GRE 1

Question 1

Though he did his best to cheer her, his pep talk left her just as [disconsolate] as before.

Answer 1

Disconsolate can mean either “very sad” or “unconsolable, incapable of being consoled.”

Question 2

Chirpy

Answer 2

peppy, lively

Question 3

Gallantry

Answer 3

dashing courage, heroic bravery

Question 4

Asperity

Answer 4

severity, harshness

Question 5

Coddled

Answer 5

treated with excessive care, pampered

Question 6

Peruse

Answer 6

examine

Question 7

Misanthropic

Answer 7

showing hatred toward human kind

Question 8

Feckless

Answer 8

incompetent or lazy

Question 9

Nugatory

Answer 9

trifling or ineffective

Question 10

Inscrutable

Answer 10

mysterious

Question 11

Sanitized

Answer 11

made clean

Question 12

Squalid

Answer 12

foul or dirty

Question 13

Transient

Answer 13

briefly passing through

Question 14

Sullied

Answer 14

dirty, or soiled

Question 15

Scotch

Answer 15

to put an end to, stamp out

Question 16

Recalcitrant

Answer 16

resisting authority or control

Question 17

Bellicose

Answer 17

aggressively hostile

Question 18

Just after all the (encomium) at his retirement party, he received a gold watch. / The first draft of your dissertation is little but (encomium) of the works of Christopher Marlowe, whereas I’m afraid that doctoral-level work requires a more nuanced and critical view.

Answer 18

Warm, glowing praise, esp. a formal expression of praise
Related Words: Laudation (praise, tribute), Eulogy (a speech of praise or written work of praise, esp. a speech given at a funeral), Panegyric (formal, lofty, or elaborate praise), Paean (song of praise, triumph, or thanks)

Question 19

While a few people marry their high school sweethearts, generally, our teenage years are full of (transitory) crushes.

Answer 19

Definition: Temporary, short-lived, not lasting
Related Words: Ephemeral, Evanescent and Fugacious are synonyms. Transient can mean “lasting only a short time, temporary” or “staying only a short time,” or can be a noun referring to people who move from place to place.

Question 20

Movie or cartoon villains sometimes say, “You’ll (rue) the day!” What they mean is,“I will make you regret that you did what you just did.” / The couple broke up in high school for a foolish reason, and each hastily married another person. Twenty years later, they were still full of endless (rue) over having lost each other.

Answer 20

Definition: Regret, remorse (noun); to feel regret or remorse (verb)
Related Words: Contrite means remorseful for one’s wrongs. Penitent means remorseful for one’s sins, or a person who is remorseful.
More Info: Rue is also an acrid herb used in medicine. It is likely from this plant that the female name Rue derives (as in Rue McClanahan of The Golden Girls).

Question 21

The (gestation) period of an elephant is 22 months, more than twice as long as that of humans!

Answer 21

Definition: Pregnancy; the period from conception until birth of an animal or (metaphorically) of an idea or plan
More Info: Just as you can conceive of an idea, you can also gestate metaphorically—“I had the idea for this novel in 2001. After letting it gestate for a decade, I finally got started writing.”

Question 22

We avoid our neighbors—they’re (fanatic)s who can’t go five minutes without trying to convert you to their beliefs. / Mrs. Becker was (fanatical) about grammar, once deducting fifteen points from a student’s paper for a misused semicolon—and it was a physics class!

Answer 22

Definition: Excessively devoted, enthusiastic, or zealous in an uncritical way
Related Words: Ardent (very passionate), Zealous (full of fervor or dedicated enthusiasm for a cause, person, etc.). Also Fervent, Fervid, and Perfervid all mean “passionate, fiery, deeply enthusiastic.”

Question 23

Looking out the window of the small biplane, Maureen could see the (struts), the vertical connectors between the lower and upper sets of wings.

Answer 23

Definition: A structural support or brace
Related Words: Bolster or fortify (strengthen or support), Buttress (a support against a building; to strengthen or support),
More Info: Of course, strut as a verb means to swagger or walk in a showy or pompous way, such as in a fashion show. Adam Lambert has a song called “Strut” (“Strut for me and show me what you’re working with”).

Question 24

This is a business meeting, not a social club—let’s keep our comments (germane) to the issue of the new campaign.

Answer 24

Definition: Relevant and appropriate, on-topic
Related Words: Pertinent (relevant), Akin (related by blood; analogous or similar)
Memory Trick: When four of the Jackson 5 would get off track, it was always Jermaine who would direct the conversation back to the topic at hand.

Question 25

It was infuriating to listen to the boss (prattle) on about some new restaurant in town when everyone was just waiting to find out if they’d been laid off.

Answer 25

Definition: Talk in an idle, simple-minded, meaningless, or foolish way; chatter, babble
Related Words: Prate is a synonym—actually, both words are variants of the same Middle Dutch word.

Question 26

She had always been a happy child, but once she hit high school and decided to become a goth, she adopted a (morose) attitude to match her all-black clothing.

Answer 26

Definition: Gloomy, sullen
More Info: Morose sounds a bit like morbid, which means “mentally unhealthy, diseased, gruesome.” If you’re depressed, you’re morose; if you enjoy looking at photos of crime scenes, we’d say you have a morbid interest.

Question 27

They hadn’t officially broken up, but she felt their relationship was running on fumes—that only (vestige)s of their former affection remained.

Answer 27

Definition: Trace or sign of something that once existed
Related Words: Scintilla (a tiny bit or trace), Residue (remainder, leftover part after something has been removed)
More Info: Vestigial features in biology are those left over from a previous stage of evolution—for instance, the hind limbs of whales and snakes, and the tailbone in humans. Thus, when a baby is born with a protruding tailbone, it is called a vestigial tail (as featured in the 2001 film Shallow Hal).

Question 28

Children can be so (artless) that, when you try to explain war to them, they say things like, “But isn’t that mean?”/ His (artless) attempt at negotiating a raise began with “I need more money, please” and ended with “Okay, sorry I asked.”

Answer 28

Definition: Free of deceit or craftiness, natural, genuine; lacking skill or knowledge, crude, uncultured
Related Words: Guileless, Ingenuous (synonyms)
More Info: Don’t think of artless as a lack of art—think of it as a lack of artifice, or artificiality. Artless can be either positive (free of deceit) or negative (lacking skill).

Question 29

Marilyn Monroe’s mystique is based not only on her obvious (pulchritude), but also on her mysterious death and likely dalliance with JFK.

Answer 29

Definition: Physical beauty
Related Words: Comeliness is a synonym. Aesthetic (concerning the appreciation of beauty or good taste, pertaining to the science of what is beautiful)
Memory Trick: This word is so ugly sounding! Would you ever have guessed it meant beauty? Imagine a man telling a woman she is the epitome of pulchritude. Unless she has a very good vocabulary, it probably won’t go very well.

Question 30

The billionaire had been a mean and stingy fellow, but after his death, his (beneficent) widow gave all his money to charity, even accompanying the donations with handwritten notes thanking the charities for all the good work they did.

Answer 30

Definition: Doing good
Related Words: Benevolent (expressing goodwill, helping others or charity), Eleemosynary (charitable)
More Info: The Latin root “bene” means “good,” and “fic” means “making or producing.” The antonym of beneficent is maleficent (“mal” means “bad”).

Question 31

The pioneers made camp near the riverbank, waiting for the rains to die down and the river to become (ford)able again. A week later, the waters were shallow enough to (ford) the river with their entire caravan—horses, wagons, and all.

Answer 31

Definition: Place where a river or similar body of water is shallow enough to walk or ride a vehicle across (noun); to cross at such a place (verb)
Related Words: Traverse (pass over, along, or through; go across)
More Info: It doesn’t particularly look like it, but ford is related to Latin “portus,” meaning “port.”

Question 32

The doctor gave her eye drops to make her pupils (dilate). / These dinners at Professor Hwang’s house usually run rather late—after the meal, he’ll typically (dilate) on his latest research for at least an hour.

Answer 32

Definition: To become wider or make wider, cause to expand; to speak or write at length, elaborate upon
Related Words: Expatiate (to expand or elaborate on a topic, to explain in detail)
More Info: Dilate is used frequently in medicine—being a certain number of centimeters dilated is an important part of childbirth.

Question 33

Her stress over spending so much money on a house (abate)d when the real estate broker told her about the property’s 15 year tax abatement.

Answer 33

Definition: Reduce, diminish
Related Words: Tax abatement is used in the same way as tax “relief”—that is, a partial discount. Subside is another word for lessening (a storm could abate or subside).
More Info: Abate comes from an Old French word for “beat, cast down” that also gives us batter (beat severely) and abattoir (slaughterhouse).

Question 34

The industry trade show is our chance to (parley) with our competitors. We do go out for drinks together, but really, we’re just hoping someone slips up and tells us about their new product line.

Answer 34

Definition: Discussion, negotiation, esp. between enemies (noun); to have such a discussion (verb)
Related Words: Armistice (truce, mutual agreement to temporarily stop fighting)
More Info: French speakers will note parley’s similarity to the French verb parler. The same root (“speech”) also occurs in the English parable, parlance, and parliament.

Question 35

These packaged meals are (hermetic)ally sealed—they’ll last years in storage, but once opened, you need to finish the contents within a couple of days. / While writing hundreds of vocabulary flashcards, the GRE instructor lived a (hermetic) lifestyle, her skin growing pallid and her social network drastically shrinking.

Answer 35

Definition: Airtight, sealed, isolated; reclusive; pertaining to alchemy, occult
More Info: Hermetic comes from Hermes Trismegistus, a Greek/Egyptian god of magic and alchemy; he supposedly invented a magic airtight seal for containers.

Question 36

Her (ostentatious) clothing is simply not appropriate in a business environment—in fact, nothing emblazoned with 2,000 Swarovski crystals is.

Answer 36

Definition: Pretentious, boastful showiness
Related Words: Showy means showing off and could be good or bad (a showy car). Garish refers to something much too bright, vivid, or fancy (makeup that looks okay in a nightclub looks garish in the office). Gaudy items stand out in a cheap, tasteless, or overly colorful way (wearing too much big jewelry looks gaudy).
More Info: The Latin “ostendere” means “to show” and also occurs in ostensible/ostensive, meaning “professed, evident, or pretended; outwardly appearing in a certain way.”

Question 37

An American in Saudi Arabia should study the culture beforehand so as to avoid violating deeply conservative cultural (mores).

Answer 37

Definition: Customs, manners, or morals of a particular group
Related Words: Ethos (the character, personality, or moral values specific to a person, group, time period, etc.)
More Info: Pronounce this word as two syllables (rhymes with “more ways”).

Question 38

As he had feared, his divorce greatly reduced his (standing) as a relationship expert. / I’m disappointed that you don’t want to leave your current job, but I want you to know that you have a (standing) invitation—as long as I’m the boss, you have a job here anytime you want one. / While the U.S. has a standing army (that is, an army that is not disbanded in times of peace), Costa Rica’s constitution actually forbids a (standing) military.

Answer 38

Definition: Status, rank, reputation (noun); existing indefinitely, not movable (adj)
More Info: “Longstanding” and the expressions “of long standing” or “in good standing” are based on standing, as in a longstanding friendship or an account in good standing (generally an account for which all debts are paid).

Question 39

I was excited to take a class with Professor Baria because I had enjoyed her books, but sadly, she is a better writer than speaker—her lectures are [soporific]. / I was so distressed after the crash that the doctor gave me a [soporific]—and, sure enough, I was able to think more clearly after sleeping.

Answer 39

Definition: Causing sleep; sleepy, drowsy (adj); something that causes sleep (noun)
Related Words: Somnolent is a synonym.
More Info: Sopor is a rare word meaning an abnormally deep sleep. A much more common word is the similar sounding stupor, meaning a state of numbness or not making sense (for instance, a drunken stupor).

Question 40

The Renaissance Fair ended badly, with one drunken fellow [brandish]ing a sword and refusing to leave the ladies’ dressing tent.

Answer 40

Definition: Shake, wave, or flourish, as a weapon

More Info: Brandish comes from the Germanic “brand,” or sword.

Question 41

Are you okay? You’re looking [wan]. / Bryan’s [wan] attempt at asking for a raise was easily brushed off by his boss.

Answer 41

Definition: Unnaturally pale, or showing some other indication of sickness, unhappiness, etc.; weak, lacking forcefulness
Related Words: Pallid (abnormally pale, lacking color or vitality), Sallow (sickly-yellow in color)
More Info: A wan smile is a weak, sort of forced smile that people use to pretend they’re okay when they’re not.

Question 42

Joey was sick in class on Monday and was sent to the school nurse to sleep it off. The next day, having realized that illness was a good way to get out of class, Joey said his stomach hurt and spent the afternoon in the nurse’s office. By Wednesday, though, the nurse accused him of [malinger]ing and sent him back to class.

Answer 42

Definition: Pretend to be sick, esp. to get out of work, duties, etc.
Related Words: To shirk is to evade your duties or try to get out of doing something. To skulk is to hide for a bad reason, such as avoiding work (or waiting to attack someone, etc.)
More Info: “Mal” means “bad,” and although malinger doesn’t actually come from linger (stick around, stay due to not wanting to leave), the idea of sticking around in a bad way (like malingerer Joey, above) is a good way to remember malinger.

Question 43

While natural-birth advocates decline analgesia in childbirth, many women are very eager to take advantage of modern [anesthesia]. / A disease of the spinal cord can cause [analgesia], which can be dangerous because the patient doesn’t know when he has injured himself.

Answer 43

Definition: Pain relief; inability to feel pain

Related Words: Anodyne (pain relieving medicine or anything that relieves pain)

Question 44

After a light [repast] in a country inn, the men got back on their horses and rode away.

Answer 44

Definition: A meal (noun); to eat or feast (verb)
Related Words: Comestibles (food), Gustatory (pertaining to taste)
More Info: From a Latin root for feeding, also found in pasture (where farm animals eat).

Question 45

It is [unconscionable] that you would deny your sister a bone marrow transplant knowing that you’re the only person in the family who’s a match.

Answer 45

Definition: Not guided by conscience; morally wrong, unjust, unreasonable
Related Words: Unscrupulous or unprincipled also mean not guided by moral rules.

Question 46

dissolution

Answer 46

death, disintegration; sinking into extreme hedonism, vice, and degradation

Question 47

That student is positively [intractable]! Last week, we talked about the importance of staying in your seat during the lesson—this week, she not only got up mid-class, but she actually scrambled on top of a bookcase and refused to come down! / Back injuries often result in [intractable] pain; despite treatment, patients never feel fully cured.

Answer 47

Definition: Difficult to control, manage, or manipulate; hard to cure; stubborn
Related Words: Intransigent, Obdurate, and Obstreperous are also used to describe people who are stubborn and hard to control.
More Info: The antonym of intractable is tractable, meaning “compliant.” The root “tract” means “manage or handle” (and originally “drag about”) and also appears in tractor, distract, retract, and, of course, tract (a stretch of land).

Question 48

The family waited nervously for the results of the [inquest], which finally returned a verdict of misadventure; that is, their grandfather had not been murdered, but rather died in a freak accident of his own doing.

Answer 48

Definition: Legal or judicial inquiry, especially before a jury and especially made by a coroner into the cause of someone’s death; the results of such an inquiry
More Info: Inquest is simply a form of the Latin word for “inquire.”

Question 49

What you have done may not be illegal, but it surely is [ignoble]—people who don’t read the user agreement surely do not expect that, by clicking “I Agree,” they have signed up for a Jelly of the Month club!

Answer 49

Definition: Not noble; having mean, base, low motives; low quality
Related Words: Ignominious (disgraceful, humiliating, contemptible)
More Info: The Latin “ig” is simply a variation on “in,” meaning “not.”

Question 50

Not just any [declivity] can serve as a wheelchair ramp—I’m pretty sure this thing is too steep to pass regulations.

Answer 50

Definition: Downward slope
Related Words: Declination (downward slope, deterioration, deviation from the norm, refusal)
More Info: The opposite of declivity is acclivity, an upward slope.