Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
GRE Voc Bea
Vocabulary
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Abase | Lower, degrade, humilliate |
| Abash | embarrass |
| Abate | subside or moderate |
| Abet | assist , usually in doing something wrong; encourage. She was unwilling to abet him in that scam |
| Abeyance | Suspended action. The deal was held in abeyance until her arrival |
| Abject | wretched, lacking pride. |
| Abjure | Renounce upon oath |
| Ablution | washing |
| Abnegation | Renunciation , self sacrifice |
| Abominable | Detestable, extremely unpleasant |
| Abominate | loathe, hate |
| Abrasive | rubbing away; tending to grind down |
| Abridge | condense or shorten |
| Abscission | removal by cutting off, as in surgery |
| Absolute | Complete, totally unlimited |
| Abstemious | sparing in eating and drinking, temperate |
| Abstract | Theorical, not concrete; nonrepresentational |
| Abstruse | Obscure, profound, difficult to understand |
| Abut | Border upon; adjoin, U.S. border abuts with the Mexican border. |
| Abysmal | Bottomless. His pride is abysmal |
| Abyss | enourmous chasm |
| Accede | agree. If I accede to her demands, he won't respect me. |
| Accesory | additional object, useful but not an essential thing. Accesory to that crime. |
| Acclimate | Adjust to climate or environment |
| Acclivity | Sharp upslope of a hill, The car could not go up the acclivity in high gear |
| Accomodate | Help someone , adjust or bring into harmony; adapt, oblige. John has done all possible to accomodate this class to his schedule |
| Accord | Agreement |
| Accost | Approach and speak first to a person. The student accost me to ask me for my notes |
| Accoutre | Equip, the police was accoutred with the best equipment to protect himself. |
| Accretion | Growth; increase |
| Accrue | Come about, by addition. The interests on the house have accrued during the past year |
| Acerbic | Bitter or sour in nature; shar and cutting. Her gossiping is acerbic and her food is also acerbic. |
| Acerbity | Bitterness of speech and temper. |
| Acetic | The lettuce has an acetic flavor |
| Aciduluous | Slightly sour, sharp; caustin. John aciduluos remark were unpopular. |
| Acme | Peak or pinnacle. |
| Acquiesce | Assent; agree passively |
| Acquittal | Delivery from a charge |
| Acrid | Sharp, bitterly pungent. The acrid odor of gunpowder can be smelled even outside the room. |
| Acrimonious | Bitter in words or manners. She used an acromonious language against other student |
| Acuity | sharpness. Her vision acuity is 20/20 |
| Acumen | mental keeness. Her anatomy acumen was useful in the test. |
| Acute | Quickly perceptive, keen. Her acute intelligence was well known. |
| Adage | Wise saying, poverb. |
| Adamant | hard inflexible |
| addle | muddle; drive crazy, become rotten. Her remarks were so stupid that addled me. |
| Adept | Expert at. She was adept at teaching math |
| Adherent | Supporter, follower. |
| Adjacent | Adjoining, neighboring, close by |
| Adjunct | Something not essential or inferior added or attached. |
| Adjuration | Solemn urging. Her adjuration to say the truth, was not essential for the trial |
| Adjutant | Staff officer assiting the commander; assistant |
| Admonish | Warn, Reprove |
| Adorn | Decorate |
| Adroit | Skillful |
| Advent | arrival |
| Adventitious | Accidental; casual. She found this adventious course extremely helpful |
| Adversity | poverty, missfortune. |
| Advert | Refer to; Since you advert in the test question, I will correct this one. |
| Advocate | urge; plead for |
| Aegis | shield; defense. Under the aegis of the health care bill, they defend the budget |
| Aerie | nest of a large bird of prey (eagle, hawk) |
| Affected | artificial, pretended, assumed in order to impress |
| Affidavit | Written statement made under oath |
| Abscond | To depart clandestinely, to steal off, and hide |
| Aberrant | Desviant from the norm. |
| Alacrity | Eager and enthusiastic willingness |
| Arduos | strenuous, taxing, requiring significant effort |
| Assuage | To ease or lessen; to appease or pacify |
| Audacious | daring and fearless; recklessly bold (noun form)audacity |
| Austere | without adornment; bare; severely simple; ascetic (Noun form:austerity), |
| Axiomatic | Taken as a given; possessing self-evident truth (noun form axiom) |
| Capricious | Inclined to change one's mind impulsively; erratic, unpredictable. |
| Chicanery | Trickery or subterfuge |
| Connosseiur | An informed and astute judge in matters of tase; expert |
| Disabuse | to undeceive to set right |
| Discordant | fundamentally distinct or disssimilar |
| effrontery | extreme boldness, presumptuosness |
| enervate | to weaken, to reduce in vitality |
| ennui | dissatisfaction and restlessness, resulting from boredom or apathy. |
| Equivocate | To use ambiguous language with a deceptive intent (adj. form equivocal) |
| erudite | Very learned; scholarly (noun form: erudition) |
| exculpate | To exonarate, to clear of blame |
| exigent | urgent, pressing; requiring immediate action or attention |
| Extemporaneous | Improvised, done without preparation |
| Filibuster | intentional obstruction, esp. using prolonged sepeechmaking to delay legislative action. |
| Fulminate | To loudly attack or denounce |
| Ingenuous | Artless; frank and candid; lacking in sophistication |
| Inured | Accustomed to accepting something undesirable |
| Irascible | easily angered; prone to temperamental outbursts |
| Laud | To praise highly (adj. form laudatory). |
| Lucid | Clear, easily understood |
| Magnanimity | The quality of being generously noble in mind and heart, esp. in forgiving (adj. form; magnanimous) |
| Martial | associated with war and the armed forces |
| Mundane | of the world; typical of or concerned with the ordinary |
| Nascent | Coming into being; in early developmental stages |
| Nebulous | Vague; cloudly; lacking clearly defined form |
| Neologism | a new word, expression or usage; the creation or use of new words or senses |
| Obtuse | lacking sharpness of intellect; not clear or precise in thought or expression. |
| Obviate | To anticipate and make unnecesary |
| Onerous | Troubling, burdensome |
| Paean | A song or hymn of praise and thanksgiving. |
| Perennial | recurrent through the year or many years; happening repeteadly |
| Pefidy | Intentional breach of faith; treachery (adj. form: perfidious) |
| Perfunctory | cursory; done without care or interest |
| Perspicacious | acutele perceptive; having keen discernment (noun form perspicacity) |
| Prattle | to bablble meaninglessly; to talk in an empty and idle manner. |
| Precipitate | Acting with excessive haste or impulse.To cause or happen before anticipated or required. |
| Predilection | A disposition in favor of something; preference. |
| Prescience | Foreknowledge of events; knowing of events prior to their occurring (adj.form : prescient) |
| Prevaricate | To deliverately avoid the truth; to mislead |
| Qualms | misgivings; reservations; causes for hesitancy. |
| Recant | To retract, esp, a previously held belief. |
| Refute | To disprove; to successfuly argue against. |
| Reticent | quiet; reserved; reluctant to express thoughts and feelings. |
| Relegate | To forcibly assign esp, to a lower place or possition |
| Solicitious | Concerned and attentive; eager |
| Sordid | Characterized by filth, grime or squalor; foul |
| squander | to waste by spending or using irresponsibly. |
| Static | not moving, active, or in motion; at rest |
| Stupefy | to stun, baffle, or amaze. |
| Stymie | To block; thwart. |
| synthesis | The combination of parts to make a whole (verb form synthesize) |
| Torque | A force that causes rotation. |
| Tortuous | winding, twisting; excessively complicated. |
| Truculent | Fierce and cruel; eager to fight. |
| Veracity | Truthfulness, honesty |
| Virulent | Extremely harmful or poisonous; bitterly hostile or antagonistic. |
| Voracious | having an insatiable apetite for an activity or pursuit; ravenous |
| Waver | To move to and fro; to sway; to be unsettled in opinion |
| Accolade | an expression of praise |
| Adulation | excessive praise; intense adoration |
| Aesthetic | Dealing with, appreciative of, or responsive to art or the beautiful |
| Ameliorate | To make better or more tolerable. |
| Avarice | greed, esp, for wealth |
| Burgeon | To grow rapidly or flourish. |
| Bucolic | Rustic and pastoral; characteristic of rural aereas and their inhabitants. |
| Cacophony | Harsh, jarring, discordant sound; dissonate (adj. form cacophonous) |
| Castigation | Severe criticism, or pounishment |
| Catalyst | A substance that accelerates the rate of a chemical reaction without itself changing; a person or thing that causes change. |
| Caustic | Burning or stinging; causing corrosion. |
| Chary | Wary; cautious; sparing. |
| Cogent | Appealing forcibly to the mind or reason; convincing. |
| Complaisance | the willingness to comply with the wishes of others (adj. form: complaisant). |
| Contentious | Argumentative, quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement. |
| Contrite | Regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness (NOUN FORM: contrition). |
| dearth | smallness of quantity or number; scarcity; a lack |
| demur | to question or oppose |
| Discretion | Cautious reserve in speech, ability to make responsible decision (adj. form: discreet) |
| Disinterested | free of bias or self-interest; impartial |
| Dogmatic | expressing a rigid opinion based on unproved or improvable principles. (noun form: dogma) |
| ebulliance | the quality of lively or enthusiastic expression of thoughts and feelings (adj. form: ebullient) |
| eclectic | composed of elements drawn from various sources. |
| elegy | a mournful poem, esp. one lamenting the dead (adj. form: elegiac. |
| Emollient | soothing, esp, to the sking; making less harsh; mollifying; an agent that softens or smoothes the skin. |
| Empirical | Based on observation or experiment |
| Enigmatic | mysterious; obscure; difficult to understand (NOUN FORM: enigma) |
| Ephemeral | brief; fleeting. |
| Esoteric | Intended for or understood by a small, specific group. |
| Eulogy | a speech honoring the dead (verb form elulogize) |
| exonerate | To remove blame |
| Facetious | Playful; humorous |
| Fallacy | An invalid or incorrect notion; a mistaken belief (adj. form; fallacious) |
| Furtive | marked by stealth, convert; surreptitious. |
| Gregarious | Sociable; outgoing; enjoying the company of other people. |
| Harangue | To deliver a pompous speech or tirade; a long, pompous speech. |
| heretical | Violating accepting dogma or convention (noun form: heresy) |
| Hyperbole | an exaggerated statement, often used as a figure of speech (adj form: hyperbolic) |
| impecunious | lacking funds; without money |
| incipient | beginning to come into being or to become apparent. |
| inert | unmoving; lethargic; sluggish |
| innocuous | harmless; causing no damage |
| intransigent | refusing to comprimise (noun form intransigence) |
| inveigle | To obtain by deception or flattery |
| Morose | sad; sullen, melancholic |
| Odious | Evoking intense aversion or dislike |
| Opaque | Impenetrable by light; not reflecting light. |
| Oscillation | The act or state of swinging back and forth with a steady, uninterrupted rhythm (verb form: oscillate) |
| Penurious | Penny-pinching; excessively thrifty; ungenerous |
| Pernicious | Extremely harmful; potentially causing death. |
| Peruse | To examine with great care (noun form: perusal) |
| Pious | Extremely reverent or devout; showing strong religious devotion (noun form: piety) |
| Precursor | One that precedes and indicates or announces another. |
| Preen | To dress up; to primp; to groom oneself with elaborate care. |
| Prodigious | Abundant in size,force, or extent; extraordinary |
| Prolific | Producing large volumes or amounts; productive |
| Putrefy | To rot; decay and give off a foul odor (adj. form putrid) |
| Quaff | To drink deeply |
| Quiescence | Stillness, motionlessness; quality of being at rest (adj. form quiescent) |
| Redoubtable | Awe-inspiring; worthy of honor. |
| Sanction | Authoritative permission or approval; a penalty intended to enforce compliance; to give permission or authority to. |
| Satire | A literary work that ridicules or criticizes a human vice through humor or derision (adj. form: satirical) |
| Squalid | sordid: wretched and dirty as from neglect ( noun form squalor) |
| Stoic | indifferent to or unaffected by pleasure or pain; steadfast (noun form: stoicism) |
| Supplant | To take place of; supersede |
| Torpid | Lethargic; sluggish; dormant (noun form: torpor) |
| Ubiquitous | Existing everywhere at the same time; constantly ecountered; widespread. |
| Urbane | Sophisticated; refined; elegant (noun form; Urbanity) |
| Vilify | To defame; to characterize harshly |
| Viscous | Thick; sticky (noun form:viscocity) |
| Acumen | Keen, acurate judgement or insight. |
| Adulterate | To reduce purity by combining with inferior ingredients. |
| amalgate | To combine several elements into a whole |
| Archaic | outdated; associated with an earlier, perhaps more primitive, time |
| Aver | To state as a fact; to declare or assert |
| Bolster | To provide support or reinforcement |
| Bombastic | Pompous; grandiloquent (noun form: bombast). |
| Diatribe | A harsh denunciation |
| Dissemble | TO disguise or conceal; to mislead. |
| Eccentric | Departing from norms or conventions |
| Endemic | Characteristic of or often found in a particular loclity, region or people. |
| Evanescent | Tending to disappear like vapor, vanishing |
| Exacerbate | To make worse or more severe. |
| Fervent | Greatly emotional or zealous (noun form: fervor) |
| Fortuitous | Happening by accident or chance |
| Germane | relevant to the subject at hand; appropiate in subject matter. |
| Grandiloquence | Pompous speech or expression (adj. form grandiloquent). |
| Hackneyed | rendered trite or commonplace by frequent usage |
| Halcyon | Calm and peaceful |
| Hedonism | Devotion to pleasurable pursuits, esp. to the pleasures of the senses (a hedonist is someone who pursues pleasure) |
| iconoclast | one who attacks or undermines traditional conventions or institutions |
| Impassive | Revealing no emotion |
| Impertubable | Marked by extreme clam, impassivity and steadiness |
| Implacable | Not capable of being appeased or significantly changed. |
| Impunity | immunity from punishment or penalty |
| Inchoate | In an initial stage; not fully formed |
| Infelicitous | Unfortunate; inappropriate |
| Insipid | Without taaste or flavor; lacking in spirit; bland |
| Loquacious | Extremely talkative (noun form: loquacity) |
| Malleable | capable of being shaped or formed; tractable; pliable |
| Mendacity | The condition of being untruthful; dishonesty (adj. form: mendacious) |
| Misanthrope | One who hates all other humans (adj. form: mendacious) |
| Mitigate | To make or become less severe or intense; to moderate. |
| Obdurate | Unyielding; hardhearted; intractable. |
| Obsequious | Exhibiting a fawining attentiveness |
| Occlude | To obstruct or block. |
| Opprobium | Disgrace; contempt; scorn |
| Pedantic | Overly concerned with the trivial details of learning or education; show-offish about one's knowledge |
| Penury | poverty; destitution. |
| Pervasive | Having the tendency to permeate or spread throughout. |
| 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, esp. one offered as meaningful. |
| Plummet | To plunge or drop straight down |
| Polemical | Controversial; argumentative |
| Prodigal | Recklessly wasteful; extravagant; profuse; lavish. |
| Profuse | given or coming forth abundantly; extravagant. |
| Proliferate | To grwo or increase swiftly and abundantly |
| Queries | Questions; inquiries; doubts in the mind; reservations |
| rancorous | Characterized by bitter, long-lasting resentment (noun form: rancor) |
| recalcitrant | Obstinately defiant of authority; difficult to manage. |
| Repudiate | To refuse to have anything to do with; disown |
| Rescind | To invalidate; to repeal; to retract |
| Reverent | Marked by, feeling, or expressing a feeling of profund awe and respect |
| Solvent | Able to meet financial obligations; able to dissolve another substance |
| Specious | Seeming true, but actually being fallacious, misleadingly attractive; plausible but false |
| Spurious | Lacking authenticity or validity; false; counterfeit. |
| Subpoena | A court order requiring appeareance and/ or testimony. |
| Succint | Brief; concise |
| Superfluous | Exceeding what is sufficient or necessary |
| Surfeit | An overabundant supply; excess; to feed or supply to excess. |
| Tenuous | Having little substance or strength; flimsy; weak. |
| Tirade | A long and extremely critical speech; a harsh denunciation |
| Transient | Fleeting; passing quickly; brief |
| Zealous | Fervent; ardent; impassionate, devoted to a cause (A zealot is a zealous person) |
| Acerbic | Having a sour or bitter taste or character; sharp; biting |
| aggrandize | To increase in intensity, power, influence or prestige. |
| Alchemy | A medieval science aimed as the transmutation of metals, esp. base metals into gold (an alchemist is one who practices alchemy) |
| Amenable | Agreeable; responsive to suggestion. |
| Anachronism | Something or someone out of place in terms of historical or choronological context. |
| Astringent | Having a tightening effect on living tissue; hasrsh; severe; something with a tightening effect on tissue. |
| Gullible | credulous |
| Cynism | An attitude or quality of belief that all people are motivated by selfishness |
| Decorum | Polite or appropriate conduct or behavior |
| Derision | Scorn, ridicule, contemptuos treatment (adj. form: derisive; verb form: deride) |
| Dessicate | To dry out or dehydrate; to make dry or dull |
| Dilettante | One with an amateurish or superficial interest in the arts or a branch of knowledge |
| Disparage | To slight or belittle |
| Divulge | To disclose something secret. |
| Fawn | To flatter or praise excessively |
| Flout | To show contempt for, as in a rule or convention |
| Garrulous | Pintlessly talkative, talking too much. |
| Glib | Marked by ease or informally; nonchalant; lacking in depth; superficial. |
| Imminent | About to happen; impending |
| Immutable | not capable of change |
| Impetuous | Hastily or rashly energetic; impulsive and vehement |
| Indifferent | Having no interest or concern; showing no bias or prejudice |
| Inimical | damaging; harmful; injurious |
| Intractable | not easily managed or directed, stubbor; obstinate |
| Intrepid | Steadfast and courageous |
| laconic | using few words; terse |
| maverick | Independent individual who does not go along with a group or party. |
| mercurial | Characterized by rapid and unpredictable change in mood |
| Mollify | To calm or shoothe; to reduce in emotional intensity |
| Neophyte | A recent convert; a beginer; novice |
| Obfuscate | To deliberately obscure; to make confusing |
| Obstinate | Stubborn; hardheaded; uncompromising |
| Ostentatious | Characterized by or given to prententious display; showy |
| Pervade | To permeate throughout (Adj. form: pervasive) |
| Phlegmatic | Calm; sluggish; unemotional |
| Plethora | An overabundance; a surplus. |
| Pragmatic | Practical rathen than idealistic |
| Presumptuous | Overstepping due bounds (as a propriety or courtesy), taking liberties. |
| Pristine | Pure; uncorrupted; clean |
| Probity | Adherence to highest principles; complete and confirmed integrity; uprightness |
| proclivity | A natural predisposition or inclination |
| Profligate | Excessively wasteful; recklessly extravagant (noun form: profligacy) |
| Propensity | A natural inclination or tendency, penchant |
| Prosaic | dull; lacking in spirit or imagination |
| pungent | Characterized by a strong, sharp smell or taste |
| quixotic | Foolishly impractical; marked by lofty romantic ideals. |
| quotidian | ocurring or recurring daily; commonplace |
| rarefy | To make or become thin, less dense; to refine |
| Recondite | hidden; concealed; difficult to understand; obscure |
| Refulgent | radiant; shiny; brilliant |
| Renege | To fail to honor a commitment; to go back on a promise. |
| Sedulous | Diligent; persistent; hard working. |
| Shard | A piece of broken pottery or glass |
| Soporific | Causing drowsiness; tending to induce sleep |
| Sparse | Thin; not dense; arranged at widely spaced intervals. |
| Spendthrift | One who spends money wastefully. |
| Subtle | Not obvious; elusive, difficult to discern. |
| Tacit | Implied; not explicitly stated |
| Terse | Brief an concise in wording. |
| Tout | To publicly praise or promote |
| Trenchant | Sharply perceptive; keen; penetrating |
| Unfeigned | Genuine; not false or hypocritical |
| Untenable | Indefensible; not viable; uninhabitable |
| Vacillate | To waver indecisible between one course of action or opinion and another; waver |
| Variegated | Multicolored; characterized by a variety of patches of different color |
| Vexation | Annoyance; irritation (verb form:vex) |
| Vigilant | Alertly watchful (noun form vigilance) |
| Vituperate | To use harsh, condemnatory language: to abuse or censure severely or abusively; berate |
| Volatile | Readily changing to a vapor; changeable; fickle; explosive (noun form: volatibily). |
| Alloy | To commingle; to debase by mixing with something inferior, unalloyed means pure |
| Arrest, arresting | To suspend; to engage; holding one's attention: as in arrested adolescence, an arresting portrait. |
| August | Majestic, venerable. |
| Bent | Leaning, inclination, proclivity, tendency: She had a naturally artistic bent. |
| Broach | Bring up, announce, begin to talk about. |
| Brook | To tolerate, endure, countenance |
| Cardinal | Major, as in cardinal sin |
| Chauvinist | A blindly devoted patriot |
| Color | to change as if by dyeing, i.e., to distort, gloss or affect (usually the first): That reported wrongfully colored the truth. |
| Consequential | Pompous, self- important (primary definitions are: 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; attempt, experiment; she tried to essay some gymnastic jumps. |
| exact | To demand, call for, require, take ; The war exacted heavy casualties. |
| fell | To cause to fall by striking: the lumberjacks felled many trees |
| flag | To sag or droop, to become spiritless, to decline: Think of a flag on a windless day, as in her flagging spirits. |
| 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. |
| intimate | to imply, suggest, or insinuate: Are you intimiting that I have your bag? |
| list | To tilt or lean to one side: The ship's broken mast listed helplessly in the wind |
| lumber | To move heavily and lumsily: Lumbering pinguins, they are an awesome show to see. |
| meet | Fitting, proper: It is altogether meet that Bob got to school on time |
| milk | To exploit; to squeeze every last ounce of: I milked the position for all it was worth |
| Mince | Pronounce or speak affectedly, euphemize, speak too carefully: Don't mince words. Also, to take tiny steps, tiptoe. |
| nice | exacting, fastidious, extremely precise: He made a nice statement of our budget. |
| Obtain | To be established, accepted, or customary: Those standards no longer obtain. |
| Occult | Hidden, concealed, beyond comprenhension |
| Pedestrian | Commonplace, trite, unremarkable, quotidian |
| Pied | multicolored, usually in blotches: The Pied Piper of Hamlin was so called because of his multicolored coat. |
| Pine | To lose vigor (as though grief); to yearn |
| Plastic | Moldable, pliable, not rigid |
| Pluck | Courage, spunk, fortitude. Getting bad grades plucked me to go ahead and excel. |
| Prize | To pry, to press or force with a lever; something taken by force, spoils: The letter was prized from him. |
| Rail | To complain about bitterly.Her husband railed about her expenses. |
| rent | Torn, past of rend: He rent his tux; an opening or tear caused by such: A large rent in the tux |
| quail | To lose courage, turn frightened. |
| qualify | Let me qualify that politicial statement |
| sap | To enervate or weaken the vitality of. That exercise routine sapped all of my energy. |
| Scurvy | Contemptible, despicable: She was a scurvy gossiper |
| Singular | Exceptional, unusual, odd: He was a singular artist. |
| Stand | A group of trees |
| Steep | To saturate or completely soak, as in to let a tea bag steep: She was steeped in esoteric knowledge. |
| Strut | The supporting structural cross-part of a wing |
| Table | Tp re,pve ( as a parliamentary motion) from consideration: They tabled the motion and will consider it again later. |
| Tender | To proffer or offer: He tendered his resignation |
| Waffle | to equivocate; to change one's position: His detractors say she waffles on the issues. |
| Wag | wit, joker. John was a well-known wag, he really like to joke. |
| Adumbrate | To forshadow vaguely or intimate; to suggest or outline sketchily; to obscure or overshadow |
| anodyne | soothing, something that assuages or allays pain or comforts |
| Apogee | Farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith |
| apotheosis | Deification, glorification to godliness, an exalted example, a model of excellence or perfection. |
| Asperity | Rigor, severity, roughness, harshness, acrimony irritability |
| Asseverate | To aver, allege, assert |
| Assiduous | Diligent, hard,-working, sedulous |
| augury | omen, portent |
| Bellicose | Belligerent, pugnacious, warlike |
| Calumniate | To slander, make a false accusation, aspersion |
| Cavil | To find fault without good reason |
| celerity | speed, alacrity, accelerate |
| Chimera | an illusion; originally, an imaginary fire-breathing she-monster |
| Contumacious | Insubordinate, rebellious; contumely means to insult, scorn, aspersion. |
| Debacle | Rout, fiasco, complete failure |
| Denouement | An outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot |
| descry | to discriminate or discern |
| Desuetude | Disuse: After years of desuetude, my medical knowledge came to fruition. |
| Desultory | random; aimless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose. His desultory background, proved he did not know anything about the job. |
| Diaphanous | Transparent, gauzy |
| Dirge | a song of grief or lamentation: The funeral dirge for Pericles was magnificent. |
| Encomium | Glowing and enthusiastic praise; panegyric, tribute, eulogy |
| eschew | to shun or avoid: She chosed to eschew that book, preferring to watch tv. |
| Excoriate | To censure, scathingly, to upbraid |
| Exegesis | Critical examination, explanation |
| Expiate | To atone or make amends for. |
| Extirpate | To destroy, exterminate, cut out, exscind |
| Fatuous | Silly, inanely foolish: I would ignoresuch a fatuous comment. |
| Fractious | Quarrelsome, rebellious, unruly, refractory, irritable. |
| Gainsay | To deny, dispute, contradict, oppose |
| Heterodox | unorthodox, heretical, iconoclastic. |
| Imbroglio | Difficult or embarrassing situation. |
| Indefatigable | Not easily exhaustible; tireless, dogged |
| Ineluctable | Certain, inevitable |
| Inimitable | one of a kind, peerless |
| Insouciant | Unconcerned, carefree, heedless |
| inveterate | Deep rooted, ingrained, habitual |
| Jejune | Vapid, uninteresting, nugatory; childish, immature, puerile |
| Lubricious | Lewd, lascivious, malicious, wanton, greasy, slippery. |
| Mendicant | A beggar, supplicant |
| Meretricious | Cheap, gaudy, tawdry, flashy, showy, attracting by false show |
| Minatory | menacing, threatening (reminds you of the Minotaur, a threatening creature indeed) |
| Nadir | Low point , perigee |
| Nonplussed | Baffle, bewildered, at a loss for what to do or think. |
| Obstreperous | Noisily andstubbornly defiant, aggressively boisterous. |
| Ossified | Tending to become more rigid, conventional, sterile, and reationary with age; literally, turned into bone |
| Palliate | To make something seem less serious, to gloss over, to make less severe or intense. |
| Panegyric | Formal praise, eulogy, encomium; panegyrical means expressing elaborate praise. |
| Parsimonious | Cheap, miserly: She is a parsimonious person that not easily share her money |
| Pellucid | Transparent, easy to understand, limpid |
| Peroration | The concluding part of a speech; flowery, rhetorical speech. |
| Plangent | poundering , thundering, resounding |
| Prolix | Long-winded, verbose; prolixity means verbosity. |
| Propitiate | To appease; to conciliate; propitious means auspicious, favorable |
| puerile | Childish, immature, jejune, nugatory. |
| Puissance | power, strength; puissant means powerful, strong: The candidate delivered a puissance discourse on how to save money. |
| pusillanimous | cowardly, craven |
| remonstrate | To protest, object |
| Sagacious | Having sound judgment; perceptive wise; like a sage. |
| Salacious | Lustful, lascivious, bawdy. |
| Salutary | Remedial, wholesome, causing improvement. |
| Sanguine | Cheerful, confident, optimistic |
| Saturnine | gloomy, dark, sullen, morose |
| Sententious | Aphoristic or moralistic; epigrammatic; tending to moralize excessively. |
| Stentorian | Extremely loud and powerful |
| Stygian | gloomy, dark |
| Sycophant | Toady, servile, self-seeking flatterer; parasite |
| Tendentious | biased; showing marked tendencies |
| Timorous | Timid, fearful, diffident. |
| Tyro | novice, greenhorn, rank amateur |
| vitiate | to corrupt to debase, spoil, make ineffective |
| Voluble | fluent, verbal, having easy use of spoken language. adj. |
Created by:
bschiava
Popular GRE sets