Chapter 8
Vocabulary for the GRE
Words, words, words. That’s what you’ll find in this chapter. The following pages contain the Hit Parade, a list of some of the most common words that appear on the GRE. There are also some handy tips on studying and learning new vocabulary words and exercises to test your progress. Be advised, though, that the words in the chapter ahead are just a starting point. As you prepare for your GRE, keep your eyes open for words you don’t know and look them up!
VOCAB, VOCAB, VOCAB
As much as ETS would like to claim that the GRE doesn’t rely much on vocabulary, the simple fact remains that many of the questions, answer choices, and reading passages contain some difficult vocabulary. You can’t improve your score substantially without increasing your vocabulary. You might think that studying vocabulary is the most boring part of preparing for the GRE, but it’s one of the most important, and it’s also the one part of GRE preparation that’s actually useful to you beyond the confines of the test itself. And the more words that you recognize (and know the meaning of) on the test, the easier it will be. So there’s no avoiding the importance of vocabulary to your success on the GRE. Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to fairly test someone’s vocabulary on a standardized test. If you memorize 1,000 words and on test day none of those words appear, does that mean you have a bad vocabulary? Of course not—it just means that you’ve been victimized by the limitations of standardized testing.
This doesn’t mean that you should take a defeatist attitude toward learning vocabulary! Even if you have only a few weeks before your test, you can still expand your vocabulary and increase your prospects of doing better on the GRE. One thing you have working in your favor is the fact that ETS loves to do the same things over and over. The words we’ve collected for you in this chapter are the words that appear most frequently on the GRE. So let’s get started learning some new words!
LEARN TO LOVE THE DICTIONARY
Get used to looking up words. ETS uses words that it believes the average college-educated adult should know. These words show up in newspaper and magazine articles, in books, and in textbooks. If you see a word you don’t know while studying for the GRE or elsewhere, it’s probably a good GRE word. Look it up and make a flash card. Dictionaries will give you the pronunciation, while digital apps can provide quick, handy look-ups for new words. Looking up words is a habit. You may have to force yourself to do it in the beginning, but it becomes more natural over time. Many of the techniques in this book will help you on the GRE but don’t have much relevance in day-to-day life, but a great vocabulary and good vocabulary habits will add a tremendous amount of value to your graduate school career and beyond.
Learning New Words
How will you remember all the new words you should learn for the test? By developing a routine for learning new words. Here are some tips.
• To learn words that you find on your own, get into the habit of reading good books, magazines, and newspapers. Start paying attention to words you come across for which you don’t know the definition. You might be tempted to just skip these, as usual, but train yourself to write them down and look them up.
• When you look up the word, say it out loud, being careful to pronounce it correctly. This will help you remember it.
• When you look up a word in the dictionary, don’t assume that the first definition is the only one you need to know. The first definition may be an archaic one, or one that applies only in a particular context, so scan through all the definitions.
• Now that you’ve learned the dictionary’s definition of a new word, restate it in your own words. You’ll find it much easier to remember a word’s meaning if you make it your own.
• Mnemonics—Use your imagination to create a mental image to fix the new word in your mind. For example, if you’re trying to remember the word voracious, which means having an insatiable appetite for an activity or pursuit, picture an incredibly hungry boar, eating huge piles of food. The voracious boar will help you to recall the meaning of the word. The crazier the image, the better.
• Keep a vocabulary notebook, or make a file with a list of new vocabulary words and put it on your desktop. Simply having a notebook with you will remind you to be on the lookout for new words, and using it will help you to remember the ones you encounter. Writing something down also makes it easier to memorize. Jot down the word when you find it, note its pronunciation and definition (in your own words) when you look it up, and jot down your mnemonic or mental image. You might also copy the sentence in which you originally found the word, to remind yourself of how the word looks in context.
• Do the same thing with flash cards. Write the word on one side and the pronunciation, the meaning, and perhaps a mental image on the other. Stick five or six of your flash cards in your pocket every morning and use them whenever you can. Stuck on a delayed subway train? Look at your flashcards. Standing in a long line at the bank? Look at your flashcards. Sick of engaging in small talk with boring acquaintances? Look at your flashcards. (Only kidding about that last one.)
• Use your new word every chance you get. Make it part of your life. Insert it into your speech at every opportunity. Developing a powerful vocabulary requires lots of exercise.
• Learn word roots. Many words share similar origins. By learning these common roots, you’ll be better able to work with words you’ve never seen before. A good dictionary should list the origin and roots of the words in it.
THE HIT PARADE
You should start your vocabulary work by studying the Hit Parade, which is a list we’ve compiled of some of the most frequently tested words on the GRE. We put together this list by analyzing released GREs and keeping tabs on the test to make sure that these words are still popular with ETS. At the very least, answer choices that contain Hit Parade words make very good guesses on questions for which you don’t know the answer. Each word on the Hit Parade is followed by the part of speech and a brief definition for the word. Some of the words on this list may have other definitions as well, but the definitions we have given are the ones most likely to appear on the GRE.
We’ve broken the Hit Parade down into four groups of about 75 words each. Don’t try to learn all four groups of words at once—work with one list at a time. Write the words and their definitions down in a notebook or on flash cards. It is very important to write them down yourself, because this will help you remember them. Just glancing through the lists printed in this book won’t be nearly as effective. Before doing the exercises for each group, spend some time studying and learning the words first. Then use the exercises as a way to test yourself. Answers for the matching exercises appear in Part V of this book.
Hit Parade Group 1
| abscond (verb) | to depart clandestinely; to steal off and hide |
| aberrant (adj.) | deviating from the norm (noun form: aberration) |
| alacrity (noun) | eager and enthusiastic willingness |
| anomaly (noun) | deviation from the normal order, form, or rule; abnormality (adj. form: anomalous) |
| 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 (noun form: audacity) |
| austere (adj.) | without adornment; bare; severely simple; ascetic (noun form: austerity) |
| axiomatic (adj.) | taken as a given; possessing self-evident truth (noun form: axiom) |
| canonical (adj.) | following or in agreement with accepted, traditional standards (noun form: canon) |
| capricious (adj.) | inclined to change one’s mind impulsively; erratic, unpredictable |
| 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 (noun form: eloquence) |
| 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 (adj. form: equivocal) |
| erudite (adj.) | very learned; scholarly (noun form: erudition) |
| exculpate (verb) | exonerate; to clear of blame |
| exigent (adj.) | urgent, pressing; requiring immediate action or attention |
| extemporaneous (adj.) | improvised; done without 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 |
| laud (verb) | to praise highly (adj. form: laudatory) |
| lucid (adj.) | clear; easily understood |
| magnanimity (noun) | the quality of being generously noble in mind and heart, esp. in forgiving (adj. form: magnanimous) |
| 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 through the year or many years; happening repeatedly |
| perfidy (noun) | intentional breach of faith; treachery (adj. form: perfidious) |
| perfunctory (adj.) | cursory; done without care or interest |
| perspicacious (adj.) | acutely perceptive; having keen discernment (noun form: perspicacity) |
| 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 or happen before anticipated or required |
| predilection (noun) | a disposition in favor of something; preference |
| prescience (noun) | foreknowledge of events; knowing of events prior to their occurring (adj. form: prescient) |
| 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) | the combination of parts to make a whole (verb form: synthesize) |
| 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 |
Group 1 Exercises
Match the following words to their definitions. Answers can be found in Part V.
| 1. | improvised; without preparation | A. | veracity |
| 2. | a newly coined word or expression | B. | recant |
| 3. | a song of joy and praise | C. | extemporaneous |
| 4. | to praise highly | D. | stymie |
| 5. | truthfulness; honesty | E. | paean |
| 6. | artless; frank and candid | F. | lucid |
| 7. | associated with war and the military | G. | laud |
| 8. | to retract a belief or statement | H. | onerous |
| 9. | cursory; done without care or interest | I. | tortuous |
| 10. | troubling; burdensome | J. | neologism |
| 11. | to criticize; to officially rebuke | K. | martial |
| 12. | winding; twisting; complicated | L. | ingenuous |
| 13. | to block; to thwart | M. | censure |
| 14. | clear; easily understood | N. | perfunctory |
Hold Up and Break
Hit Parade Group 2
| 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 (adj. form: avaricious) |
| axiom (noun) | a universally recognized principle (adj. form: axiomatic) |
| 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 (adj. form: cacophonous) |
| canon (noun) | an established set of principles or code of laws, often religious in nature (adj. form: canonical) |
| castigation (noun) | severe criticism or punishment (verb form: castigate) |
| 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 (adj. form: complaisant) |
| contentious (adj.) | argumentative; quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement |
| contrite (adj.) | regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness (noun form: contrition) |
| culpable (adj.) | deserving blame (noun form: culpability) |
| 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 (adj. form: discreet) |
| disinterested (adj.) | free of bias or self-interest; impartial |
| dogmatic (adj.) | expressing a rigid opinion based on unproved or improvable principles (noun form: dogma) |
| ebullience (noun) | the quality of lively or enthusiastic expression of thoughts and feelings (adj. form: ebullient) |
| eclectic (adj.) | composed of elements drawn from various sources |
| elegy (noun) | a mournful poem, esp. one lamenting the dead (adj. form: elegiac) |
| 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 (noun form: enigma) |
| ephemeral (adj.) | brief; fleeting |
| esoteric (adj.) | intended for or understood by a small, specific group |
| eulogy (noun) | a speech honoring the dead (verb form: eulogize) |
| exonerate (verb) | to remove blame |
| facetious (adj.) | playful; humorous |
| fallacy (noun) | an invalid or incorrect notion; a mistaken belief (adj. form: fallacious) |
| furtive (adj.) | marked by stealth; covert; surreptitious |
| gregarious (adj.) | sociable; outgoing; enjoying the company of other people |
| harangue (verb)/(noun) | to deliver a forceful or angry speech; ranting speech or writing. |
| heretical (adj.) | violating accepted dogma or convention (noun form: heresy) |
| hyperbole (noun) | an exaggerated statement, often used as a figure of speech (adj. form: hyperbolic) |
| 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 (noun form: intransigence) |
| 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 (verb form: oscillate) |
| penurious (adj.) | penny-pinching; excessively thrifty; ungenerous |
| pernicious (adj.) | extremely harmful in a way that is not easily seen or noticed |
| peruse (verb) | to examine with great care (noun form: perusal) |
| pious (adj.) | extremely reverent or devout; showing strong religious devotion (noun form: piety) |
| precursor (noun) | one that precedes and indicates or announces another |
| preen (verb) | to dress up; to primp; to groom oneself with elaborate care |
| prodigious (adj.) | abundant in size, force, or extent; extraordinary |
| prolific (adj.) | producing large volumes or amounts; productive |
| putrefy (verb) | to rot; to decay and give off a foul odor (adj. form: putrid) |
| quaff (verb) | to drink deeply |
| quiescence (noun) | stillness; motionlessness; quality of being at rest (adj. form: quiescent) |
| 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 |
| satire (noun) | a literary work that ridicules or criticizes a human vice through humor or derision (adj. form: satirical) |
| squalid (adj.) | sordid; wretched and dirty as from neglect (noun form: squalor) |
| stoic (adj.) | indifferent to or unaffected by pleasure or pain; steadfast (noun form: stoicism) |
| supplant (verb) | to take the place of; to supersede |
| torpid (adj.) | lethargic; sluggish; dormant (noun form: torpor) |
| ubiquitous (adj.) | existing everywhere at the same time; constantly encountered; widespread |
| urbane (adj.) | sophisticated; refined; elegant (noun form: urbanity) |
| vilify (verb) | to defame; to characterize harshly |
| viscous (adj.) | thick; sticky (noun form: viscosity) |
Group 2 Exercises
Match the following words to their definitions. Answers can be found in Part V.
| 1. | brief; fleeting | A. | pernicious |
| 2. | a forceful or angry speech | B. | ephemeral |
| 3. | arousing strong dislike or aversion | C. | avarice |
| 4. | to free from blame or responsibility | D. | quaff |
| 5. | arousing fear or awe; worthy of honor; formidable | E. | caustic |
| 6. | unexpectedly harmful | F. | odious |
| 7. | to drink deeply | G. | dearth |
| 8. | stinging; corrosive; sarcastic; biting | H. | inert |
| 9. | impressively great in size, force, or extent; enormous | I. | disinterested |
| 10. | greed; hunger for money | J. | exonerate |
| 11. | unmoving; lethargic | K. | inveigle |
| 12. | impartial; unbiased | L. | prodigious |
| 13. | lack; scarcity | M. | harangue |
| 14. | to win over by deception, coaxing or flattery | N. | redoubtable |
Break Time!
Hit Parade Group 3
| 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 (noun form: amalgamation) |
| archaic (adj.) | outdated; associated with an earlier, perhaps more primitive, time |
| aver (verb) | to state as a fact; to declare or assert |
| bolster (verb) | to provide support or reinforcement |
| bombastic (adj.) | pompous; grandiloquent (noun form: bombast) |
| 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 (noun form: fervor) |
| 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 (adj. form: grandiloquent) |
| 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 (a hedonist is someone who pursues pleasure) |
| hegemony (noun) | the consistent dominance of one state or group over others |
| iconoclast (noun) | one who attacks or undermines traditional conventions or institutions |
| idolatrous (adj.) | given to intense or excessive devotion to something (noun form: idolatry) |
| 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.) | lacking in qualities that interest, stimulate, or challenge |
| loquacious (adj.) | extremely talkative (noun form: loquacity) |
| luminous (adj.) | characterized by brightness and the emission of light |
| malevolent (adj.) | having or showing often vicious ill will, spite, or hatred (noun form: malevolence) |
| malleable (adj.) | capable of being shaped or formed; tractable; pliable |
| mendacity (noun) | the condition of being untruthful; dishonesty (adj. form: mendacious) |
| meticulous (adj.) | characterized by extreme care and precision; attentive to detail |
| misanthrope (noun) | one who hates all other humans (adj. form: misanthropic) |
| 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 or 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 |
| pithy (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; profuse; lavish |
| 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 (noun form: rancor) |
| 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 (noun form: reverence) |
| 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) | an overabundant supply; excess; to feed or supply to excess (noun form: a surfeit of supplies) |
| tenacity (noun) | the quality of adherence or persistence to something valued; persistent determination (adj. form: tenacious) |
| 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 (a zealot is a zealous person) |
Group 3 Exercises
Match the following words to their definitions. Answers can be found in Part V.
| 1. | brief; concise; tersely cogent | A. | hegemony |
| 2. | prone to complaining; whining | B. | aver |
| 3. | fawning; ingratiating | C. | insipid |
| 4. | marked by bitter, deep-seated resentment | D. | pithy |
| 5. | controversial; argumentative | E. | placate |
| 6. | dominance of one state or group | F. | prodigal over others |
| 7. | uninteresting; tasteless; flat; dull | G. | querulous |
| 8. | thin; flimsy; of little substance | H. | surfeit |
| 9. | excess; overindulgence | I. | rancorous |
| 10. | wasteful; recklessly extravagant | J. | bombastic |
| 11. | to appease; to pacify with concessions | K. | obsequious |
| 12. | to assert; to declare; to allege; | L. | evanescent to state as fact |
| 13. | pompous; grandiloquent | M. | polemical |
| 14. | tending to vanish like vapor | N. | tenuous |
What’s Your Strategy?
Hit Parade Group 4
| 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 (an alchemist is one who practices alchemy) |
| amenable (adj.) | agreeable; responsive to suggestion |
| anachronism (noun) | something or someone out of place in terms of historical or chronological context |
| astringent (adj.) | having a tightening effect 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 too readily; gullible (noun form: credulity) |
| cynicism (noun) | an attitude or quality of belief that all people are motivated by selfishness (adj. form: cynical) |
| decorum (noun) | polite or appropriate conduct or behavior (adj. form: decorous) |
| derision (noun) | scorn, ridicule, contemptuous treatment (adj. form: derisive; verb form: deride) |
| 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 |
| divulge (verb) | to disclose something secret |
| fawn (verb) | to flatter or praise excessively |
| flout (verb) | to show contempt for, as in a rule or convention |
| garrulous (adj.) | pointlessly talkative; talking too much |
| glib (adj.) | marked by ease or informality; nonchalant; lacking in depth; superficial |
| hubris (noun) | overbearing presumption or pride; arrogance |
| imminent (adj.) | about to happen; impending |
| immutable (adj.) | not capable of change |
| impetuous (adj.) | hastily or rashly energetic; impulsive and vehement |
| indifferent (adj.) | having no interest or concern; showing no bias or prejudice |
| inimical (adj.) | damaging; harmful; injurious |
| intractable (adj.) | not easily managed or directed; stubborn; obstinate |
| intrepid (adj.) | steadfast and courageous |
| laconic (adj.) | using few words; terse |
| maverick (noun) | an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party |
| mercurial (adj.) | characterized by rapid and unpredictable change in mood |
| mollify (verb) | to calm or soothe; to reduce in emotional intensity |
| neophyte (noun) | a recent convert; a beginner; novice |
| obfuscate (verb) | to deliberately obscure; to make confusing |
| obstinate (adj.) | stubborn; hard-headed; uncompromising |
| ostentatious (adj.) | characterized by or given to pretentious display; showy |
| pervade (verb) | to permeate throughout (adj. form: pervasive) |
| phlegmatic (adj.) | calm; sluggish; unemotional |
| plethora (noun) | an overabundance; a surplus |
| pragmatic (adj.) | practical rather than idealistic |
| presumptuous (adj.) | overstepping due bounds (as of propriety or courtesy); taking liberties |
| pristine (adj.) | pure; uncorrupted; clean |
| probity (noun) | adherence to highest principles; complete and confirmed integrity; uprightness |
| proclivity (noun) | a natural predisposition or inclination |
| profligate (adj.) | excessively wasteful; recklessly extravagant (noun form: profligacy) |
| propensity (noun) | a natural inclination or tendency; penchant |
| prosaic (adj.) | dull; lacking in spirit or imagination |
| pungent (adj.) | characterized by a strong, sharp smell or taste |
| quixotic (adj.) | foolishly impractical; marked by lofty romantic ideals |
| quotidian (adj.) | occurring or recurring daily; commonplace |
| rarefy (verb) | to make or become thin, less dense; to refine |
| recondite (adj.) | hidden; concealed; difficult to understand; obscure |
| refulgent (adj.) | radiant; shiny; brilliant |
| renege (verb) | to fail to honor a commitment; to go back on a promise |
| sedulous (adj.) | diligent; persistent; hard-working |
| shard (noun) | a piece of broken pottery or glass |
| soporific (adj.) | causing drowsiness; tending to induce sleep |
| sparse (adj.) | thin; not dense; arranged at widely spaced intervals |
| spendthrift (noun) | one who spends money wastefully |
| subtle (adj.) | not obvious; elusive; difficult to discern |
| tacit (adj.) | implied; not explicitly stated |
| terse (adj.) | brief and concise in wording |
| tout (verb) | to publicly praise or promote |
| trenchant (adj.) | sharply perceptive; keen; penetrating |
| unfeigned (adj.) | genuine; not false or hypocritical |
| untenable (adj.) | indefensible; not viable; uninhabitable |
| vacillate (verb) | to waver indecisively between one course of action or opinion and another |
| variegated (adj.) | multicolored; characterized by a variety of patches of different color |
| vexation (noun) | annoyance; irritation ( verb form: vex) |
| vigilant (adj.) | alertly watchful (noun form: vigilance) |
| vituperate (verb) | to use harsh condemnatory language; to abuse or censure severely or abusively; to berate |
| volatile (adj.) | readily changing to a vapor; changeable; fickle; explosive (noun form: volatility) |
Group 4 Exercises
Match the following words to their definitions. Answers can be found in Part V.
| 1. | acid or biting; bitter in taste or tone | A. | anachronism |
| 2. | sleep-inducing; causing drowsiness | B. | contiguous |
| 3. | a surplus; an overabundance | C. | dilettante |
| 4. | one with superficial interest in a subject | D. | intractable |
| 5. | arrogance; overbearing pride | E. | prosaic |
| 6. | sharing a border; touching; adjacent | F. | quixotic |
| 7. | talking too much; rambling | G. | recondite |
| 8. | something out of place in history or chronology | H. | vituperate |
| 9. | difficult to understand; obscure; hidden | I. | acerbic |
| 10. | dull; unimaginative; ordinary | J. | garrulous |
| 11. | unemotional; calm | K. | hubris |
| 12. | stubborn; obstinate; difficult to manage or govern | L. | soporific |
| 13. | condemn with harsh, abusive words; berate | M. | phlegmatic |
| 14. | foolishly impractical; marked by lofty ideals | N. | plethora |
BEYOND THE HIT PARADE
So you’ve finished the Hit Parade and you’re now the master of many more words than you were before. What to do next? Why, go beyond the Hit Parade of course! The Hit Parade was just the beginning. To maximize your score on the GRE you must be relentless in increasing your vocabulary. Don’t let up. Keep learning words until the day you sit down for the exam. The following lists of extra words don’t have exercises, so just keep working with your notebook or flash cards and get your friends to quiz you. You are a vocabulary machine!
Beyond the Hit Parade Group 1
The following list contains some of those simple-sounding words with less common secondary meanings that ETS likes to test on the GRE.
| alloy (verb) | to commingle; to debase by mixing with something inferior; unalloyed means pure |
| appropriate (verb) | to take for one’s own use; to confiscate |
| arrest, arresting (verb)/(adj.) | to suspend; to engage; holding one’s attention: as in arrested adolescence, an arresting portrait |
| august (adj.) | majestic, venerable |
| bent (noun) | leaning, inclination, proclivity, tendency |
| broach (verb) | to bring up; to announce; to begin to talk about |
| brook (verb) | to tolerate; to endure; to countenance |
| cardinal (adj.) | major, as in cardinal sin |
| chauvinist (noun) | a blindly devoted patriot |
| color (verb) | to change as if by dyeing, i.e., to distort, gloss, or affect (usually the first) |
| consequential (adj.) | pompous, self-important (primary definitions are: logically following; important) |
| damp (verb) | to diminish the intensity or check the vibration of a sound |
| die (noun) | a tool used for shaping, as in a tool-and-die shop |
| essay (verb) | to test or try; to attempt; to experiment |
| exact (verb) | to demand; to call for; to require; to take |
| fell (verb) | to cause to fall by striking |
| fell (adj.) | inhumanly cruel |
| flag (verb) | to sag or droop; to become spiritless; to decline |
| flip (adj.) | sarcastic, impertinent, as in flippant: a flip remark |
| ford (verb) | to wade across the shallow part of a river or stream |
| grouse (verb) | to complain or grumble |
| guy (noun) | a rope, cord, or cable attached to something as a brace or guide; to steady or reinforce using a guy: Think guide. (verb form: guyed, guying) |
| intimate (verb) | to imply, suggest, or insinuate |
| list (verb) | to tilt or lean to one side |
| lumber (verb) | to move heavily and clumsily |
| meet (adj.) | fitting, proper |
| milk (verb) | to exploit; to squeeze every last ounce of |
| mince (verb) | to pronounce or speak affectedly; to euphemize, to speak too carefully. Also, to take tiny steps; to tiptoe |
| nice (adj.) | exacting, fastidious, extremely precise |
| occult (adj.) | hidden, concealed, beyond comprehension |
| pedestrian (adj.) | commonplace, trite, unremarkable, quotidian |
| pied (adj.) | multicolored, usually in blotches |
| pine (verb) | to lose vigor (as through grief); to yearn |
| plastic (adj.) | moldable, pliable, not rigid |
| pluck (noun) | courage, spunk, fortitude |
| prize (verb) | to pry, to press or force with a lever; something taken by force, spoils |
| rail (verb) | to complain about bitterly |
| rent (verb) | torn (past tense of rend); an opening or tear caused by such |
| quail (verb) | to lose courage; to turn frightened |
| qualify (verb) | to limit |
| sap (verb) | to enervate or weaken the vitality of |
| sap (noun) | a fool or nitwit |
| scurvy (adj.) | contemptible, despicable |
| singular (adj.) | exceptional, unusual, odd |
| stand (noun) | a group of trees |
| steep (verb) | to saturate or completely soak, as in to let a tea bag steep |
| strut (noun) | the supporting structural cross-part of a wing |
| table (verb) | to remove (as a parliamentary motion) from consideration |
| tender (verb) | to proffer or offer |
| waffle (verb) | to equivocate; to change one’s position |
| wag (noun) | wit, joker |
Beyond the Hit Parade Group 2
| abjure (verb) | to renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to avoid |
| adumbrate (verb) | to foreshadow vaguely or intimate; to suggest or outline sketchily; to obscure or overshadow |
| anathema (noun) | a solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse; accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing |
| anodyne (adj.)/(noun) | soothing; something that assuages or allays pain or comforts |
| apogee (noun) | farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith |
| apostate (noun) | one who abandons long-held religious or political convictions |
| apotheosis (noun) | deification; glorification to godliness; an exalted example; a model of excellence or perfection |
| asperity (noun) | severity, rigor; roughness, harshness; acrimony, irritability |
| asseverate (verb) | to aver, allege, or assert |
| assiduous (adj.) | diligent, hard-working, sedulous |
| augury (noun) | omen, portent |
| bellicose (adj.) | belligerent, pugnacious, warlike |
| calumniate (verb) | to slander, to make a false accusation; calumny means slander, aspersion |
| captious (adj.) | disposed to point out trivial faults; calculated to confuse or entrap in argument |
| cavil (verb) | to find fault without good reason |
| celerity (noun) | speed, alacrity; think accelerate |
| chimera (noun) | an illusion; originally, an imaginary fire-breathing she-monster |
| contumacious (adj.) | insubordinate, rebellious; contumely means insult, scorn, aspersion |
| debacle (noun) | rout, fiasco, complete failure |
| denouement (noun) | an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot |
| descry (verb) | to discriminate or discern |
| desuetude (noun) | disuse |
| desultory (adj.) | random; aimless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose |
| diaphanous (adj.) | transparent, gauzy |
| diffident (adj.) | reserved, shy, unassuming; lacking in self-confidence |
| dirge (noun) | a song of grief or lamentation |
| encomium (noun) | glowing and enthusiastic praise; panegyric, tribute, eulogy |
| eschew (verb) | to shun or avoid |
| excoriate (verb) | to censure scathingly, to upbraid |
| execrate (verb) | to denounce, to feel loathing for, to curse, to declare to be evil |
| exegesis (noun) | critical examination, explication |
| expiate (verb) | to atone or make amends for |
| extirpate (verb) | to destroy, to exterminate, to cut out, to exscind |
| fatuous (adj.) | silly, inanely foolish |
| fractious (adj.) | quarrelsome, rebellious, unruly, refractory, irritable |
| gainsay (verb) | to deny, to dispute, to contradict, to oppose |
| heterodox (adj.) | unorthodox, heretical, iconoclastic |
| imbroglio (noun) | difficult or embarrassing situation |
| indefatigable (adj.) | not easily exhaustible; tireless, dogged |
| ineluctable (adj.) | certain, inevitable |
| inimitable (adj.) | one of a kind, peerless |
| insouciant (adj.) | unconcerned, carefree, heedless |
| inveterate (adj.) | deep rooted, ingrained, habitual |
| jejune (adj.) | vapid, uninteresting, nugatory; childish, immature, puerile |
| lubricious (adj.) | lewd, wanton, greasy, slippery |
| mendicant (noun) | a beggar, supplicant |
| meretricious (adj.) | cheap, gaudy, tawdry, flashy, showy; attracting by false show |
| minatory (adj.) | menacing, threatening (reminds you of the Minotaur, a threatening creature indeed) |
| nadir (noun) | low point, perigee |
| nonplussed (adj.) | baffled, bewildered, at a loss for what to do or think |
| obstreperous (adj.) | noisily and stubbornly defiant, aggressively boisterous |
| ossified (adj.) | tending to become more rigid, conventional, sterile, and reactionary with age; literally, turned into bone |
| palliate (verb) | to make something seem less serious, to gloss over, to make less severe or intense |
| panegyric (noun) | formal praise, eulogy, encomium; panegyrical means expressing elaborate praise |
| parsimonious (adj.) | cheap, miserly |
| pellucid (adj.) | transparent, easy to understand, limpid |
| peroration (noun) | the concluding part of a speech; flowery, rhetorical speech |
| plangent (adj.) | pounding, thundering, resounding |
| prolix (adj.) | long-winded, verbose; prolixity means verbosity |
| propitiate (verb) | to appease; to conciliate; propitious means auspicious, favorable |
| puerile (adj.) | childish, immature, jejune, nugatory |
| puissance (noun) | power, strength; puissant means powerful, strong |
| pusillanimous (adj.) | cowardly, craven |
| remonstrate (verb) | to protest, to object |
| sagacious (adj.) | having sound judgment; perceptive, wise; like a sage |
| salacious (adj.) | lustful, lascivious, bawdy |
| salutary (adj.) | remedial, wholesome, causing improvement |
| sanguine (adj.) | cheerful, confident, optimistic |
| saturnine (adj.) | gloomy, dark, sullen, morose |
| sententious (adj.) | aphoristic or moralistic; epigrammatic; tending to moralize excessively |
| stentorian (adj.) | extremely loud and powerful |
| stygian (adj.) | gloomy, dark |
| sycophant (noun) | toady, servile, self-seeking flatterer; parasite |
| tendentious (adj.) | biased; showing marked tendencies |
| timorous (adj.) | timid, fearful, diffident |
| tyro (noun) | novice, greenhorn, rank amateur |
| vitiate (verb) | to corrupt, to debase, to spoil, to make ineffective |
| voluble (adj.) | fluent, verbal, having easy use of spoken language |