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GRE Vocab
Words to study for the GRE
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Abscond (verb) | to depart clandestinely; to seal off and hide |
| Aberrant (adj.) | deviating from the norm |
| Alacrity (noun) | eager and enthusiastic willingness |
| Anomaly (noun) | deviation from the normal order, form, or rule; abnormality |
| Approbation (noun) | an expression of approval or praise |
| Arduous (adj.) | strenuous, taxing; requiring significant effort |
| Assuage (verb) | to ease or lessen; to appease or pacify |
| Audacious (adj.) | daring and fearless; recklessly bold |
| Austere (adj.) | without adornment; bare; severely simple; ascetic |
| Axiomatic (adj.) | taken as given; possessing self-evident truth |
| Canonical (adj.) | following or in agreement with accepted, traditional standards |
| Capricious (adj.) | inclined to change one’s mind impulsively |
| Censure (verb) | to criticize severely; to officially rebuke |
| Chicanery (noun) | trickery or subterfuge |
| Connoisseur (noun) | an informed and astute judge in matters of taste; expert |
| Convoluted (adj.) | complex or complicated |
| Disabuse (verb) | to undeceive; to set right |
| Discordant (adj.) | conflicting; dissonant or harsh in sound |
| Disparate (adj.) | fundamentally distinct or dissimilar |
| Effrontery (noun) | extreme boldness; presumptuousness |
| Eloquent (adj.) | well-spoken, expressive, articulate |
| Enervate (verb) | to weaken; to reduce in vitality |
| Ennui (noun) | dissatisfaction and restlessness resulting from boredom or apathy |
| Equivocate (verb) | to use ambiguous language with a deceptive intent |
| Erudite (adj.) | very learned; scholarly |
| Exculpate (verb) | exonerate; to clear of blame |
| Exigent (adj.) | urgent, pressing; requiring immediate action or attention |
| Extemporaneous (adj.) | improvised; done with preparation |
| Filibuster (noun) | intentional obstruction, esp. using prolonged speechmaking to delay legislative action |
| Fulminate (verb) | to loudly attack or denounce |
| Ingenuous (adj.) | artless; frank and candid; lacking in sophistication |
| Inured (adj.) | accustomed to accepting something undesirable |
| Irascible (adj.) | easily angered; prone to temperamental outbursts |
| Land (verb) | to praise highly |
| Lucid (adj.) | clear; easily understood |
| Magnanimity (noun) | to quality of being generously noble in mind and heart, esp. in forgiving |
| Martial (adj.) | associated with war and the armed forces |
| Mundane (adj.) | of the world; typical of or concerned with the ordinary |
| Nascent (adj.) | coming into being; in early developmental stages |
| Nebulous (adj.) | vague; cloudy; lacking clearly defined form |
| Neologism (noun) | a new word, expression, or usage; the creation or use of new words or senses |
| Noxious (adj.) | harmful, injurious |
| Obtuse (adj.) | lacking sharpness of intellect; not clear or precise in thought or expression |
| Obviate (verb) | to anticipate and make unnecessary |
| Onerous (adj.) | troubling, burdensome |
| Paean (noun) | a song or hymn of praise and thanksgiving |
| Parody (noun) | a humorous imitation intended for ridicule or comic effect, esp. in literature and art |
| Perennial (adj.) | recurrent though the year or many years; happening repeatedly |
| Perfidy (noun) | intentional breach of faith; treachery |
| Perfunctory (adj.) | cursory; done without care or interest |
| Perspicacious (adj.) | acutely perceptive; having keen discernment |
| Prattle (verb) | to babble meaninglessly; to talk in an empty and idle manner |
| Precipitate (adj.) | acting with excessive haste or impulse |
| Precipitate (verb) | to cause to happen before anticipated |
| Predilection (noun) | a disposition in favor of something |
| Prescience (noun) | foreknowledge of events; knowing of events prior to their occurring |
| Prevaricate (verb) | to deliberately avoid the truth; to mislead |
| Qualms (noun) | misgivings; reservations; causes for hesitancy |
| Recant (verb) | to retract, esp. a previously held belief |
| Refute (verb) | to disprove; to successfully argue against |
| Relegate (verb) | to forcibly assign, esp. to a lower place or position |
| Reticent (adj.) | quiet; reserved; reluctant to express thoughts and feelings |
| Solicitous (adj.) | concerned and attentive; eager |
| Sordid (adj.) | characterized by filth, grime, or squalor; foul |
| Sporadic (adj.) | occurring only occasionally, or in scattered instances |
| Squander (verb) | to waste by spending or using irresponsibly |
| Static (adj.) | not moving, active, or in motion; at rest |
| Stupefy (verb) | to stun, baffle, or amaze |
| Stymie (verb) | to block; to thwart |
| Synthesis (noun) | to combination of parts to make a whole |
| Torque (noun) | a force that causes rotation |
| Tortuous (adj.) | winding, twisting, excessively complicated |
| Truculent (adj.) | fierce and cruel; eager to fight |
| Veracity (noun) | truthfulness, honesty |
| Virulent (adj.) | extremely harmful or poisonous; bitterly hostile or antagonistic |
| Voracious (adj.) | having an insatiable appetite for an activity or pursuit; ravenous |
| Waver (verb) | to move to and fro; to sway; to be unsettled in opinion |
| Abate (verb) | to lessen in intensity or degree |
| Accolade (noun) | an expression of praise |
| Adulation (noun) | excessive praise; intense adoration |
| Aesthetic (adj.) | dealing with, appreciative of, or responsive to art or the beautiful |
| Ameliorate (verb) | to make better or more tolerable |
| Ascetic (noun) | one who practices rigid self-denial, esp. as an act of religious devotion |
| Avarice (noun) | greed, esp. for wealth |
| Axiom (noun) | a universally recognized principal |
| Burgeon (verb) | to grow rapidly or flourish |
| Bucolic (adj.) | rustic and pastoral; characteristic of rural areas and their inhabitants |
| Cacophony (noun) | harsh, jarring, discordant sound; dissonance |
| Canon (noun) | an established set of principals or code of laws, often religious in nature |
| Castigation (noun) | severe criticism or punishment |
| Catalyst (noun) | a substance that accelerates the rate of a chemical reaction without itself changing; a person or thing that causes change |
| Caustic (adj.) | burning or stinging; causing corrosion |
| Chary (adj.) | wary; cautious; sparing |
| Cogent (adj.) | appealing forcibly to the mind or reason; convincing |
| Complaisance (noun) | the willingness to comply with the wishes of others |
| Contentious (adj.) | argumentative; quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement |
| Contrite (adj.) | regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness |
| Culpable (adj.) | deserving blame |
| Dearth (noun) | smallness of quantity or number; scarcity; a lack |
| Demur (verb) | to question or oppose |
| Didactic (adj.) | intended to teach or instruct |
| Discretion (noun) | cautious reserve in speech; ability to make responsible decisions |
| Disinterested (adj.) | free of bias or self-interest; impartial |
| Dogmatic (adj.) | expressing a rigid opinion based on unproved or improvable principals |
| Ebullience (noun) | the quality of lively or enthusiastic expression of thoughts and feelings |
| Eclectic (adj.) | composed of elements drawn from various sources |
| Elegy (noun) | a mournful poem, esp. one lamenting the dead |
| Emollient (adj.)/(noun) | soothing, esp. to the skin; making less harsh; mollifying; an agent that softens or smoothes the skin |
| Empirical (adj.) | based on observation or experiment |
| Enigmatic (adj.) | mysterious; obscure; difficult to understand |
| Ephemeral (adj.) | brief; fleeting |
| Esoteric (adj.) | intended for or understood by a small, specific group |
| Eulogy (noun) | a speech honoring the dead |
| Exonerate (verb) | to remove blame |
| Facetious (adj.) | playful; humorous |
| Fallacy (noun) | an invalid or incorrect notion; a mistaken belief |
| Furtive (adj.) | marked by stealth; covert; surreptitious |
| Gregarious (adj.) | sociable; outgoing; enjoying the company of other people |
| Harangue (verb)/(noun) | to deliver a pompous speech or tirade; a long, pompous speech |
| Heretical (adj.) | violating accepted dogma or convention |
| Hyperbole (noun) | an exaggerated statement, often used as a figure of speech |
| Impecunious (adj.) | lacking funds; without money |
| Incipient (adj.) | beginning to come into being or to become apparent |
| Inert (adj.) | unmoving; lethargic; sluggish |
| Innocuous (adj.) | harmless; causing no damage |
| Intransigent (adj.) | refusing to compromise |
| Inveigle (verb) | to obtain by deception or flattery |
| Morose (adj.) | sad; sullen; melancholy |
| Odious (adj.) | evoking intense aversion or dislike |
| Opaque (adj.) | impenetrable by light; not reflecting light |
| Oscillation (noun) | the act or state of swinging back and forth with a steady, uninterrupted rhythm |
| Penurious (adj.) | penny-pinching; excessively thrifty, ungenerous |
| Pernicious (adj.) | extremely harmful; potentially causing death |
| Peruse (verb) | to examine with great care |
| Pious (adj.) | extremely reverent or devout; showing strong religious devotion |
| Precursor (noun) | one the proceeds and Indicates or announces another |
| Prodigious (adj.) | abundant in size, force, or extent; extraordinary |
| Preen (verb) | to dress up; to primp; to groom oneself with elaborate care |
| Prolific (adj.) | producing large volumes or amounts; productive |
| Putrefy (verb) | to rot; to decay and give off a foul odor |
| Quaff (verb) | to drink deeply |
| Quiescence (noun) | stillness; motionlessness; quality of being at rest |
| Redoubtable (adj.) | awe-inspiring; worthy of honor |
| Sanction (noun)/(verb) | authoritative permission or approval; a penalty intended to enforce compliance; to give permission or authority to |
| Satire (noun) | literary work that ridicules or criticizes a human vice through humor or derision |
| Squalid (adj.) | sordid; wretched and dirty as from neglect |
| Stoic (adj.) | indifferent or unaffected by pleasure pain; steadfast |
| Supplant (verb) | to take the place of; to supersede |
| Torpid (adj.) | lethargic; sluggish; dormant |
| Ubiquitous (adj.) | existing everywhere at the same time; constantly encountered; widespread |
| Urbane (adj.) | sophisticated; refined; elegant |
| Vilify (verb) | to defame; to characterize harshly |
| Viscous (adj.) | thick; sticky |
| Acumen (noun) | Keen, accurate judgment or insight |
| Adulterate (verb) | To reduce purity by combining with inferior ingredients |
| Amalgamate (verb) | To combine several elements into a whole |
| Archaic (adj.) | Outdated; associate it with an earlier, perhaps more primitive, time |
| Aver (verb) | To state as a fact; to declare assert |
| Bolster (verb) | To provide support or reinforcement |
| Bombastic (adj.) | Pompous; grandiloquent |
| Diatribe (noun) | A harsh denunciation |
| Dissemble (verb) | To disguise or conceal; to mislead |
| Eccentric (adj.) | Departing from norms or conventions |
| Endemic (adj.) | Characteristic of or often found in a particular locality, region, or people |
| Evanescent (adj.) | Tending to disappear like vapor; vanishing |
| Exacerbate (verb) | To make worse or more severe |
| Fervent (adj.) | Greatly emotional or zealous |
| Fortuitous (adj.) | Happening by accident or chance |
| Germane (adj.) | Relevant to the subject at hand; appropriate in subject matter |
| Grandiloquence (noun) | Pompous speech or expression |
| Hackneyed (adj.) | Rendered trite or commonplace by frequent usage |
| Halcyon (adj.) | Calm and peaceful |
| Hedonism (noun) | Devotion to pleasurable pursuits, esp. to the pleasures of the senses |
| Hegemony (noun) | The constant dominance of one state or ideology over others |
| Iconoclast (noun) | One who attacks or undermines traditional conventions or institutions |
| Idolatrous (adj.) | Given to intense or excessive devotion to something |
| Impassive (adj.) | Revealing no emotion |
| Imperturbable (adj.) | Marked by extreme calm, impassivity, and steadiness |
| Implacable (adj.) | Not capable of being appeased or significantly changed |
| Impunity (noun) | Immunity from punishment or penalty |
| Inchoate (adj.) | In an initial stage; not fully formed |
| Infelicitous (adj.) | Unfortunate; inappropriate |
| Insipid (adj.) | Without taste or flavor; lacking in spirit; bland |
| Loquacious (adj.) | Extremely talkative |
| Luminous (adj.) | Characterized by brightness and the emission of light |
| Malevolent (adj.) | Having or showing often vicious ill will, spite, or hatred |
| Malleable (adj.) | Capable of being shaped or formed; tractable; pliable |
| Mendacity (noun) | The condition of being untruthful; dishonesty |
| Meticulous (adj.) | Characterized by extreme care and precision; attentive to detail |
| Misanthrope (noun) | One who hates all other humans |
| Mitigate (verb) | To make or become less severe or intense; to moderate |
| Obdurate (adj.) | Unyielding; hardhearted; intractable |
| Obsequious (adj.) | Exhibiting a fawning attentiveness |
| Occlude (verb) | To obstruct or block |
| Opprobrium (noun) | Disgrace; contempt; scorn |
| Pedagogy (noun) | The profession or principles of teaching, or instructing |
| Pedantic (adj.) | Overly concerned with the trivial details of learning or education; show-offish about one’s knowledge |
| Penury (noun) | Poverty; destitution |
| Pervasive (adj.) | Having the tendency to permeate spread throughout |
| Pine (verb) | To yearn intensely; to languish; to lose vigor |
| Pirate (verb) | To illegally use or reproduce |
| Pith (noun) | The essential or central part |
| Pitchy (adj.) | Precise and brief |
| Placate (verb) | To appease; to calm by making concessions |
| Platitude (noun) | A superficial remark, esp. one offered as meaningful |
| Plummet (verb) | To plunge or drop straight down |
| Polemical (adj.) | Controversial; argumentative |
| Prodigal (adj.) | Recklessly wasteful; extravagant; lavish; profuse |
| Profuse (adj.) | Given or coming forth abundantly; extravagant |
| Proliferate (verb) | To grow or increase swiftly and abundantly |
| Queries (noun) | Questions; inquiries; doubts in the mind; reservations |
| Querulous (adj.) | Prone to complaining or grumbling; peevish |
| Rancorous (adj.) | Characterized by bitter, long lasting resentment |
| Recalcitrant (adj.) | Obstinately defiant of authority; difficult to manage |
| Repudiate (verb) | To refuse to have anything to do with; to disown |
| Rescind (verb) | To invalidate; to repeal; to retract |
| Reverent (adj.) | Marked by, feeling, or expressing a feeling of profound awe and respect |
| Rhetoric (noun) | The art or study of effective use of language for communication and persuasion |
| Salubrious (adj.) | Promoting health or well being |
| Solvent (adj.) | Able to meet financial obligations; able to dissolve another substance |
| Specious (adj.) | Seeming true, but actually being fallacious; misleadingly attractive; plausible but false |
| Spurious (adj.) | Lacking authenticity or validity; false; counterfeit |
| Subpoena (noun) | A court order requiring appearance and/or testimony |
| Succinct (adj.) | Brief; concise |
| Superfluous (adj.) | Exceeding what is sufficient or necessary |
| Surfeit (verb) | And overabundant supply; excess; to feed or supply to excess |
| Tenacity (noun) | The quality of adherence or persistence to something valued; persistent determination |
| Tenuous (adj.) | Having little substance or strength; flimsy; weak |
| Tirade (noun) | A long and extremely critical speech; a harsh denunciation |
| Transient (adj.) | Fleeting; passing quickly; brief |
| Zealous (adj.) | Fervent; ardent; impassioned, devoted to a cause |
| Acerbic (adj.) | Having a sour or bitter taste or character; sharp; biting |
| Aggrandize (verb) | To increase in intensity, power, influence, or prestige |
| Alchemy (noun) | A medieval science aimed at the transmutation of metals, esp. base metals into gold |
| Amenable (adj.) | Agreeable; responsive to suggestion |
| Anachronism (noun) | Something or someone out of place in terms of historical or chronological contexts |
| Astringent (adj.) | Having a tightening on living tissue; harsh; severe; something with a tightening effect on tissue |
| Contiguous (adj.) | Sharing a border; touching; adjacent |
| Convention (noun) | A generally agreed upon practice or attitude |
| Credulous (adj.) | Tending to believe to readily; gullible |
| Cynicism (noun) | An attitude or quality of belief that all people are motivated by selfishness |
| Decorum (noun) | Polite or appropriate conduct or behavior |
| Derision (noun) | Scorn, ridicule, contemptuous treatment |
| Desiccate (verb) | To dry out or dehydrate; to make dry or dull |
| Dilettante (noun) | one with an amateurish or superficial interest in the arts or a branch of knowledge |
| Disparage (verb) | to slight or belittle |
Created by:
mcpsbabe
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