially to one's sense of smell |
| nonplussed | baffled; at a loss for what to say or do |
| nostrum | panacea; questionable remedy |
| noxious | harmful; injurous |
| nugatory | trifling; inconsequential |
| obdurate | unyielding; hardhearted; stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course of action |
| obfuscate | to deliberately obscure; to make confusing |
| obloquy | sharp criticism; abusively detractive language |
| obsequious | obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree |
| obstinate | stubborn; hardheaded |
| obstreperous | noisy; defiant |
| obtuse | lacking sharpness of intellect; not clear or precise in thought or expression |
| obviate | to anticipate and make unnecessary |
| occlude | to obstruct or block |
| odious | evoking intense aversion or dislike |
| officious | meddlesome; pushy in one's services |
| ombudsman | a person who investigates citizens' complaints |
| onerous | troubling; burdensome |
| opaque | impenetrable by light; not reflecting light |
| ossified | tending to become more rigid; conventional; turned into bone |
| osstensible | seemingly; appearing as such |
| ostentatious | characterized by or given to pretentiousness; designed to impress or attract notice |
| overweening | showing excessive confidence or pride |
| palliate | to make something appear less serious; to make less severe |
| panegyric | formal praise |
| pariah | an outcast; a rejected and despised person |
| parody | a humorous imitation intended for ridicule or comic effect, especially in literature and art |
| parsimonious | cheap; miserly |
| partisan | biased or prejudiced |
| paucity | scarcity |
| opprobrium | disgrace, contempt |
| peccadillo | a slight offense; literally, a minor sin |
| pecuniary | having to do with money |
| pedagogy | the art or profession of training, teaching, or instructing |
| pedantic | the parading of learning; excessive attention to minutiae of formal rules |
| pellucid | transparent; easy to understand |
| penchant | strong inclination; a liking |
| penury | poverty; destitution |
| perennial | recurrent throughout the year or over many years; happening repeatedly or continually |
| perfunctory | done without care or interst; done merely as a duty |
| perigree | the point nearest the earth in an orbit of a body |
| peripatetic | itinerant; traveling on foot |
| personable | pleasing in appearance or personality |
| peruse | to examine with great care |
| pervade | to permeate |
| pervasive | having the tendency to permeate or spread throughout |
| petulant | ill-tempered; irritable |
| phlegmatic | (of a person) having an unemotional and stolidly calm disposition. |
| pine | to yearn intensely; to languish; to lose vigor |
| pirate | to illegally use or reproduce |
| pith | the essential or central part |
| pithy | precise and brief |
| placate | to appease; to calm by making concessions |
| platitude | a superficial remark, especially one offered as meaningful |
| plethora | an overabundance; a surplus |
| plummet | to plunge or drop straight down |
| polemical | controvertial; argumentatative |
| pragmatic | practical rather than idealistic |
| prattle | to babble meaninglessly; to talk in an empty and idle manner |
| preen | to dress up; to primp; to groom oneself with elaborate care |
| prescience | knowing of events prior to their occurring |
| presumptuous | overstepping due bounds (as of propriety or courtesy); taking liberties |
| prevaricate | to deliberately avoid the truth; mislead |
| pristine | pure; uncorrupted; clean |
| probity | adhernce to highest principles; uprightness |
| proclivity | a natural predisposition or inclination |
| prodigal | recklessly wasteful; extravagant |
| prodigious | abundant in size, force, or extent; extraordinary |
| profligate | excessively wasteful; recklessly extravagent |
| profuse | given or coming forth in great abundance |
| proliferate | to grow or increase swiftly and abundantly |
| propensity | a natural inclination or tendency |
| prosaic | dull; unimaginative |
| protracted | extended in time |
| prowess | superior skill or daring |
| pugnatious | contentious; quarrelsome; given to fighting |
| pundit | an authority on a subject; one who gives opinions |
| pungent | characterized by a strong, sharp smell or taste |
| pusillanimous | cowardly; craven |
| putrefy | to rot; to decay and give off a foul odor |
| quaff | to drink deeply |
| quagmire | a situation that is difficult to get out of |
| quash | to quell; to put an end to forcibly |
| querulous | prone to complaining or grumbling; quarrelsome |
| query | question; inquiry; doubt in the mind; reservation |
| quixotic | foolishly impractical; marked by lofty romantic ideals |
| quotidian | occurring or recurring daily; commonplace |
| raffish | unconvential and slightly disreputable; carefree; vulgar |
| rancorous | characterized by bitter, long-lasting resentment |
| rankle | to irritate; to cause resentment |
| rarefy | to make or become thin or less dense |
| recalcitrant | obstinately resistant to authority; difficult to manage |
| recondite | hidden; concealed; difficult to understand; obscure |
| reconnoiter | to engage in reconnaisance |
| redolence | the state of being fragrant, suggestive, or evocative |
| redress | to set something right; to make amends for |
| refulgent | radiant; shining; brilliant |
| refute | to disprove; to successfully argue against |
| regale | to delight or entertain |
| relegate | to forcibly assign, especially to a lower place or position |
| renege | to fail to honor a commitment; to break a promise |
| repartee | witty conversation |
| reprehensible | worthy of blame or censure |
| repudiate | to refuse to have anything to do with; to disown |
| rescind | to invalidate; to repeal; to retract |
| reverent | marked by, feeling, or expressing profound awe and respect |
| rhetoric | the art or study of effective use of language for communication and persuasion |
| risible | causing laughter; laughable |
| rue | to regret; to feel remourse or sorrow for |
| sanguine | cheerful; confident; optimistic |
| salicious | lascivious; lustful; obscene |
| salient | prominent; relevant |
| salubrious | promoting health or well-being |
| salutary | wholesome; favorable to health |
| sanction | authoritative permission or approval |
| saturnine | gloomy; dark; sullen |
| schism | a split into factions |
| sedulous | diligent; persistent; hard-working |
| shard | a piece of broken pottery or glass |
| sidereal | astral; relating to stars or constellations |
| sinecure | a job that pays a salary but requires little work |
| sinuous | winding; undulating |
| slake | to satisfy or quench |
| sodden | soaked or drenched |
| solicitous | concerned and attentive; eager |
| solvent | able to meet financial obligations; able to dissolve another substance |
| sophistry | fallacious reasoning; faulty logic |
| soporific | causing drowsiness; tending to induce sleep |
| sparse | thin; not dense; arranged at widely spaced intervals |
| specious | seemingly true, but actually being fallacious |
| spendthrift | one who spends money wastefully |
| sporadic | occuring only occasionally, or in scattered instances |
| spurious | lacking authenticity or validity; false; counterfeit |
| static | not moving, active, or in motion; at rest |
| stentorian | extremely loud and powerful |
| stupefy | to stun, baffle, or amaze |
| stygian | gloomy; dark |
| subpoena | a court order requiring appearance and/or testimony |
| subtle | not obvious; elusive; difficult to discern |
| succinct | brief; concise |
| superfluous | exceeding what is sufficient or necessary |
| surfeit | excess; overindulgence |
| sybarite | a person who leads a life of pleasure and luxury |
| sycophant | someone who tries to get ahead through flattery and fawning |
| tacit | implied; not explicitly stated |
| taciturn | uncommunicative; silent |
| tenacious | adhering to or persisting in something valued |
| tenuous | having little substance or strength; flimsy; weak |
| terse | brief and concise in wording |
| timorous | timid; fearful |
| tirade | a long and extremely critical speech; a harsh denunciation |
| toady | sycophant; flatterer; a person who behaves obsequiously to someone important |
| tortuous | winding; twisting; excessievly complicated |
| tout | to publicly prase or promote |
| transient | fleeting; passing quickly; brief |
| trenchant | sharply perceptive; keen; penetrating |
| truculent | fierce and cruel; eager to fight |
| truncate | to cut off abruptly |
| tyro | novice; greenhorn; rank amateur |
| unfeigned | genuine; not false or hypocritical |
| untenable | indefensible; not viable; uninhabitable |
| untrammeled | not hampered or impeded |
| urbane | sophisticated; refined; elegant |
| vacillate | to move indecisively between one course of action or opinion and another |
| vagary | unpredictable action |
| variegated | multicolored; characterized by a variety of patches of different color |
| venal | capable of being bought or bribed |
| venerate | to revere; to worship |
| verisimilitude | appearance of truth or reality |
| vexation | annoyance; irritation |
| vigilant | alertly watchful |
| viscous | thick; sticky |
| vituperate | to use harsh, condemnatory language; to abuse severely |
| volatile | readily changing to a vapor; changeable; fickle |
| voracious | having an insatiable appetite for an activity or pursuit |
| waft | to cause to move as if by a light breeze |
| waver | to move to and fro; to sway; to be unsettled in opinion |
| wend | to go; to proceed, typically slowly or by an indirect route |
| zealous | fervent; ardent; impassioned |
| stolid | calm, dependable, showing little emotion or animation |
| discreet | intentionally unobtrusive |
| maladjusted | failing or unable to cope with the demands of a normal social environment |
| barren | bleak and lifeless; land that is unable to produce vegetation |
| exasperation | a feeling of intense irritation or annoyance |
| etiolated | pale and drawn out due to a lack of light; having lost vigor or substance |
| comportment | behavior; bearing |
| revel | enjoying oneself in a loud and noisy way, especially with drinking and dancing |
| retaliate | to make an attack or assault in respone to a similar attack |
| delineate | describe or portray something accurately |
| discomposure | the state of feeling disturbed or agitated |
| ineluctable | unable to be resisted or avoided |
| invedious | likely to arouse or cause resentment or anger in others |
| plangent | loud, reverbrerating, and often melancholy |
| antediluvian | of or belonging to a time before the biblical flood; extremely old fashioned |
| prerogative | a right or privilege exclusive to a particular individual or class |
| nugatory | of no value or importance |
| stipulated | demand or specify (a requirement), typically as part of a bargain or agreement |
| imbibe | absorb or assimilate |
| superannuation | regular payment made into a fund by an employee toward a future pension |
| senescence | the condition or process of deterioration with age |
| antedate | to come before |
| benignant | kindly and benevolent |
| acrimonious | angry and bitter; using sharp language |
| lackluster | lacking in vitality, force, or conviction; uninspired |
| poised | having a composed and self-assured manner |
| turgid | tediously pompous or bombastic language or style; swollen, distended, or congested |
| cow | to cause someone to submit to one's wishes by intimidation |
| interdict | (n) an authoritive prohibition. (v) prohibit or forbid |
| deprave | to make someone immoral or wicked |
| indigence | a state of extreme poverty |
| deleterious | causing harm or damage |
| pernicious | having a harmful effect |
| precocity | ability to develop a skill earlier than usual |
| ignobility | not honorable in character or purpose |
| lachrymose | tearful or given to weeping |
| concomitant | naturally accompanying or associated |
| consummate | complete (a transaction or attempt); make perfect |
| abscond | leave hurriedly and secretly, typically to avoid detection of or arrest for an unlawful action such as theft |
| aberrant | deviation from the norm |
| arduous | involving or requiring strenuous effort; difficult and tiring |
| austere | severe or strict in manner, attitude, or appearance |
| axiomatic | self-evident or unquestionable |
| canonical | according to or ordered by canon law; included in the list of sacred books officially accepted as genuine |
| convoluted | extremely complex and difficult to follow |
| disabuse | persuade (someone) that an idea or belief is mistaken |
| extemporaneous | spoken or done without preparation |
| lucid | expressed clearly; easy to understand |
| paean | a song or hymn of praise and thanksgiving |
| perfidy | deceitfulness; untrustworthiness |
| perspicacious | having a ready insight into and understanding of things |
| precipitate | acting with excessive haste or impulse. To cause to happen before anticipated or required |
| predilection | a preference or special liking for something; a bias in favor of something |
| qualms | misgivings; reservations; cause for hesitancy |
| recant | to say that one no longer holds an opinion or belief, esp. one considered heretical |
| reticent | not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily |
| sordid | involving ignoble actions and motives; arousing moral distaste and contempt |
| squander | waste (something, esp. money or time) in a reckless and foolish manner |
| stymie | to block; to thwart |
| synthesis | the combination of parts to make a whole |
| torque | a force that causes rotation |
| veracity | truthfulness, honest |
| virulent | extremely harmful or poisonous; bitterly hostile or antagonistic |
| ameliorate | to make better or more tolerable |
| axiom | a universally recognized principle |
| bucolic | rustic and pastoral; characteristic of rural areas and their inhabitants |
| castigation | severe criticism or punishment |
| contentious | argumentative; quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement |
| culpable | deserving blame |
| eulogy | a speech honoring the dead |
| facetious | playful; humorous |
| hyperbole | an exaggerated statement, often used as a figure of speech |
| oscillation | the act or state of swinging back and forth with a steady, uninterrupted rhythm |
| penurious | penny-pinching; excessively thrifty; ungenerous |
| pious | extremely reverent or devout; showing strong religious devotion |
| precursor | one that precedes and indicates or announces another |
| prolific | producing large volumes or amounts; productive |
| quiescence | stillness; motionlessness; quality of being at rest |
| redoubtable | awe-inspiring; worthy of honor |
| satire | a literary work that ridicules or criticizes a human vice through humor or derision |
| squalid | sordid; wretched and dirty as from neglect |
| stoic | indifferent to or unaffected by pleasure or pain; steadfast |
| supplant | to take the place of; to supersede |
| torpid | lethargic; sluggish; dormant |
| ubiquitous | existing everywhere at the same time; constantly encountered; widespread |
| vilify | to defame; to characterize harshly |
| fulminate | to loudly attack or denounce |
| bombastic | pompous; grandiloquent |
| queries | questions; inqueries; doubts in the mind; reservations |
| tenacity | the quality of adherence or persistence to something valued; persistent determination |
| magnanimity | generous or forgiving, esp. toward a rival or someone less powerful than oneself |
| alloy | to commingle; to debase by mixing with something inferior; unalloyed means pure |
| appropriate | to take for one's own use; to confiscate |
| arrest | to suspend; to engage; holding one's attention: as in arrested adolescence, an arresting portrait |
| august | majestic, venerable |
| bent | leaning, inclination, proclivity, tendency |
| broach | to bring up; to announce; to being to talk about |
| brook | to tolerate; to endure; to countenance |
| cardinal | major, as in cardinal sin |
| color | to change as if by dyeing; to distort, gloss, or affect |
| consequential | pompous, self-important (primary definition: logically following; important) |
| damp | to diminish the intensity or check the vibration of a sound |
| die | a tool used for shaping, as in a tool-and-die shop |
| essay | to test or try; to attempt; to experiment |
| exact | to demand; to call for; to require; to take |
| fell | (v) to cause to fall by striking. (adj) inhumanly cruel |
| flag | to sag or droop; to become spiritless; to decline |
| flip | sarcastic, impertinent, as in flippant: a flip remark |
| ford | to wade across the shallow part of a river or stream |
| grouse | to complain or grumble |
| guy | a rope, cord, or cable attached to something as a brace or guide; to steady or reinforce using a guy. (think guide, verb: guyed, guying) |
| intimate | to imply, suggest, or insinuate |
| list | to tilt or lean to one side |
| lumber | to move heavily or clumsily |
| meet | fitting, proper |
| milk | to exploit; to squeeze every last ounce of |
| mince | speak candidly and directly, esp. when criticizing someone or something. Also, to take tiny steps; to tiptoe |
| nice | exacting, fastidious, extremely precise |
| obtain | to be established, accepted, or customary |
| occult | hidden, concealed, beyond comprehension |
| pedestrian | commonplace, trite, unremarkable, quotidian |
| pied | multicolored, usually in blotches |
| plastic | moldable, pliable, not rigid |
| pluck | courage, spunk, fortitude |
| prize | to pry, to press or force with a lever; something taken by force, spoils |
| rail | to complain about bittery |
| rent | torn (past tense of rend); an opening or tear caused by such |
| quail | to lose courage; to turn frightened |
| qualify | to limit |
| sap | (v) to enervate or weaken the vitality of. (n) a fool or nitwit |
| scurvy | contemptible, despicable |
| singular | exceptional, unusual, odd |
| stand | a group of trees |
| steep | to saturate or completely soak, as in let a tea bag steep |
| strut | the supporting structural cross-part of a wing |
| table | to remove (as a parliamentary motion) from consideration |
| tender | to proffer or offer |
| waffle | to equivocate; to change one's position |
| wag | wit, joker |
| proffer | hold out (something) to someone for acceptance; offer |
| adumbrate | to foreshadow vaguely or intimate; to suggest or outline sketchily; to obscure or overshadow |
| anodyne | soothing; something that assuages or allays pain or comforts |
| allay | diminish or put at rest (fear, suspicion, or worry) |
| asperity | harshness of tone or manner |
| asseverate | to aver, allege, or assert |
| cavil | to find fault without good reason |
| contumacious | insubordinate, rebellious; contumely means insult, scorn, aspersion |
| execrate | to denounce, to feel loathing for, to curse, to declare to be evil |
| expiate | to atone or make amends for |
| inimitable | one of a kind, peerless |
| inveterate | deep rooted, ingrained, habitual |
| peroration | the concluding part of a speech; flowery, rhetorical speech |
| prolix | long-winded, verbose; prolixity means verbosity |
| propitiate | win or regain the favor of (a god, spirit, or person) by doing something that pleases them |
| puerile | childish, immature, jejune, nugatory |
| puissance | power, strength; puissant means powerful, strong |
| remonstrate | to protest, to object |
| sagacious | having sound judgment; perceptive, wise; like a sage |
| salacious | lustful, lascivious, bawdy |
| sententious | aphoristic or moralistic; epigrammatic; tending to moralize excessively |
| tendentious | biased; showing marked tendencies |
| vitiate | to corrupt, to debase, to spoil, to make ineffective |
| voluble | fluent, verbal, having easy use of spoken language |
| lament | a passionate expression of grief and sorrow |
| reprove | reprimand or censure (someone) |
| skulduggery | underhanded or unscrupulous behavior; trickery |
| wanton | deliberate and unprovoked; sexually immodest or promiscuous |
| fastidious | very attentive and concerned about accuracy and detail |
| abeyance | a state of temporary disuse or suspension |
| extant | still in existence, especially related to a document |
| vestigial | forming a very small remnant of something that was once much larger or more noticeable. |
| conciliate | stop (someone) from being angry or discontented; placate; pacify |
| beset | trouble or threaten persistently |
| lassitude | a state of physical or mental weariness; lack of energy |
| histrionic | overly theatrical or melodramatic in character or style; shallow, volatile emotions, and attention-seeking behavior. |
| parlous | full of danger or uncertainty; precarious |
| pilloried | attack or ridicule publicly; pillory is a wooden shackle |
| expatiate | speak or write at length or in detail |
Created by:
hau4300
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