GRE Vocabulary 3 Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in GRE Vocabulary 3 Deck (100)
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1
Q

Burnish (v)

A

Polish to a shine.

Highly burnished armour.

2
Q

Buttress (v) (n)

A

Give support to.

The political police were the main buttress of the regime.

3
Q

Equivocate (v)

A

To use ambiguous or unclear expression.

The government have equivocated too often in the past.

4
Q

Paragon (n)

A

The highest, example of.

Your cook is a paragon.

5
Q

Cacophany (n)

A

Loud jarring noise.

6
Q

Mawkish (adj)

A

Sentimental.

A mawkish ode to parenthood.

7
Q

Cajole (v)

A

Coax with flattery.

He hoped to cajole her into selling him her house.

8
Q

Dogmatic (adj)

A

Adherence to dogma or theory.

She was not tempted to be dogmatic about what she believed.

9
Q

Calibrate (v)

A

To divide or mark with gradations OR carefully assess or set.

The depth gauge is calibrated in centimeters..

10
Q

Perdition (n)

A

Complete and utter ruin.

She used her last banknote to buy herself a square meal before perdition.

11
Q

Beseech (v)

A

Seek earnestly.

They beseeched him to stay.

12
Q

Canny (adj)

A

Careful, cautious, prudent.

Canny investors will switch banks if they think they are getting a raw deal

13
Q

Seminal (adj)

A

Strongly influencing later work.

His seminal work on chaos theory.

14
Q

Cantankerous (adj)

A

Disagreeable to deal with.

He can be a cantankerous old fossil at times.

15
Q

Semantic (n)

A

Word meaning

16
Q

Serrate (v)

A

Having a grooved edge.

Leaves with serrate margins.

17
Q

Sever (v)

A

Cut off.

The head was severed from the body.

18
Q

Sinuous (adj)

A

Having curves, bends.

The river follows a sinuous trail through the dale.

19
Q

Solicitude (n)

A

An attitude of expressing concern.

I was touched by his solicitude.

20
Q

Solidarity (n)

A

Express support or unity.

Factory workers voiced solidarity with the striking students.

21
Q

Soluble (adj)

A

That which can be dissolved.

The poison is soluble in alcohol.

22
Q

Solvent (n)

A

Having the properties of dissolving.

Osmotic, chemical, or solvent action.

23
Q

Soporific (adj)

A

Sleep inducing.

Some medicine made her soporific.

24
Q

Emulate (v)

A

Copy the behavior of.

Most rulers wished to emulate Alexander the Great.

25
Q

Enamor (v)

A

To be captivated or charmed.

It is not difficult to see why Edward is enamoured of her.

26
Q

Endemic (adj)

A

Natural or characteristic of a people.

Complacency is endemic in industry today.

27
Q

Endow (v)

A

To furnish or provide with funds, talent etc.

He endowed the Church with lands.

28
Q

Dour (adj)

[doour]

A

Severe, stern, or gloomy in manner

A hard, dour, humorless fanatic.

29
Q

Enervate (adj) (v)

A

Lacking in energy or vitality.

Enervating heat.

30
Q

Insouciance (n)

A

Free from worry or anxiety

I admired his youthful insouciance.

31
Q

Evince (v)

A

To show interest or reveal the presence of.

The news stories evinced the usual mixture of sympathy and satisfaction.

32
Q

Enfranchise (v)

A

To grant rights of voting or citizenship.

A proposal that foreigners should be enfranchised for local elections.

33
Q

Filigree (n)

A

Ornamental work of fine (typically gold or silver) wire, lace like.

Filigree earrings.

34
Q

Engender (v)

A

To cause to happen.

The issue engendered continuing controversy.

35
Q

Apocryphal (adj)

A

Sham, fake.

An apocryphal story about a former president.

36
Q

Enmity (n)

A

Hatred.

Decades of enmity between the two countries.

37
Q

Aesthete (n)

A

A person who has refined sensitivity for arts and nature

38
Q

Estimable (adj)

A

To be held in high esteem.

She was shown into that estimable woman’s presence.

39
Q

Revile (v)

A

To speak abusively.

The judge was reviled for his opinions on rape.

40
Q

Indefatigable (adj)

A

Persisting tirelessly.

An indefatigable defender of human rights.

41
Q

Ensemble (n)

A

All parts of a thing taken together.

A Bulgarian folk ensemble.

42
Q

Effervescent (adj)

A

Bubbling, sparkling.

Effervescent young people.

43
Q

Entrall (v)

A

To captivate or charm

44
Q

Entreat (v)

A

Beseech earnestly.

His friends entreated him not to go.

45
Q

Extirpate (v)

A

To remove or destroy totally.

Timber wolves were extirpated from New England more than a century ago.

46
Q

Enumerate (v)

A

Take a count of.

There is not space to enumerate all his works.

47
Q

Internecine (adj)

A

Related to struggle within a group.

The party shrank from the trauma of more internecine strife.

48
Q

Ephemeral (adj)

A

Short lived.

Fashions are ephemeral: new ones regularly drive out the old.

49
Q

Variegated (adj)

A

Varied in appearance or
color.

Variegated yellow bricks.

50
Q

Venerate (v)

A

To regard to treat with reverence,

Philip of Beverley was venerated as a saint.

51
Q

Veracity (n)

A

Authenticity.

Officials expressed doubts concerning the veracity of the story.

52
Q

Verbiage (n)

A

Overabundance of words, superfluous.

The basic idea here, despite all the verbiage, is simple.

53
Q

Vestige (n)

A

The remnants of.

The last vestiges of colonialism.

54
Q

Vex (v)

A

Causing trouble.

The memory of the conversation still vexed him.

55
Q

Vigilant (adj)

A

Attentive.

The burglar was spotted by vigilant neighbors.

56
Q

Vigor (adj)

A

Strength and vitality.

The springing curls were a sign of vigor and health.

57
Q

Virtuoso (n)

A

Accomplished artist.

A celebrated clarinet virtuoso.

58
Q

Viscous (adj)

A

Sticky thick consistency.

Viscous lava.

59
Q

Vituperate (adj)

A

To use harsh abusive language.

60
Q

Vivacious (adj)

A

Lively animated.

Her vivacious and elegant mother.

61
Q

Meticulous (adj)

A

Painstaking, very precise.

The designs are hand-glazed with meticulous care.

62
Q

Mimicry (n)

A

An imitation or copy in action.

The word was spoken with gently teasing mimicry.

63
Q

Minuet (n)

A

A musical dance

64
Q

Minute (n)

A

Very small.

Minute particles.

65
Q

Mirth (n)

A

Laughter.

His six-foot frame shook with mirth.

66
Q

Dissipate (v)

A

Waste or fritter away.

He inherited, but then dissipated, his father’s fortune.

67
Q

Misanthrope (n)

A

Hatred for humanity.

Scrooge wasn’t the mean-spirited misanthrope most of us believe him to be.

68
Q

Invidious (adj)

A

Causing ill will.

She’d put herself in an invidious position.

69
Q

Misconstrue (v)

A

Misunderstand.

My advice was deliberately misconstrued

70
Q

Remit (v)

A

To pardon

His prison sentence was remitted to two years.

71
Q

Mitigate (v)

A

To lessen.

Drainage schemes have helped to mitigate this problem.

72
Q

Opprobrium (n)

A

Intense shame, regret.

the opprobrium of being closely associated with gangsters.

73
Q

Mollify (v)

A

To mitigate or lessen.

The government’s undertaking mollified the fears of the public.

74
Q

Momentum (n)

A

Impetus of a moving object.

The vehicle gained momentum as the road dipped.

75
Q

Prodigious (adj)

A

Abnormal, extraordinary.

The stove consumed a prodigious amount of fuel.

76
Q

Asperity (n)

A

Severity.

The asperities of a cold winter.

77
Q

Profligate (n)

A

Reckless prodigal or extravagant.

Profligate consumers of energy.

78
Q

Profuse (adj)

A

Abundant.

I offered my profuse apologies.

79
Q

Hapless (adj)

A

Unlucky, luckless.

The hapless victims of the disaster.

80
Q

Prognostic (adj)

A

Predictive of something in the future.

The prognostic importance of the antibody.

81
Q

Proliferate (v)

A

Spread indiscriminately.

The science fiction magazines which proliferated in the 1920s.

82
Q

Puissant (adj)

A

Having great power or influence.

He would become a puissant man.

83
Q

Prone (adj)

A

Inclined towards.

Farmed fish are prone to disease.

84
Q

Propitiate (v)

A

Appease to win favor.

The pagans thought it was important to propitiate the gods with sacrifices.

85
Q

Ineffable (adj)

A

That which cannot be described in words.

The ineffable mysteries of the soul.

86
Q

Propitious (adj)

A

Favorable.

The timing for such a meeting seemed propitious.

87
Q

Propound (v)

A

To put forward.

He began to propound the idea of a ‘social monarchy’.

88
Q

Propriety (n)

A

Correct behavior.

He always behaved with the utmost propriety.

89
Q

Precipitate (v)

A

To hasten the occurrence of.

The incident precipitated a political crisis.

90
Q

Prosaic (adj)

A

Dull, uninteresting.

Prosaic language can’t convey the experience.

91
Q

Prudent (adj)

A

Cautious, wise.

No prudent money manager would authorize a loan.

92
Q

Advert (v)

A

To refer or direct attention to.

I have already adverted to the solar revolution.

93
Q

Excoriate (v)

A

Berate severely.

He excoriated the government for censorship.

94
Q

Insipid (adj)

A

Plain, without flavoring.

Mugs of insipid coffee.

95
Q

Sublimate (v)

A

Move from solid to gas OR transform into a purer form.

Work can serve as a means of sublimating rage.

96
Q

Expatiate (v)

A

To talk at length.

She expatiated on working-class novelists.

97
Q

Precipitous (adj)

A

Extremely steep.

The track skirted a precipitous drop.

98
Q

Necromancy (n)

A

Black magic, witchcraft.

99
Q

Truculent (adj)

A

Cruel, savage, eager to fight.

The truculent attitude of farmers to cheaper imports.

100
Q

Depravity (adj)

A

Wickedness, cruelty.

A tale of depravity hard to credit.