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GRE > Vocab 6 > Flashcards

Vocab 6 Flashcards

1
Q

Abjure

A

To renounce or reject solemnly, to recant, to avoid

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2
Q

Adumbrate

A

To foreshadow vaguely or intimate, to suggest or outline sketchily, to obscure or overshadow

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3
Q

Anathema

A

A solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse, accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing

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4
Q

Anodyne

A

Soothing, something that assuages or allays pain or comforts
“She had even refused anodynes”

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5
Q

Apogee

A

Farthest or highest point, culmination, zenith
“The White House is considered the apogee of American achievement”

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6
Q

Apostate

A

One who abandons long held religious or political convictions
“After 50 years as an apostate, he returned to the faith”

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7
Q

Apotheosis

A

Deification, glorification to godliness, an exalted example, a model of excellence or perfection

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8
Q

Asperity

A

Severity, rigor, roughness, harshness, acrimony, irritability

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9
Q

Asseverate

A

To aver, allege, or assert

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10
Q

Assiduous

A

Diligent, hard working, sedulous
“She was assiduous in pointing out every feature”

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11
Q

Augury

A

Omen, portent
“They heard the sound as an augury of death”

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12
Q

Bellicose

A

Belligerent, pugnacious, warlike

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13
Q

Calumniate

A

To slander, to make a false accusation
“Foes were calumniating him in the press”

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14
Q

Captious

A

Disposed to point out trivial faults, calculated to confuse or entrap in argument
“A captious teacher”

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15
Q

Cavil

A

To find fault without good reason
“They caviled at the cost”

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16
Q

Celerity

A

Speed, alacrity, think accelerate

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17
Q

Chimera

A

An illusion. Originally, an imaginary fire breathing monster

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18
Q

Contumacious

A

Insubordinate, rebellious
“His refusal to make child support payments was contumacious”

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19
Q

Debacle

A

Rout, fiasco, complete failure

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20
Q

Denouement

A

An outcome or solution, the unraveling of a plot
“The film’s denouement was unsatisfying and ambiguous”

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21
Q

Descry

A

To catch sight of

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22
Q

Desuetude

A

Disuse
“The docks fell into desuetude”

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23
Q

Desultory

A

Random, aimless, marked by a lack of plan or purpose

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24
Q

Diaphanous

A

Transparent, gauzy

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25
Q

Diffident

A

Reserved, shy, unassuming, lacking in self confidence

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26
Q

Dirge

A

A song of grief or lamentation

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27
Q

Encomium

A

Glowing and enthusiastic praise, panegyric, tribute, eulogy

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28
Q

Eschew

A

To shun or avoid

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29
Q

Excoriate

A

To censure scathingly, to criticize severely
“He was excoriated as a racist”

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30
Q

Execrate

A

To denounce, to feel loathing for, to curse, to declare to be evil
“they were execrated as dangerous and corrupt”

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31
Q

Exegesis

A

Critical examination, explication
“The task of biblical exegesis”

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32
Q

Expiate

A

To atone or make amends for

33
Q

Extirpate

A

To destroy, to exterminate, to cut out, to exscind
“The use of every legal measure to extirpate this horrible evil from the land”

34
Q

Fatuous

A

Silly, inanely foolish
“A fatuous comment”

35
Q

Fractious

A

Quarrelsome, rebellious, unruly, refractory, irritable

36
Q

Gainsay

A

To deny, to dispute, to contradict, to oppose
“None could gainsay her”

37
Q

Heterodox

A

Unorthodox, heretical, iconoclastic

38
Q

Imbroglio

A

Difficult or embarrassing situation
“The Watergate imbroglio”

39
Q

Indefatigable

A

Not easily exhaustible, tireless, dogged

40
Q

Ineluctable

A

Certain, inevitable
“The ineluctable facts of history”

41
Q

Inimitable

A

One of a kind, peerless

42
Q

Insouciant

A

Unconcerned, carefree, fearless
“An insouciant shrug”

43
Q

Inveterate

A

Deep rooted, ingrained, habitual
“He was an inveterate gambler”

44
Q

Jejune

A

Vapid, uninteresting, nugatory, childish, immature
“Their entirely predictable and usually jejune opinions”

45
Q

Lubricious

A

Lewd, greasy, slippery, offensively displaying sexual desire

46
Q

Mendicant

A

A beggar, supplicant

47
Q

Meretricious

A

Cheap, gaudy, flashy, attracting by false show

48
Q

Minatory

A

Menacing, threatening (think of the minotaur)

49
Q

Nadir

A

Low point

50
Q

Nonplussed

A

Baffled, bewildered, at a loss for what to do or think

51
Q

Obstreperous

A

Noisily and stubbornly defiant, aggressively boisterous

52
Q

Ossified

A

Tending to become more rigid, conventional, sterile, and reactionary with age. Literally, turned to bone

53
Q

Palliate

A

To make something less serious, to gloss over, to make less severe or intense

54
Q

Panegyric

A

Formal praise, eulogy, encomium

55
Q

Parsimonious

A

Cheap, miserly
“Even the parsimonious joe paid for drinks all around”

56
Q

Pellucid

A

Transparent, easy to understand, limpid
“He writes, as always, in pellucid prose”

57
Q

Peroration

A

The concluding part of a speech, flowery, rhetorical speech

58
Q

Plangent

A

Pounding, thundering, resounding

59
Q

Prolix

A

Long winded, verbose
“He found the narrative too prolix”

60
Q

Propitiate

A

To appease, to conciliate

61
Q

Puerile

A

Childish, immature, jejune

62
Q

Puissance

A

Power, strength
“She saps my puissance”

63
Q

Pusillanimous

A

Cowardly, craven
“He’s too pusillanimous to stand up to his opponents”

64
Q

Remonstrate

A

To protest, to object

65
Q

Sagacious

A

Having sound judgment, perceptive, wise, like a sage

66
Q

Salacious

A

Lustful, lascivious, bawdy

67
Q

Salutary

A

Remedial, wholesome, causing improvement
“A salutary reminder of where we came from”

68
Q

Sanguine

A

Cheerful, confident, optimistic

69
Q

Saturnine

A

Gloomy, dark, sullen, morose
“A saturnine temperament”

70
Q

Sententious

A

Aphoristic or moralistic, epigrammatic, tending to moralize excessively, moralizing in a pompous manner
“He tried to encourage his men with sententious rhetoric”

71
Q

Stentorian

A

Extremely loud and powerful

72
Q

Stygian

A

Gloomy, dark

73
Q

Sycophant

A

Servile, self seeking flatterer, parasite, a person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain advantage
“Because he is high ranking, he is surrounded by sycophants”

74
Q

Tendentious

A

Biased, showing marked tendencies
“A tendentious reading of history”

75
Q

Timorous

A

Timid, fearful, diffident

76
Q

Tyro

A

Novice, greenhorn, rank amateur

77
Q

Vitiate

A

To corrupt, to debase, to spoil, to make ineffective

78
Q

Voluble

A

Fluent, verbal, having easy use of spoken language

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