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SAT High Freq. 10
SAT Hot Prospects & High Frequency Vocab 10
Word | Definition | Sentence |
---|---|---|
flagrant | adj. conspicuously wicked; blatant; outrageous | The governor's appointment of his brother-in-law to the State Supreme Court was a flagrant violation of the state laws against nepotism (favoritism based on kinship). |
florid | adj. ruddy; reddish; flowery | If you go to Florida and get a sunburn, your complexion will look florid. If your postcards about the trip praise Florida in flowery words, your prose sounds florid. |
foolhardy | adj. rash | Don't be foolhardy. Get the advice of experienced people before undertaking this venture. |
frivolous | adj. lacking in seriousness; self-indlgently carefree; relatively unimportant | Though Nancy enjoyed Bill's frivolous, lighthearted companionship, she sometimes wondered whether he could be serious. |
frugality | n. thrift; economy | In economically hard times, anyone who doesn't learn to practice frugality risks bankruptcy. |
furtive | adj. stealthy; sneaky | Noticing the furtive glance the customer gave the diamond bracelet on the counter, the jeweler wondered whether he had a potential shoplifter on his hands. |
garrulous | adj. loquacious; wordy; talkative | My Uncle Henry is the most garrulous person in Cayuga County; he can outtalk anyone I know. |
glacial | adj. like a glacier; extremely cold | Never a warm person, when offended John could seem positively glacial. |
glutton | n. someone who eats too much | When Mother saw that Bobby had eaten all the cookies, she called him a little glutton. |
gratify | v. please | Lori's parents were gratified by her successful performance on the SAT. |
gratuitous | adj. given freely; unwarranted; uncalled for | Quit making gratuitous comments about my driving; no one asked you for your opinion. |
gravity | n. seriousness | We could tell we were in serious trouble from the gravity of the principal's expression. |
gregarious | adj. sociable | Typically, partygoers are gregarious; hermits are not. |
guile | n. deceit; duplicigty; wiliness; cunning | Iago uses considerable guile to trick Othello into believing that Desdemons has been unfaithful. |
gullible | adj. easily deceived | Overly gullible people have only themselves to blame if they fall for con artists repeatedly. |
hackneyed | adj. commonplace; trite | When the reviewer criticized the movie for its hackneyed plot, we agreed; we had seen similar stories hundreds of times before. |
hamper | v. obstruct | The new mother didn't realize how much the effort of caring for an infant would hamper her ability to keep an immaculate house. |
hardy | adj. sturdy; robust; able to stand inclement weather | We asked the gardening expert to recommend some particularly hardy plants that could withstand our harsh New England winters. |
haughtiness | n. pride; arrogance | When she realized that Darcy believed himself too good to dance with his inferious, Elizabeth took great offense at his haughtiness. |
hedonist | n. one who believes that pleasure is the sole aim in life | A thoroughgoing hedonist, he considered only his own pleasure and ignored any claims others had on his money or time. |
heresy | n. opinion contrary to popular belief; opinion contrary to accepted religion | Galileo's assertion that the earth moved around the sun directly contradicted the religious teachings of his day; as a result, he was tried for heresy. |
hierarchy | n. arrangement by rank or standiing; authoritarian body divided into ranks | To be low man on the totem pole is to have an inferior place in the hierarchy. |
homogeneous | adj. of the same kind | Because the student body at Elite Prep was so homogeneous, Sara and James decided to send their daughter to a school that offered greater cultural diversity. |
hyupocritical | adj. pretending to be virtuous; deceiving | It was hypocritical of Martha to say nice things about my poetry to me and then make fun of my verses behind my back. |
hypothetical | adj. based on assumptions or hypotheses; supposed | Suppose you are accepted by Harvard, Stamford and Brown. Which one would you choose to attend? Remember, this is only a hypothetical situation. |
iconoclastic | adj. attacking cherished traditions | Deeply iconoclastic, Jean Genet deliberately set out to shock conventional theatergoers with his radical plays. |
idiosyncrasy | n. individual trait, usually odd in nature; eccentricity | One of Richard Nixon's little idiosyncrasies was his liking for ketchup on cottage cheese. |
ignominy | n. deep disgrace, shame or dishonor | To lose the Ping-Pong match to a trained chimpanzee!! How could Rollo stand the ignominy of his defeat? |
illicit | adj. illegal | The defense attorney maintained that his client had never performed any illicit action. |
fitful | adj. spasmodic, intermittent | After several fitful attempt, he decided to postpone the start of the project until he felt more energetic. |