Tough GRE Words Part I
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80 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 ephemeral | lasting a very short time short-lived; transitory |
| mercurial | changeable; volatile; fickle; flighty; erratic / animated; lively / pertaining to |
| contentiously | tending to argument or strife; quarrelsome |
| diffidence | lack of confidence in one's own ability, worth, or fitness; timid; shy |
| diatribe | a bitter, sharply abusive denunciation, attack, or criticism |
| pundit | a learned person, expert, or authority |
| imperiousness | domineering in a haughty manner; dictatorial; overbearing / urgent; imperitive |
| rapacious | inordinately greedy; predatory |
| invective | a railing accusation divestiture something rid of or freed from |
| tractability | easily managed or controlled; docile |
| supersede | to replace in power, authority, effectiveness, acceptance |
| obviate | to anticipate and prevent or eliminate; to render unnecessary |
| dubious | doubtful; marked by or occasioning doubt |
| lucid | clear; easily understood; completely intelligible or comprehensible |
| caustic | capable of burning, corroding / severely critical or sarcastic |
| desiccant | drying, as a medicine |
| malingerer | one who pretends to be ill, esp. in order to shirk one's duty, avoid work, etc. |
| summarily | in a prompt or direct manner; immediately; straightaway |
| idyll | a simple descriptive or narrative piece in verse or prose |
| asperity | severity; harshness or sharpness of tone, temper, or manner |
| desultory | lacking in consistency |
| impetus | an impulse; a moving force; stimulus |
| adumbrate | to produce a faint image or resemblance of; to foreshadow |
| aberrant | deviating from the norm |
| iniquity | gross injustice or wickedness |
| venerate | to honor, worship, or respect |
| precocious | unusually advanced or mature in development, esp. mental development |
| didactic | intended for instruction |
| pernicious | injurious; hurtful; fatal |
| veritable | being truly or very much so |
| resplendent | shining brilliantly; gleaming; splendid |
| relegate | to banish; to put to a lower position |
| trenchant | incisive or keen / vigorous; effective; energetic / clearly or sharply defined |
| prodigality | wasteful extravagance in spending |
| mettle | courage and fortitude / disposition or temperament |
| prescience | knowledge of things before they exist or happen |
| erudite | characterized by great knowledge; learned or scholarly |
| esoteric | understood by or meant for only the select few who have special knowledge or interest |
| mitigate | to lessen in force or intensity |
| exacerbate | to increase the severity, bitterness, or violence of |
| torpor | a state of mental or physical inactivity; lethargy |
| peripatetic | walking or traveling about / one who does so |
| subsume | to consider or include / to bring under rule |
| paean | any song of praise, joy, or triumph |
| frieze | any decorative band at the top or beneath the cornice of an interior wall, a piece of furniture, etc |
| enervate | to deprive of force or strength |
| interpolate | to introduce between other things or parts |
| sap | to deplete or weaken gradually |
| recondite | not easily understood; ambiguous |
| inimitable | incapable of being imitated or copied; surpassing imitation; matchless |
| laudable | praiseworthy; commendable |
| plaintive | mournful |
| craven | coward; despicably fearful person |
| wag | a humorous or merry person |
| abscond | to make a secret departure, to elope |
| quaff | to drink a beverage, esp. an intoxicating one, copiously and with hearty enjoyment |
| rarefy | to make thinner or less dense |
| impetuous | impulsive |
| vituperate | to use or address with harsh or abusive language; revile |
| foment | to instigate or foster; promote the growth or development of |
| inchoate | not yet completed or fully developed |
| tyro | a beginner in learning anything; novice |
| disinter | to unearth / to bring from obscurity into view |
| solvency | ability to pay all just debts |
| garrulous | excessively talkative |
| lien | the legal claim of one person upon the property of another to secure the payment of a debt |
| florid | flowery; excessively ornate; showy / reddish |
| quixotic | extravagantly chivalrous or romantic |
| churlish | boorish; rude |
| vitiate | to impair or weaken the effectiveness or quality of |
| anomalous | irregular; abnormal; unusual |
| pervasive | spreading throughout all parts of |
| repudiate | to reject the authority or validity of |
| elegy | a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem |
| emollient | soothing, esp. to the skin |
| dynamo | an energetic, hardworking, forceful person |
| perfidious | deliberately faithless; treacherous; deceitful |
| irascible | easily provoked to anger; very irritable |
| amenable | ready or willing to answer, act, agree, or yield |
| misanthrope | a hater of humankind |
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