Flashcards: GRE Hit List
About these flashcards
Created by:
imclumsy04 on June 20, 2011
Log in to favorite or report as inappropriate.All 215 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 aberrant | deviate, abnormal |
| abeyance | suspended action |
| abscond | depart secretly and hide |
| abstemious | sparingly eating and drinking |
| adulterate | make impure by adding inferior or tainting substances |
| alacrity | cheerfulness, eagerness |
| ambivalence | state of having contradictory or emotional attitudes |
| ameliorate | improve |
| anachronism | something or someone misplaced in time |
| analogous | comparable |
| anomalous | abnormal, irregular |
| antipathy | aversion, dislike |
| apprise | inform |
| approbation | approval |
| appropriate | to take possession of |
| arduous | hard and strenuous |
| artless | open and honest |
| ascetic | practicing self-denial |
| assiduous | diligent |
| assuage | ease, lessen, satisfy sooth |
| attenuate | weaken, reduced in strength |
| austere | forbiddingly stern; severely simple; unornamented |
| aver | state confidently |
| banal | obvious and dull |
| belie | contradictory |
| boorish | rude and insensitive |
| burgeon | grow and flourish |
| burnish | polish and make shiny |
| cacophonous | having an unpleasant sound |
| capricious | impulsive and unpredictable |
| castigation | severe criticism or punishment |
| chicanery | trickery |
| coagulation | thicken, blood clotting |
| cogent | convincing |
| commensurate | Equal |
| compendium | brief, comprehensive summary |
| compliant | disposed or willing to comply |
| conciliatory | appeasing; soothing; showing willingness to reconcile |
| condone | to forgive or overlook an offense |
| contention | assertion; claim; thesis; struggling; competition |
| aggrandize | to increase in greatness, power, or wealth |
| candid | impartial and honest in speech |
| decorum | appropriateness of behavior or conduct |
| deference | respect |
| desiccate | remove water from |
| desultory | marked by lack of definite plan or regularity or purpose; jumping from one thing to another; rambling, aimless, haphazard |
| diatribe | abusive speech |
| diffident | lacking self-confidence |
| dilatory | intending to delay |
| dilettante | an amateur who engages in an activity without serious intentions and who pretends to have knowledge |
| dirge | mournful speech |
| disabuse | free somebody (from an erroneous belief) |
| disparate | fundamentally different or distinct in quality or kind |
| dissemble | make believe with the intent to deceive |
| dogma | firmly held opinion - often religious |
| dogmatic | dictatorial one's opinions |
| eclectic | selecting what seems best of various styles or ideas |
| efficacy | effectiveness |
| emulate | to copy |
| enervate | to weaken |
| engender | to produce |
| ephemeral | short-lived |
| equanimity | calmness |
| equivocate | be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information |
| erudite | having or showing profound knowledge |
| esoteric | intended for or understood by only a small group |
| euphemism | an inoffensive expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive |
| exacerbate | make worse, intensify, provoke |
| exculpate | free from blame |
| exigency | a pressing or urgent situation |
| facetious | playfully humorous |
| fatuous | foolish |
| fawning | attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery |
| felicitous | marked by good fortune |
| fervor | passion |
| flag | become less intense |
| fledgling | any new participant in some activity |
| flout | To mock, treat with contempt |
| foment | try to stir up public opinion |
| forestall | act in advance of |
| gainsay | to deny |
| goad | urge on |
| grandiloquent | puffed up with vanity |
| gregarious | Sociable |
| guileless | not deceitful or crafty |
| harangue | a long, strongly expressed speech or lecture |
| iconoclastic | attacking cherished traditions |
| idolatry | the worship of idols |
| refractory | stubbornly resistant to authority or control; hard to manage; disobedient |
| immutable | unchangeable |
| impassive | having or revealing little emotion or sensibility |
| imperturbable | not easily excited; emotionally steady |
| implacable | unable to be appeased or pacified |
| inchoate | not fully formed; disorganized |
| indigence | a state of extreme poverty or destitution |
| indolent | habitually lazy or inactive |
| ingenuous | innocent, simple; frank, sincere |
| insinuate | to suggest or hint slyly |
| insipid | lacking interest or significance, not pleasing to the sense of taste |
| insularity | the state of being isolated or detached |
| intractable | Stubborn, difficult to manage |
| intransigence | refusal to moderate a position or to compromise |
| inundate | to flood |
| inured | accustomed; hardened |
| invective | abusive language |
| irascible | characterized by anger |
| laconic | brief and to the point |
| lassitude | a feeling of lack of interest or energy |
| levity | feeling an inappropriate lack of seriousness |
| loquacious | Talkative |
| magnanimity | generosity |
| malingerer | someone shirking their duty by feigning illness or incapacity |
| mendacious | Lying; untruthful; habitual lying |
| misanthrope | hater of humanity |
| mollify | soothe |
| mundane | belonging to this earth or world |
| obdurate | stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing |
| obsequious | attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner |
| obviate | to anticipate and prevent; to remove, dispose of |
| officious | intrusive in a meddling or offensive manner |
| onerous | burdensome |
| opprobrium | state of disgrace resulting from public abuse |
| paragon | model of excellence or perfection of a kind |
| paucity | scarcity |
| penchant | a strong inclination or liking |
| penury | extreme poverty; stinginess |
| perfidious | treacherous, disloyal, tending to betray |
| pervasive | spreading throughout |
| phlegmatic | slow-moving, sluggish; unemotional |
| platitude | a trite or obvious remark |
| precarious | Not safe or secure; dangerously uncertain |
| precipitate | done with very great haste and without due deliberation |
| precursor | forerunner |
| prevaricate | to lie |
| pristine | in original, long-ago state; uncorrupted |
| probity | uprightness; honesty; incorruptibility |
| prodigal | a recklessly extravagant consumer |
| proliferate | cause to grow or increase rapidly |
| propensity | a natural inclination |
| propitiate | appease, make peace with |
| propriety | correct or appropriate behavior |
| proscribe | prohibit; ostracize; banish; outlaw |
| qualified | limited or restricted |
| quiescent | being quiet or still or inactive |
| rarefied | having low density |
| recalcitrant | marked by stubborn resistance to authority |
| recant | formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure |
| recluse | one who lives in solitude |
| recondite | difficult to understand; profound, abstruse |
| relegate | assign to a lower position |
| reproach | to blame for something; a disgrace |
| reprobate | marked by immorality |
| repudiate | refuse to acknowledge, ratify, or recognize as valid |
| rescind | annul by recalling; cancel |
| reticent | inclined to keep silent; reserved |
| salubrious | promoting health |
| sanction | official permission or approval |
| secrete | place out of sight |
| solicitous | showing hovering attentiveness, concerned |
| specious | plausible but false |
| stigma | a symbol of disgrace or infamy |
| stint | supply sparingly and with restricted quantities |
| stipulate | specify as a condition or requirement in a contract or agreement |
| stolid | not easily moved mentally or emotionally; dull, unresponsive |
| subpoena | a court order requiring appearance and/or testimony |
| supposition | a hypothesis that is taken for granted |
| tacit | unspoken, silent; implied, inferred |
| tenuous | having thin consistency |
| torpor | Laziness; inactivity; dullness |
| tortuous | marked by repeated turns and bends, not straightforward |
| transgression | violation of a law; sin; V. transgress: go beyond (a limit); violate; do wrong |
| truculence | aggressiveness; ferocity |
| vacillate | waver; fluctuate |
| veracious | truthful |
| vituperative | abusive; scolding |
| welter | turmoil; bewildering jumble |
| zealot | fanatic |
| defunct | no longer existing or functioning |
| inveigling | to entice; to lure |
| opining | to hold or express an opinion |
| fulminating | Speaking against something, shouting or explosive |
| recidivism | habitual relapse into crime |
| vestige | a trace or evidence of something that once existed |
| divesting | removing |
| habiliments | clothing |
| claque | a group of followers hired to applaud at a performance |
| decrepitude | a state of deterioration due to old age or long use |
| bluster | vain and empty boasting |
| swagger | act in an arrogant, overly self-assured, or conceited manner |
| delectable | extremely pleasing to the sense of taste |
| codify | arrange and set down in writing |
| officiate | perform duties attached to a particular office or place or function |
| denigrating | minimize, defame |
| imbibition | the act of consuming liquids |
| lugubrious | excessively mournful |
| lucubration | laborious study or thought, especially at night; the result of such work |
| mettle | the courage to carry on |
| euphuistic | highly elaborate way of speaking |
| fastidious | giving and careful attention to detail |
| perfunctory | hasty and without attention to detail |
| fortuitous | occurring by happy chance; accidental |
| ubiquitous | being present everywhere at once |
| instigate | serve as the inciting cause of |
| splenetic | very irritable |
| churlish | rude and boorish |
| periphrasis | a style that involves indirect ways of expressing things; unclear |
| pernicious | exceedingly harmful |
| exsiccated | to dry up |
| espied | catch sight of, glimpse |
| disinterred | removed from the grave |
| comestible | any substance that can be used as food |
| pulchritudinous | used of persons only, physically beautiful |
| esculent | eatable; fit for consumption |
| craven | cowardly |
| delineate | to portray, sketch, depict |