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GRE Test Prep Verbal
High Frequency Words
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| abeyance | suspended action; The deal was held in abeyance until her arrival (noun) |
| abstemious | sparing in eating and drinking; temperate. Concerned whether her vegetarian son's abstemious diet provided him with sufficient protein, the worried mother pressed food on him. (adj.) |
| aggregate | gather, accumulate. Before the Wall Street scandals, dealers in so-called junk bonds managed to aggregate great wealth in short periods of time. (verb) |
| alacrity | cheerful promptness; eagerness. Phil and Dave were raring to get off to the mountains; they packed up their ski gear and climbed into the van with alacrity. |
| amalgamate | combine; unite into one body. The unions will attempt to amalgamate their groups into one national body. |
| anachronism | something or someone misplaced in time. |
| antipathy | aversion, dislike |
| approbation | approval. Wanting her parents' regard, she looked for some sign of their approbation |
| arduous | hard, strenuous |
| artless | without guile, open and honest |
| ascetic | practicing self-denial |
| assiduous | diligent |
| assuage | ease or lessen (pain); satisfy (hunger); soothe (anger) |
| attenuate | make thinner; weaken or lessen (in density, force, degree). The long, dry sell attenuated the creek to the merest trickle. |
| austere | forbiddingly stern; severely simple and unornamented |
| authoritarian | subordinating the individual to the state; completely dominating another's will |
| aver | assert confidently or declare; as used in law, state formally as a fact. The self-proclaimed psychic averred that, because he had extrasensory perception on which to base his predictions, he needed no seismographs to foretell earthquakes |
| banal | commonplace, trite, lacking originality |
| belie | contradict; give a false impression. His coarse, hard-bitten exterior belied his innate sensitivity |
| bombastic | pompous, using inflated language. Puffed up with conceit, the orator spoke in such a bombastic manner that we longed to deflate him. |
| boorish | rude; insensitive |
| cacophonous | discordant; inharmonious |
| capricious | unpredictable, fickle (The storm was capricious, it changed course constantly.) |
| castigation | punishment, severe criticism |
| caustic | burning |
| chicanery | trickery, deception |
| cogent | convincing |
| commensurate | corresponding in extent, degree, amount |
| compendium | brief, comprehensive summary |
| complaisant | trying to please; overly polite; obliging |
| conciliatory | reconciling; soothing |
| contention | claim; thesis |
| contentious | quarrelsome |
| conundrum | riddle; difficult problem |
| convoluted | coiled around; involved; intricate |
| craven | cowardly; Lillian's craven refusal to join the protest was criticized by her comrades, who had expected her to be brave enough to stand up for her beliefs. |
| daunt | intimidate; frighten |
| default | failure to act |
| deference | courteous regard for another's wish |
| delineate | portray, depict, sketch |
| denigrate | blacken |
| deride | ridibule, make fun of |
| derivative | unoriginal, obtained from another source. Although her early poetry was clearly derivative in nature, the critics thought she had promise and eventually would find her own voice |
| desiccate | dry up |
| desultory | aimless; haphazard; digressing at random In prison Malcolm X set himself the task of reading straight through the dictionary; to him, reading was purposeful, not desultory. |
| diatribe | bitter scolding |
| dichotomy | split; branching into two parts - especially contradictory ones |
| discrete | separate; unconnected; consisting of distinct parts (not discreet - prudent in speech and actions) |
| disinterested | unprejudiced |
| disparate | basically different; unrelated |
| dissemble | disguise; pretend. Even though John tried to dissemble his motive for taking modern dance, we all knew he was there not to dance but to meet girls. |
| dissolution | disintegration; looseness in morals |
| dissonance | discord; opposite of harmony |
| distill | purify; refine; concentrate |
| divest | strip; deprive. He was divested of his power to act and could no longer govern. |
| dogmatic | opinionated; arbitrary; doctrinal |
| ebullient | showing excitement; overflowing with enthusiasm. Amy's ebullient nature could not be repressed; she was always bubbling over with excitement. |
| effrontery | shameless boldness; sheer nerve |
| elegy | poem or song expressing lamentation |
| enervate | weaken |
| ephemeral | short-lived; fleeting. The mayfly is an ephemeral creature. |
| equanimity | calmness of temperament |
| equivocate | lie; misled; attempt to conceal the truth |
| esoteric | hard to understand; known only to the chosen few |
| euphemism | mild expression in place of an unpleasant one |
| exculpate | clear from blame |
| exigency | urgent situation; pressing needs or demands; state of requiring immediate attention. The exigencies of war gave.... |
| extrapolation | projection |
| facetious | joking |
| fallacious | false; misleading |
| fatuous | brainless; inane; foolish, yet smug |
| felicitous | apt; suitably expressed; well chosen. He was famous for his felicitous remarks and was called upon to serve as master-of-ceremonies at many a banquet. |
| fervor | intensity of feeling |
| flag | droop; grow feeble (Her spirits flagged.) |
| fledgling | inexperienced |
| flout | reject; mock; show contempt and scorn for |
| foment | stir up; instigate |
| forestall | prevent by taking action in advance (forestall rumors by being clear up front) |
| gainsay | deny |
| garrulous | talkative; wordy |
| gouge | overcharge; price gouging |
| grandiloquent | pompous; using high-sounding language |
| guileless | without deceit |
| harangue | long, passionate and vehement speech |
| iconoclastic | attacking cherished traditions. Deeply iconoclastic, Jean Genet deliberately set out to shock conventional theatergoers with his radical plays. |
| immutable | unchangeable |
| impassive | without feeling |
| implacable | incapable of being pacified |
| implicit | understood but not stated |
| inchoate | recently begun; elementary. Before the creation, the world was an inchoate mass |
| incongruity | lack of harmony; absurdity |
| inconsequential | insignificant; unimportant |
| indigence | poverty |
| indolent | lazy |
| ingenuous | naive and trusting; young; unsophisticated |
| inherent | firmly established by nature or habit |
| innocuous | harmless |
| insensible | unconscious, unresponsive |
| insipid | lacking in flavor; dull |
| insularity | narrow-mindedness; isolation; The insularity of the islanders manifested itself in their suspicion of anything foreign. |
| intractable | unruly; stubborn; unyirlfinh |
| intransigence | refusal of any compromise; stubborness |
| inured | accustomed; hardened; She became inured to the Alaskan cold. |
| invective | abuse |
| irascible | irritable; easily angered |
| irresolute | uncertain how to act; weak |
| laconic | brief and tot he point |
| lassitude | weariness |
| latent | potential but undeveloped; dormant; hidden |
| laud | praise |
| levee | earthen or stone embankment to prevent flooding |
| loquacious | talkative |
| magnanimity | generosity |
| malingerer | one who fakes illness to escape duty |
| mendacious | lying, habitually dishonest |
| misanthrope | one who hates mankind |
| mitigate | lessen in intensity |
| mollify | soothe |
| morose | ill-humored; sullen; melancholy |
| mundane | worldly as opposed to spiritual; everyday |
| neophyte | recent convert; beginner |
| obdurate | stubborn |
| obsequious | slavishly attentive; servile |
| obviate | make unnecessary; get rid of |
| occlude | shut; close |
| officious | meddlesome; excessively pushy in offering one's services |
| onerous | burdensome |
| opporbrium | infamy |
| ostentatious | showy; pretentious |
| paragon | model of perfection |
| pathological | pertaining to disease |
| paucity | scarcity |
| pedantic | showing off learning; bookish |
| penury | severe poverty; stinginess |
| perennial | something long lasting |
| perfidious | treacherous; disloyal |
| perfunctory | superficial; not thorough; lacking interest, care or enthusiasm |
| phlegmatic | calm; not easily disturbed |
| piety | devoutness; reverence for God |
| plasticity | ability to be molded |
| platitude | trite remark; commonplace statement |
| plethora | excess; overabundance |
| precarious | uncertain; risky |
| precipitate | rash; premature; hasty; sudden |
| prevaricate | lie |
| pristine | unspoiled; primitive |
| probity | incorruptibility |
| prodigal | wasteful; reckless with money |
| profound | deep |
| proliferate | grow rapidly |
| propitiate | appease |
| propriety | correct conduct |
| proscribe | banish; outlaw |
| qualified | limited; restricted |
| quiescent | at rest; dormant; temporarily inactive |
| rarefied | made less dense (of a gas) |
| recalcitrant | determined to resist authority; unruly |
| recondite | abstruse, profound; secret |
| refractory | stubborn; unmanageable |
| reproach | express disapproval or disappointment |
| repudiate | disown; disavow |
| reticent | reserved; uncommunicative; inclined to silence |
| salubrious | healthful |
| sanction | approve; ratify |
| secrete | hide away or cache; produce and release a substance into an organism |
| solicitous | worried; concerned |
| soporific | sleep-causing; marked by sleepiness |
| specious | seemingly reasonable, but incorrect; misleading (often intentionally) |
| stint | be thrifty; set limits |
| stolid | dull; impassive |
| striated | marked with parallel bands; grooved |
| strut | supporting bar |
| supersede | cause to be set aside; replace; make obsolete |
| tacit | understood, but not put into words |
| tangential | only slightly connected; digressing; peripheal |
| tenuous | slim, rare, slim |
| torpor | lethargy; sluggishness; dormancy |
| tortuous | winding; full of curves |
| tractable | docile; easily managed |
| truculence | aggressiveness; ferocity |
| venerate | revere |
| veracious | truthful |
| verbose | wordy |
| vituperative | abusive; scolding |
| welter | turmoil; bewildering jumble |
| whimsical | capricious; fanciful |
Created by:
mvinkc
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