2011 GRE Hit Parade Set 2
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76 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Abate | To lessen in intensity or degree |
| Accolade | An expression of praise |
| Adulation | Excessive praise; intense adoration |
| Aesthetic | Dealing with art or the beautiful |
| Ameliorate | To make better or more tolerable |
| Ascetic | One who practices self-denial especially as an act of religious devotion |
| Avarice | Greed, especially for wealth |
| Axiom | A universally recognized principle |
| Burgeon | To grow rapidly or flourish |
| Bucolic | Rustic and pastoral; characteristic of rural areas and their inhabitants |
| Cacophany | Harsh, jarring, discordant sound; dissonance |
| Canon | A secular law, rule, or code of law |
| Castigation | Severe criticism or punishment |
| Catalyst | A substance that accelerates the rate of a chemical reaction without itself changing; a person or thing that causes change |
| Caustic | Burning and stinging; causing corrosion |
| Chary | Wary; cautious; sparing |
| Cogent | Appealing forcibly to the mind or reason; convincing |
| Complaisance | The willingness to comply with the wishes of others |
| Contentious | Argumentative; quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement |
| Contrite | Regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness |
| Culpable | Deserving blame |
| Dearth | Smallness of quantity or number; scarcity; a lack |
| Demur | To question or oppose |
| Didactic | Intended to teach or instruct |
| Discretion | Cautious reserve in speech; ability to make responsible decisions |
| Disinterested | Free of bias; impartial |
| Dogmatic | Expressing a rigid opinion based on unproved or unprovable principles |
| Ebullience | High spirits; exhilaration; exuberance |
| Eclectic | Composed of elements drawn from various sources |
| Elegy | A mournful poem, especially one lamenting the dead |
| Emollient | Soothing to the skin; making less harsh; mollifying |
| Empirical | Based on observation or experiment |
| Enigmatic | Mysterious; obscure; difficult to understand |
| Ephemeral | Brief; lasting a very short time |
| Esoteric | Intended for or understood by a specific group |
| Eulogy | A speech honoring the dead |
| Exonerate | To remove blame |
| Facetious | Playful; Humerous |
| Fallacy | An invalid or incorrect notion; a mistaken belief |
| Furtive | Marked by stealth; covert |
| Gregarious | Sociable; outgoing; enjoying the company of other people |
| Harangue | A long, pompous speech |
| Heretical | Violating accepted dogma or convention |
| Hyperbole | An exaggerated statement |
| Impecunious | Lacking funds; without money |
| Incipient | Beginning to come into being or to become apparent |
| Inert | Unmoving; sluggish; lethargic |
| Innocuous | Harmless; causing no damage |
| Intransigent | Refusing to compromise |
| Inveigle | To obtain by deception or flattery |
| Morose | Sad; sullen; melancholy |
| Odious | Deserving or causing hatred; hateful |
| Opaque | Impenetrable by light; not reflecting light |
| Oscillation | The act or state of swinging back and forth with a steady, uninterrupted rhythm |
| Penurious | Penny-pinching; excessively thrifty; ungenerous |
| Pernicious | Extremely harmful; potentially causing death |
| Peruse | To examine with great care |
| Pious | Showing strong religious devotion |
| Precursor | One that precedes and indicates or announces another |
| Preen | To dress up; to primp; to groom oneself with elaborate care |
| Prodigious | Abundant in size, force, or extent; extraordinary |
| Prolific | Producing in large volumes or amounts; productive |
| Putrefy | To rot; to decay and give off a foul odor |
| Quaff | To drink deeply |
| Quiescence | Stillness; motionlessness; quality of being at rest |
| Redoubtable | Awe-inspiring; worthy of honor |
| Sanction | Authoritative permission or approval |
| Satire | A literary work that ridicules or criticizes a human vice through humor or derision |
| Squalid | Sordid; wretched; neglected and filthy |
| Stoic | Indifferent to or unaffected by pleasure or pain |
| Supplant | To take the place of; supersede |
| Torpid | Lethargic; sluggish; dormant |
| Ubiquitous | Existing everywhere at the same time; constantly encountered; widespread |
| Urbane | Sophisticated; refined; elegant |
| Villify | To defame; to characterize harshly |
| Viscous | Thick; sticky |
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