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GRE Word List 1
abase-adroit
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| abase | v. lower; degrade; humiliate. Anna expected to have to curtsy to the King of Siam; when told to cast herself down on the ground before him, however, she refused to abase herself. |
| abash | v. embarass. he was not at all abashed by her open admiration. |
| abate | v. subside or moderate. Rather than leaving immediately, they waited for the storm to abate. |
| abbreviate | v. shorten. Becase we were running out of time, the lecturer had to abbreviate her speech. |
| abdicate | v. renounce; give up. When Edward VIII abdicated the British throne, he surprised the entire world. |
| aberrant | adj. abnormal or deviant. Given the aberrant nature of the data, we came to doubt the validity of the entire experiment. |
| abet | v. assist, usually in doing something wrong; encourage. She was unwilling to abet him in the swindle he had planned. |
| abeyance | n. suspended action. The deal was held in abeyance until her arrival. |
| abhor | v. detest; hate. She abhorred all forms of bigotry. |
| abject | adj. wretched; lacking pride. On the streets of New York the homeless live in abject poverty, huddling in doorways to find shelter from the wind. |
| abjure | v. renounce upon oath; disavow. Pressure from university authorities caused the young scholar to abjure his heretical opinions. |
| ablution | n. washing. His daily ablutions were accompanied by loud noises that he humorously labled "Opera in the Bath" |
| abnegation | n. renunciation; self sacrifice. Though Rudolph and Duchess Flavia loved one another, their love was doomed, for she had to wed the king; their act of abnegation was necessary to preserve the kingdom. |
| abolish | v. cancel; put an end to. The president of the college refused to abolish the physical education requirement. |
| abominable | adj. detestable; extremely unpleasant; very bad. Mary liked John until she learned he wa salso dating Susan; then she called him an abominable young man, with abominable tasted in women. |
| abominate | v. loathe; hate. Moses scolded the idol worshippers in the tribe because he abominated the custom. |
| aboriginal | adj., n. being the first of its kind in a region; primitive, native. Her studies of the primitive art forsm of the aboriginal Indians were widley reported in the scientific journals. |
| abortive | adj. unsuccessful; fruitless. Attacked by armed troops, the Chinese students had to abandon their abortive attempt to democratize Beijing peacefully. |
| abrasive | adj. rubbing away; tending to grind down. Just as abrasive cleaning powders can wear away a shiny finish, abrasive remarks can wear away a listener's patience. |
| abridge | v. condense or shorten. Because the publishers felt the public wanted a shorter version of War and Peace, they proceeded to abridge the novel. |
| abrogate | v. abolish. The king intended to abrogate decree issued by his predeccesor. |
| abscond | v. depart secretly and hide. The teller who absconded with the bonds went uncaptured until someone recognized him from his photograph on America's most Wanted. |
| absolute | adj. complete; totally unlimited; certain. Although the Kind of Siam was an absolute monarch, he did not want to behead his unfaithful wife without absolute evidence of her infidelity. |
| absolve | v. pardon (an offense). The father confessor absolved him of his sins. |
| abstain | v. refrain; withold from participation. After considering the effect of alcohol on his athletic performance, he decided to abstain from drinking while he trained for the race. |
| abstemious | adj. sparing in eating and drinking temperate. Concerned whether her vegetration son's abstemious diet provided him with sufficient protein, the worried mother pressed him for food. |
| abstinence | n. retrain from eating or dinking. The doctor recommended total abstinence from salted foods. |
| abstract | adj. theoretical; not concrete; nonrepresentational. To him, hunger was an abstract conepet, he had never missed a meal. |
| abstruse | adj. obsure; profound; difficult to understand. Baffled by the abstruse philosophical texts assigned in class, Dave asked Lexy to explain Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. |
| abusive | adj. coarsely insulting; physically harmful. An abusive parent damages a child both mentally and physically. |
| abut | v. border upon; adjoin. Where our estates abut, we must build a fence. |
| abysmal | adj. bottomless. His arrogance is exceeded by his abysmal ignorance. |
| abyss | n. enormous chasm; vast, bottomless pit. Darth Vader seibed the evil emperor and hurled him into the abyss. |
| academic | adj. related to school; not practical or directly useful. The dean's talk about reforming academic policies was only an academic discussion: we knew little, if anything, would change. |
| accede | v. agree. If I accede to this demand for blackmail, I am afraid that I will be the victim of future demands. |
| accelerate | v. move faster. In our science class, we learn how falling bodies accelerate. |
| accessible | adj. easy to approace; obtainable. We asked our guide whether the ruins were accessible on foot. |
| accessory | n. additional object; useful but not essential thing. She bought an attractive handbag as an accessory for her dress. |
| acclaim | v. applaud; announce with great approval. The sportscasters acclaimed every American vicotry in the Olympics and decried every American defeat. |
| acclimate | v. adjust to climate or environment; adpt. One of the difficulties of our present air age is the need of travelers to acclimate themselves to their new and often strange environments. |
| acclivity | n. sharp upslope of a hill. The car could not go up the acclivity in high gear. |
| accolade | n. award of merit. in Hollywood, an "Oscar" is the highest accolade. |
| accomodate | v. oblige or help someone; adjust or bring into harmony; adapt. Mitch always did everything possible to accomodate his elderly relatives, from driving them to medical apointments to helping them with paperwork. |
| accomplice | n. partner in crime. Because he had provided the criminal with the lethal weapon, he was arrested as an accomplice in the murder. |
| accord | n. agreement. She was in complete accord with the verdict. |
| accost | v. approach and speak first to a person. When the two young men accosted me, I was frightened because I thought they were going to attack me. |
| accoutre | v. equip. The fisherman was accoutred with the best that the sporting goods store could supply. |
| accretion | n. growth; increase. Over the years Bob put on weight; because of this accretion of flesh, he went from size M to size XL. |
| accrue | v. come out by addition. You must pay the interest that has accruse on your debt as well as the principal sum. |
| acerbic | adj. bitter or sour in nature; sharp and cutting. Noted for her acerbic wit and gossiping, Alice Roosevelt Longworth had a pillow in her home embroidered with the legend "If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me." |
| acerbity | n. bitterness of spech and temper. The meeting of the United Nations Assembly was marked with such acerbity that observers held little hope of reaching any useful settlement of the problem. |
| acetic | adj. vinegary. The salad had an exceedingly acetic flavor. |
| acidulous | adj. slightly sour; sharp; caustic. James was unpopular because of his sarcastic and acidulous remarks. |
| acknowledge | v. recognize; admit. Although I acknowledge that the Beatles' tunes sound pretty dated nowadays, I still prefer them to the gangsta rap songs my brothers play. |
| acme | n. peak; pinnacle; highest point. Welles's success in Citizen Kane marked the acme of his career as an actor; never again did he achieve such popular acclaim. |
| acoustics | n. science of sound; quality that makes a room easy or hard to hear in. Carnegie Hall is liked by music lovers because of its fine acoustics. |
| acquiesce | v. assent; agree passively. Although she appeared to acquiesce to her employer's suggestions, I could tell she had reservations about the changes he wanted made. |
| acquittal | n. deliverance from a charge. His acquittal by the jury surprised those who had though him guilty. |
| acrid | adj. sharp; bitterly pungent. The acrid odor of burnt gunpowder filled the room after the pistol had been fired. |
| acrimonious | adj. bitter in words or manner. The candidate attacked his opponent in highly acrimonious tems. |
| acrophobia | n. fear of heights. A born salesman, he could convince someone with a bad case of acrophobia to sign up for a life membership in a sky-diving club. |
| actuarial | adj. calculating; pertaining to insurance statistics. According to recent actuarial tables, life expectancy is greater today than it was a century ago. |
| actuate | v. motivate. I fail to understand what actuated you to reply to this letter so nastily. |
| acuity | n. sharpness. In time his youthful acuity of vision failed him, and he needed glasses. |
| acumen | n. mental keenness. Her business acumen helped her to succeed where otherd had failed. |
| acute | adj. quickly perceptive; keen; brief and severe. The acute young doctor realized immediately that the gradual deterioration of her patient's once-acute hearing was due to a chronic illness, not an acute one. |
| adage | n. wise sayaing; proverb. There is much truth in the old adage about fools and their money. |
| adamant | adj. hard; inflexible. In this movie Bronson played the part of a revenge-driven man, adamant in his determination to punish the criminals who destroyed his family. |
| adapt | v. alter; modify. Some species of animals have become extinct because they could not adapt to a changing environment. |
| addendum | n. addition; appendix to book. Jane's editor approved her new comparitive literature text but thought it would be even better with an addendum on recent developments in literary criticism. |
| addiction | n. compulsive, habitual need. His addiction to drugs caused his friends much grief. |
| addle | v. muddle; drive crazy; become rotten. This idiotic plan is confusing enough to addle anyone. |
| address | v. direct speech to; deal with or discuss. Due to address the convention in July, Brown planned to address the issue of low-income housing in his speech. |
| adept | adj. expert at. She was adept at the fine art of irritating people. |
| adhere | v. stick fast. I will adhere to to this opinion until proof that I am wrong is presented. |
| adherent | n. supporter; follower. In the wake of the scandal, the senator's one-time adherents quietly deserted him. |
| adjacent | adj. adjoining; neighboring; close by. Philip's best friend Jason lived only four houses down the block, near but not immediately adjacent. |
| adjunct | n. something (generally nonessential or inferior) added on or attached. Although I don't absolutely need a second computer, I plan to buy a laptop to serve as an adjunct to my desktop model. |
| adjuration | n. solemn urging. Her adjuration to tell the truth did not change the witnesse' testimonty. |
| adjutant | n. staff officer assisting the commander; assistant. Though Wellington delegated many tasks to his chief adjutant, Lord Fitzroy Somerset, Somerset was in no doubt as to who made all major decisions. |
| admonish | v. warn; reprove. When her courtiers questioned her religious beliefs, May Stuart admonished them, declaring that she would worship as she pleased. |
| adorn | v. decorate. Wall paintings and carved statues adorned the temple. |
| adroit | adj. skkillful. he adroit handling of the delicate situation pleased her employers. |
Created by:
ms6arcia
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