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GRE Essential > Essential Units1-7 > Flashcards

Essential Units1-7 Flashcards

1
Q

Abdicate

A

Abdicate (v)

to give up a position, right, or power.

Romulus Augustus, the last western roman emperor, was forced to abdicate the throne in 476 A.D, and the Germanic chieftain became the de facto ruler of Italy.

The appeals judge has abdicated his responsibility to review the findings of the high court

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2
Q

Abate

A

Abate (v)

To decrease; reduce

NASA announced that it would delay the launch of the manned spacecraft until the radiation from the solar flares abated

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3
Q

Aberrant

A

Aberrant (adj) - deviating from what is normal

When a person’s behavior becomes aberrant, his or here peers may become concerned that the individual is becoming deviant.

Aberration (n) - something different from usual

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4
Q

Abeyance

A

Abeyance (n) - temporary suppression or suspension

A good judge must hold his or her judgment in abeyance until all the facts in a case have been presented.

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5
Q

Abject

A

Abject (adj)

Miserable; pitiful

John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath portrays the abject poverty of many people during the Great Depression.

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6
Q

Abscission

A

Abscission (n)

The act of cutting; the natural separation of a leaf or other part of a plant.

Two scientists, Alan G. Williams and Thomas Whitman, have hypothesized that premature leaf abscission is an adaptive plan response to herbivorous attack.

The verb abscise means to cut away

The surgeon abscised a small growth on the patient’s hand.

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7
Q

Abscond

A

Abscond (v)

To depart secretly.

A warrant is out for the arrest of a person believed to have absconded with three million dollars.

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8
Q

Abstemious

A

Abstemious (adj) moderate in appetite

Some research suggests that people with an abstemious lifestyle tend to live longer than people who indulge their appetites

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9
Q

Abstinence

A

Abstinence (n)

The giving up of certain pleasures

The monk’s vow of abstinence includes intoxicating substances.

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10
Q

Abysmal

A

Abysmal (adj)

Very bad

The abysmal failure of the free market system in Russia has led many to believe that the Soviet Union was better suited for Russia.

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11
Q

Accretion

A

Accretion (n)

Growth in size or increase in amount

The new crust generated at the sea floor causes a steady accretion of the crust.

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12
Q

Accrue

A

Accrue (v)

To accumulate; grow by additions

Certain foreign companies enjoy the advantages accruing from greater monopolies.

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13
Q

Adamant

A

Adamant (adj)

Uncompromising; unyielding

Despite widespread opposition to his plan, the political party’s leader is adamant that the party must move to the center to appeal to moderate voters.

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14
Q

Adjunct

A

Adjunct (n)

something added, attached, or joined

Speed walking, cross-country running, and marathons are normally regarded as adjuncts of track and field athletics since races in these sports are not normally held on a track.

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15
Q

Admonish

A

Admonish (v)

To caution or reprimand

The judge admonished the jury to discount testimony that had been ruled inadmissible.

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16
Q

Adulterate

A

Adulterate (v)

To corrupt or make impure

The unscrupulous company sells an adulterated version of the drug, and doesn’t inform consumers that they are getting a less efficacious drug than they think they are getting.

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17
Q

Aesthetic

A

Aesthetic (adj) Relating to beauty or art

Members of the English aesthetic movement, such as oscar Wilde, were proponents of the doctoring of art for arts sake, which is the belief that art cannot and should not be useful for any purpose other than of creating beauty

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18
Q

Affected

A

Affected (adj).

Pretentious, phony

It has been argued that the emphasis on so-called “proper English” leads to unnatural and affected speech.

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19
Q

Affinity

A

Affinity (n)

Fondness; liking; similarity

The female students in the class felt an affinity for the Ancient Greek playwright Euripides because he sympathized with women, slaves, and other despised members of his society.

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20
Q

Abjure

A

Abjure (v)

To reject: abandon formally

Most members of the religious society of friends abjure the use of violence to settle disputes between nations.

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21
Q

Aggrandize

A

Aggrandize (v)

To make larger or greater

One of the concerns of the framers of the U.S. Constitution was that one branch of government would try to aggrandize itself at the expense of the others.

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22
Q

Aggregate

A

Aggregate (adj)

Amounting to a whole; total

The aggregate wealth of a country includes private as well as public resources and possessions.

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23
Q

Alacrity

A

Alacrity (n)

Cheerful willingness; eagerness; speed

The football coach was pleased to see the team get to work on the task of improving it’s tackling skills with alacrity

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24
Q

Alchemy

A

Alchemy (n)

Medieval chemical philosophy based on changing metal into gold; a seemingly magical power or process of transmutation.

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25
Q

Allay

A

Allay (v)

To lesson; ease; soothe

Improvements in antivirus software have allayed many people’s fears of having their computers infected with malicious software.

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26
Q

Alleviate

A

Alleviate (v)

To relieve; improve partially

Obama alleviated some of the problems in the government but it wasn’t enough to fix everything.

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27
Q

Alloy

A

Alloy (n)

A combination; a mixture of two or more metals

Scientists formulate alloys to create properties that are not possessed by natural metals or other substances.

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28
Q

Allure

A

Allure (n)

The power to entice by charm

Political groups in the United States often lobby congress to use the allure of America’s vast market as an incentive for countries to pursue policies in accordance with American policies.

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29
Q

Amalgamate

A

Amalgamate (v)

To combine into a unified whole

In early 1999, six municipalities were amalgamated into an enlarged city of Toronto, Canada.

30
Q

Ambiguous

A

Ambiguous (adj)

Unclear or doubtful in meaning

The gender of the Mahayana Buddhist deity Avalokitesuara, the god of infinite mercy, is ambiguous in both China and Japan, where the god is sometimes called a goddess.

31
Q

Ambivalence

A

Ambivalence (n)

The state of having conflicting emotional attitudes.

John felt some ambivalence about getting married before finishing college.

32
Q

Ambrosia

A

Ambrosia (n)

Something delicious; the food of the gods

The combination of flavors in the Moroccan baked eggplant was pure ambrosia

The adjective is ambrosial

The food critic praised the chef for preparing what he called an “ambrosial meal”.

33
Q

Ameliorate

A

Ameliorate (v)

To improve

Knowingly they could not stop the spread of a contagion in a few days, health authorities worked to inhibit it’s spread and to ameliorate it’s effects by issuing warnings to the public and initiating immunization programs.

34
Q

Amenable

A

Amenable (adj)

Agreeable; cooperative; suited

The young writer is amenable to suggestions for improving her prose style to make it more interesting.

35
Q

Amenity

A

Amenity (n)

Something that increases comfort

Many amenities considered normal and necessary by people in developed countries, such as indoor plumbing, were luxuries only a few generations ago.

36
Q

Amulet

A

Amulet (n)

Ornament worn as a charm against evil spirits

The early Christian Church forbade the use of amulets, which had become common in the Roman Empire at the time the Christian church began to develop.

37
Q

Anachronism

A

Anachronism (n)

Something out of the proper time

Some experts regard the retirement age of 65 as an anachronism at a time when people in the developed world have much longer life expectancies than previously.

38
Q

Analgesic

A

Analgesic (n)

Medication that reduces or eliminates pain.

Aspirin is a powerful analgesic that was introduced in 1899 and is still one of the most effective medicines available to alleviate pain, fever, and inflammation.

39
Q

Analogous

A

Analogous (adj)

Comparable

The psychology researcher’s experiment postulates that the brain is analogous to a digital computer

40
Q

Anarchy

A

Anarchy (n)

Absence of government; state of disorder

The American philosopher Robert Nozick doesn’t not advocate anarchy; rather, he argues for the merits of a minimal state that would not violate the natural rights of individuals.

41
Q

Anodyne

A

Anodyne (n)

Something that calms or soothes pain

Some people use alcohol as an anodyne to numb their emotional pain.

42
Q

Anomalous

A

Anomalous (adj)

Irregular; deviating from the norm

The psychologist discounted the anomalous behavior of the soldier, saying it was merely a short-term effect of the stress of battle.

The noun is anomaly

43
Q

Antecedent

A

Antecedent (n)

something that comes before.

Historical factors, such as increased emphasis on the individual, the invention of printing and the rise of the bourgeoisie, contributed to make the reformation, which had it’s antecedents in the reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church, into a much broader phenomenon that created powerful churches that grew to rival the original church.

44
Q

Antediluvian

A

Antediluvian (adj)

Prehistoric

Most of our knowledge of antediluvian times has been built up as a result of one of humanity’s grandest collaborative endeavors- the gathering, identification, dating, and categorization of fossils as they are discovered.

45
Q

Antipathy

A

Antipathy (n)

dislike; hostility

Heathcliff, the protagonist of Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights, feels great antipathy for Edgar Linton, the man who marries the woman he loves.

46
Q

Apathy

A

Apathy (n)

Indifference

Apathy was high in the election because there was no major controversy or issue to arouse voter interest.

The adjective is apathetic.

47
Q

Apex

A

Apex (n)

The highest point

In English literature, classicism reached it’s apex in the poetry of Alexander Pope and the other Augustans.

48
Q

Apogee

A

Apogee (n)

Climax; The point in an orbit most distant from the body being orbited; the highest point

The Ottoman Empire reached it’s apogee in the seventeenth century, when it controlled a territory running from Budapest to North Africa.

49
Q

Apothegm

A

Apothegm (n)

A terse, witty saying

One of the best-known political apothegms was written by the British historian Lord Action: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

50
Q

Appease

A

Appease (v)

To calm; pacify; placate

Many historians have criticized British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for trying to appease Adolf Hitler in the 1930’s

51
Q

Appellation

A

Appellation (n)

Name

The discovery of the bones of a person with the appellation Kennewick Man in the state of Washington in 1996 has raised important questions about who the earliest people to populate America were.

52
Q

Apposite

A

Apposite (adj)

Strikingly appropriate and relevant

The writer searched two dictionaries and a thesaurus before finding the perfectly apposite word he was looking for.

53
Q

Apprise

A

Apprise (v)

to inform

Nadine Cohoda’s biography of the blues singer Dinah Washington keeps the reader apprised of the racism black Americans had to endure.

54
Q

Approbation

A

Approbation (n)

Praise; approval

The congressional Medal of Honor is the highest approbation an American soldier can receive.

55
Q

Appropriate

A

Appropriate (v)

To take possession for ones own use; confiscate

The invading army appropriated supplies from the houses of the local people.

56
Q

Apropos

A

Apropos (adj)

Relevant

Apropos of nothing, the speaker declared that the purpose of life is to love.

57
Q

Arabesque

A

Arabesque (n)

Ornate design featuring intertwined curves; a ballet position in which one leg is extended in back while the other supports the weight of the body

The ballerina stunned the audience with her perfectly executed arabesque.

58
Q

Archeology

A

Archeology (n)

The study of material evidence of past human life

59
Q

Ardor

A

Ardor (n)

Great emotion or passion

The twentieth-century American poet Wallace Stevens said, “It is the unknown that excited the ardor of scholars, who, in the known alone, would shrivel up with boredom.”

60
Q

Arduous

A

Arduous (adj)

Extremely difficult; laborious

The task of writing a research paper is arduous, but if it’s broken down into logical steps it becomes less daunting.

61
Q

Argot

A

Argot (n)

A specialized vocabulary used by a group

Writers if crime often use the argot if criminals and detectives to create a realistic atmosphere.

62
Q

Arrest

A

Arrest (v)

To stop; to seize

Temporary arrest of the patients reputation made it easier for the doctor to perform surgery on him.

63
Q

Artifact

A

Artifact (n)

Item made by human craft

Marxists contend that appreciation of art has declined because capitalism has trained people to perceive human artifacts as commodities, and has alienated people from nature, their true humanity, and their creations.

64
Q

Artless

A

Artless (adj)

Guileless; natural

The source of the meaning artless as guileless is the poet John Dryden, who wrote of William Shakespeare in 1672: “Such artless beauty”

65
Q

Ascetic

A

Ascetic (n)

One who practices self-denial

Muslim ace tics consider the internal battle against human passions a greater jihad from the struggle against infidels.

66
Q

Asperity

A

Asperity (n)

Severity; harshness; irritability

In his autobiography Gerald Trywhitt, the British writer, composer, artist, and aesthete, recounts a humorous incident: “Many years later, when I was sketching in Rome, a grim-looking Englishwoman came up to me and said with some asperity, ‘I see you are painting my view.”

67
Q

Aspersion

A

Aspersion (n)

Slander; false rumor

The Republic of Singapore is a young democracy, and it’s leaders often respond strongly to journalists and others who cast aspersions on their integrity.

68
Q

Assiduous

A

Assiduous (adj)

Diligent; hard-working

The assiduous people of Hong Kong live in a territory with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world.

69
Q

Assuage

A

Assuage (v)

To make less severe

70
Q

Astringent

A

Astringent (adj)

Harsh; severe

Bob tends to Nick himself when he shaves, so he uses an astringent aftershave to stop the bleeding.

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