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GRE Studying > Deck 8 > Flashcards

Deck 8 Flashcards

1
Q

Anathema

A

(noun): something hated; a curse. Think: A NASTY ENEMA. If a patient is constipated, then A NASTY ENEMA may follow, which can be ANATHEMA for the nurse.

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2
Q

Unkempt

A

(adjective): untidy. Think: UN-KEPT hair. If you had just KEPT up with your personal hygiene, your hair wouldn’t be so UNKEMPT and birds wouldn’t have nested in it.

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3
Q

Pith

A

(noun): the essential or central part. Think: PIT. If you’re a peach tree, the PITH of your fruit is the PIT, since that’s how you’ll reproduce.

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4
Q

Succor

A

(noun): aid. Think: SUPPER. If you’re starving and stranded in a snowstorm, hopefully your SUCCOR will include some sort of SUPPER.

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5
Q

Animosity

A

(noun): hatred; hostility. Think: ENEMY CITY. During the war, I accidentally parachuted into the ENEMY CITY and was met with ANIMOSITY.

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6
Q

Festoon

A

(verb): to decorate. Think: FESTIVAL. The harvest moon FESTIVAL is coming! Time to FESTOON the barn for the big dance!

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7
Q

Adorned

A

(adjective): decorated. Think: ADD ORNAMENTS. If you adore Christmas, then you probably enjoy ADORNING your home by ADDING ORNAMENTS to your tree.

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8
Q

Plebeian

A

(adjective): common; low-class. Think: FLEAS BE IN. I don’t stay in PLEBEIAN motels ‘cause FLEAS BE IN ‘em.

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9
Q

Paradigm

A

(noun): an example used as a pattern or model. Think: PAIR OF DIMES. Those two girls are a PAIR OF DIMES since they’re both 0s - they’re PARADIGMS for how to look hot.

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10
Q

Arch

A

(adjective): sassy. Think: ARCHED EYEBROW. Her playful, ARCH comment made me ARCH my eyebrow.

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11
Q

Glowered

A

(verb): looked at with anger. Think: GLOW RRR. The scary, frowning jack-o’-lantern GLOWERED at us - its GLOW seemed to say “RRRRRRRR!”

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12
Q

Defamatory

A

(adjective): something that hurts someone’s reputation. Think: DE-FAME. The DEFAMATORY Enquirer story will “DE-FAME” that actor; he’ll lose his fame.

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13
Q

Guttural

A

(adjective): strange and unpleasant sounding. Think: GUTTER ROAR. You’d have the GUTTURAL GUTTER ROAR of a homeless man if you spent the night sleeping in the gutter.

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14
Q

Gumption

A

(noun): drive; initiative. Think: Forrest GUMP. Forrest GUMP showed GUMPTION by playing football, co-founding a shrimp business, and running across the country.

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15
Q

Temperance

A

(noun): moderation. Think: TEMPER ANTS. At the picnic, I didn’t lose my TEMPER over the ANTS, because I possess the quality of TEMPERANCE.

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16
Q

Propriety

A

(noun): the quality of being proper or appropriate. Think: PROPER. For the sake of PROPRIETY, use PROPER manners and eat your salad with the salad fork, not the dinner fork.

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17
Q

Callous

A

(adjective): unsympathetic; hard-hearted. Think: CALLUS. The CALLOUS dictator thought nothing of executing his rivals; he must have had a CALLUS on his soul.

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18
Q

Abstemious

A

(adjective): sparing or moderate. Think: ABSTINENCE. The health teacher knew that if he told students to be ABSTEMIOUS, some of them would still get pregnant, so he urged them to practice ABSTINENCE.

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19
Q

Temerity

A

(noun): recklessness. Think: TEAM ERROR. If you have TEMERITY, maybe you should join TEAM ERROR because I bet you make a lot of mistakes.

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20
Q

Bootless

A

(adjective): useless. Think: BOOTY-LESS. A BOOTY-LESS pirate is probably a BOOTLESS pirate.

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21
Q

Bloviated

A

(verb): was wordy/ windy when speaking. Think: BLOW hot air. In Harry Potter, Gilderoy Lockhart BLOVIATED; he would BLOW a lot of hot air without much meaning.

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22
Q

Expunge

A

(verb): to get rid of. Think: EX with SPONGE. The best way to make a spill an “EX-spill” is to use a SPONGE to EXPUNGE the mess.

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23
Q

Inchoate

A

(adjective): incomplete; formless. Think: INCHES OF CHOW. The pile of CHOW on the hungry man’s Thanksgiving dinner place was eight INCHES high – and created an INCHOATE blob of food.

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24
Q

Dissemble

A

(verb): to mislead, hide or conceal. Think: DISASSEMBLE gun. The terrorist tried to DISSEMBLE his plan by DISASSEMBLING his gun before trying to smuggle it through airport security.

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25
Q

Retrenchment

A

(noun): a reduction. Think: RETURN to TRENCH. For a WWI soldier, a RETRENCHMENT of the attack plans meant he could RETURN to his TRENCH and lay low for a while.

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26
Q

Solicitous

A

(adjective): concerned for. Think: SOLELY LISTENED TO US. I knew the man was SOLICITOUS because he SOLELY LISTENED TO US.

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27
Q

Fawning

A

(verb) kissing up to. Think: FAWN (baby deer). The little FAWN’s only hope to get the bear to spare its life was by using FAWNING behavior.

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28
Q

Logorrhea

A

(noun): excessive wordiness. Think: DIARRHEA. I thought a long speech would help my grade, but my teacher said my LOGORRHEA was like verbal DIARRHEA.

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29
Q

Immutable

A

(noun): unchangeable. Think: IM-MUTATE-ABLE. They poured radioactive chemicals on me to try to make me into a mutant, but it was impossible: I’m IMMUTABLE, so I’m IM-MUTATE-ABLE.

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30
Q

Meld

A

(verb): to merge; to blend. Think: MELT. If your ice cream cup is half vanilla, half chocolate and it MELTS, the flavors will MELD.

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31
Q

Exorbitant

A

(adjective): excessive. Think: EXTRA for ORBIT. The fancy space hotel charged EXORBITANT fees due to the EXTRA costs needed to ORBIT the earth.

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32
Q

Complicit

A

(adjective): involved in a crime. Think: ACCOMPLICE. Though I robbed the bank and my ACCOMPLICE just drove me there, he was considered COMPLICIT by the law.

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33
Q

Capacious

A

(adjective): spacious. Think: Batman’s CAPE is SPACIOUS. Batman is a big guy, so his CAPE is SPACIOUS and CAPACIOUS.

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34
Q

Peregrinate

A

(verb): to journey or travel from place to place. Think: PEREGRIN falcon. The fastest member of the animal kingdom is the PEREGRIN Falcon; it exceeds 00 m.p.h. while diving and can PEREGRINATE speedily.

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35
Q

Permeated

A

(verb): spread through; penetrated. Think: PERM HE ATE. The PERM HE ATE will PERMEATE his stomach lining and prove it’s stupid to eat human hair.

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36
Q

Germinate

A

(verb): to grow or to cause to grow. Think: GERM IN NATE. After entering his nose, the GERM IN NATE was able to GERMINATE into a cold because he was so run down.

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37
Q

Recapitulated

A

(verb): summarized. Think: RECAP. His RECAP of the news nicely RECAPITULATED the day’s events.

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38
Q

Cadge

A

(verb): to beg or get via begging. Think: CAGE. If you’re locked in a CAGE, you’ll CADGE for food and water.

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39
Q

Exponent

A

(noun): a supporter of something. Think: EX-OPPONENT. Upon Romney’s nomination, McCain became his EXPONENT for the greater good of the GOP and therefore was his EX-OPPONENT.

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40
Q

Gravitas

A

(noun): powerful seriousness. Think: GRAVITY. As the judge entered, his GRAVITAS was like GRAVITY, drawing everyone’s eyes to him and silencing the room.

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41
Q

Touted

A

(verb): praised publicly. Think: SHOUTED. Guinness Stout is highly TOUTED; I know this because the guy drinking it next to me SHOUTED its praises in my ear.

42
Q

Verboten

A

(adjective): forbidden. Think: VERB EATIN’. In North Korea, VERB EATIN’ - instead of speaking one’s mind - is common since many topics are VERBOTEN.

43
Q

Rancorous

A

(adjective): hateful. Think: Star Wars RANCOR. In Return Of The Jedi, the RANCOR under Jabba The Hutt’s palace is undoubtedly RANCOROUS for having been imprisoned.

44
Q

Innate

A

(adjective): existing since birth; inherent. Think: IN NATAL. The ability of a spider to spin a web is not learned but INNATE; it’s IN IT even in the NATAL stage before being born.

45
Q

Ruffian

A

(noun): a brutal person. Think: ROUGH. The club hired a RUFFIAN as a bouncer because he was strong enough to be ROUGH with misbehaving drunks.

46
Q

Tonic

A

(noun): something helpful. Think: GIN AND TONIC. Drinking a gin and TONIC before my speech was a TONIC for my anxiety.

47
Q

Marshal

A

(verb): to gather and organize. Think: Fire MARSHAL. The fire MARSHAL’s job is to MARSHAL the volunteer firemen if there’s a fire alarm.

48
Q

Culpable

A

(adjective): deserving blame. Think: CULPRIT. Unsurprisingly, the cop thought the CULPRIT was CULPABLE.

49
Q

Impinge

A

(verb): to trespass on one’s freedoms. Think: I’M PINCHED. I’M PINCHED on the butt every time I go to that biker bar - it IMPINGES on my dignity.

50
Q

Virtuoso

A

(noun): someone highly skilled at something. Think: VIRTUES. VIRTUES? I have OH SO many, because I’m a gosh-darned VIRTUOSO.

51
Q

Truncated

A

(adjective): shortened. Think: TRUNK ATE. The elephant’s TRUNK ATE so many branches that the tree was TRUNCATED.

52
Q

Permutation

A

(noun): a transformation or rearrangement. Think: MUTATION. A radioactive spider bite caused a PERMUTATION of Peter Parker’s genes and caused his MUTATION into Spiderman.

53
Q

Dilatory

A

(adjective): tending to procrastinate. Think: DELAY LATER. The DILATORY gator liked to DELAY things until LATER.

54
Q

Hirsute

A

(adjective): hairy. Think: HAIR SUIT. I saw an old guy in the locker room who was so HIRSUTE that he looked like he was wearing a HAIR SUIT.

55
Q

Irascible

A

(adjective): easily angered. Think: IRRITABLE RASCAL. My grandfather is an IRRITABLE old RASCAL; he’s so IRASCIBLE that he yells at every waiter we ever get.

56
Q

Worldly

A

(adjective): not spiritual; sophisticated; experienced. Think: WORLD traveler. I’ve been all around the WORLD and I, I, I, I can’t find my baby (but I’m WORLDLY now).

57
Q

Sordid

A

(adjective): filthy; foul; morally degraded. Think: SORRY I DID. If you are a normal person with a conscience and you do something SORDID, you’ll be thinking, “SORRY I DID that” before long.

58
Q

Solecism

A

(noun): a blunder. Think: SOLE IS IN. If you put your foot in your mouth - like if you ask a woman her age - it’s a SOLECISM - your SOLE IS IN your mouth.

59
Q

Bemoan

A

(verb): to mourn over; to express grief for. Think: MOAN. I BE MOANIN’ about the new laws restricting what we can smoke - my friends BEMOAN the legislation, too.

60
Q

Stupefied

A

(adjective): stunned. Think: STUPID. Hermione cast the STUPEFY spell on Crabbe, who became so STUPEFIED that he looked STUPID.

61
Q

Hallowed

A

(adjective): sacred. Think: HALO-ED. The cemetery where saints are buried is so HALLOWED it’s practically “HALO-ED”.

62
Q

Shard

A

(noun): a broken piece of something fragile. Think: SHARP. Be careful of the SHARD of glass on the floor; it’s really SHARP.

63
Q

Latent

A

(adjective): existing but unseen or inactive. Think: LAY TENT. You claim to like hiking, but your desire must be LATENT since you just LAY in the TENT when we camp.

64
Q

Resurgence

A

(noun): a comeback. Think: RE-SURGE. When LL Cool J said, “Don’t call it a comeback”, he meant that his RE-SURGING to the top wasn’t a RESURGENCE.

65
Q

Industrious

A

(adjective): hard-working. Think: DUSTING. Succeeding in the cleaning industry means only hiring INDUSTRIOUS maids who are really good at DUSTING.

66
Q

Flouted

A

(verb): treated without respect. Think: FLUNG OUT. The rebel FLOUTED the rules so badly that he FLUNG them OUT the window.

67
Q

Scanty

A

(adjective): barely sufficient; minimal. Think: SCANTY PANTY. Thong underwear is basically just a really SCANTY PANTY.

68
Q

Fleeting

A

(adjective): short-lived. Think: FLEE. My stay in the village was by necessity FLEETING: a dragon attacked, and I had to FLEE.

69
Q

Abhors

A

(verb): hates. Think: AB-. Daria ABHORS the tube-top-wearing blonde who stole her boyfriend and refers to her as an “AB-”.

70
Q

Gargantuan

A

(adjective): enormous. Think: GIGANTIC. The GARGANTUAN orangutan was so GIGANTIC that it needed a special enclosure at the zoo.

71
Q

Moribund

A

(adjective): dying. Think: MORBID END. If someone is MORIBUND, they’re probably headed toward a MORBID END, i.e., death.

72
Q

Penury

A

(noun): severe poverty. Think: PENALTY. The court’s PENALTY was so large that the defendant suffered from PENURY to the point of only owning one penny.

73
Q

Supplant

A

(verb): replace. Think: UP PLANT. After you pull UP a PLANT out of the soil, you should SUPPLANT it with another one to help preserve the environment.

74
Q

Satiated

A

(adjective): satisfied. Think: SAY SHE ATE. If you SAY SHE ATE, she must be SATIATED.

75
Q

Semblance

A

(noun): an outward appearance; an image. Think: RESEMBLANCE. The lie fooled me because it had the SEMBLANCE of honesty, a slight RESEMBLANCE to the truth.

76
Q

Descry

A

(verb): to catch sight of; to discover. Think: DESCRIBE. Ok, now that I DESCRY the iceberg that we’re sailing towards, I can DESCRIBE it to you.

77
Q

Slothful

A

(adjective): lazy. Think: SLOTH. My pet SLOTH is too SLOTHFUL to move even when he’s really hungry.

78
Q

Boor

A

(noun): a crude person with rude, clumsy manners. Think: BOOER. The BOOER even booed a little girl who fell during her dance recital - what a BOOR!

79
Q

Perfunctory

A

(adjective): showing little interest. Think: PER FUNCTION problem. I know I won’t get them right, so I only spend a PERFUNCTORY amount of time PER FUNCTION problem.

80
Q

Calamitous

A

(adjective): related to a terrible event. Think: CALAMARI VOMIT. It’s CALAMITOUS when you eat undercooked CALAMARI, become VOMITOUS, and puke on your date.

81
Q

Innocuous

A

(adjective): harmless. Think: INNOCENT. My dog will bark at you once you come in but it’s INNOCENT - he’s INNOCUOUS.

82
Q

Effete

A

(adjective): without strength or vitality; weak; soft. Think: FEEBLE. The former athlete became EFFETE and FEEBLE from years of just sitting on the couch.

83
Q

Distension

A

(noun): swelling. Think: DIS - TENSION. A belly showing DISTENSION after a huge meal might be because the person has weak abs with no muscle TENSION.

84
Q

Watershed

A

(noun): a turning point. Think: WATERGATE. Nixon’s involvement in the WATERGATE scandal was a WATERSHED for his public opinion and led to his resignation.

85
Q

Deprecate

A

(verb): to criticize or to express disapproval of. Think: DEFECATE. Tip: An easy way to DEPRECATE someone you don’t like is to DEFECATE on his shoes.

86
Q

Microcosm

A

(noun): a small thing representing a larger thing. Think: MICRO-COSMOS. The glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling are a MICROCOSM of the universe - they’re a “MICRO COSMOS.”

87
Q

Compunction

A

(noun): regret, remorse. Think: PUNCTURED balloon. I felt COMPUNCTION after accidentally PUNCTURING the child’s birthday balloon and making him cry.

88
Q

Fruition

A

(noun): a productive result. Think: FRUIT. My plans to grow my own oranges came to FRUITION when my orange tree produced FRUIT.

89
Q

Eurytopic

A

(adjective): tolerant of many different environments. Think: EUROPE TROPICS. That plant is EURYTOPIC because it grows both in cold, rainy EUROPE and in the hot, humid TROPICS.

90
Q

Relish

A

(verb): to enjoy; to savor. Think: DELISH. I RELISH (verb) eating hot dogs with RELISH (noun) because they taste DELISH.

91
Q

Nostalgia

A

(noun): a bittersweet longing for the past. Think: NOSE TAMPON. My NOSTALGIA for my glory days got so bad that I had to use a NOSE TAMPON for my constant sniffles.

92
Q

Overweening

A

(adjective): arrogant. Think: WEENIE. The young actor’s demands were so OVERWEENING that the movie crew started calling him a WEENIE behind his back.

93
Q

Ludicrous

A

(adjective): ridiculous. Think: LUDACRIS RIDICULOUS. The rapper LUDACRIS is known for his RIDICULOUS, LUDICROUS lines like “I got hoes in different area codes.”

94
Q

Simulacrum

A

(noun): an image or representation of something. Think: SIMULATION. Coachella audiences saw a SIMULACRUM of Tupac: a hologram that was an incredible SIMULATION of him.

95
Q

Anodyne

A

(noun): a pain-reliever. Think: AM NOT DYING. I have the flu, but my doctor-prescribed ANODYNE finally has made me feel like I AM NOT DYING.

96
Q

Malign

A

(verb): to speak evil of. Think: MALIGNANT. The evil witch not only MALIGNED her enemies but also cast spells designed to give them MALIGNANT tumors.

97
Q

Cloying

A

(adjective): gross because it’s too much. Think: ANNOYING. Always talking baby-talk to each other, the couple was so ANNOYING that they were CLOYING.

98
Q

Incoherent

A

(adjective): unclear. Think: I COULDN’T HEAR IT. Your slurred voicemail to me at :0 A.M. was INCOHERENT - I COULDN’T HEAR IT.

99
Q

Reticent

A

(adjective): reserved; quiet. Think: READY but HESITANT. If you have to recite a speech and you’re technically READY but HESITANT, you might be RETICENT.

100
Q

Chicanery

A

(noun): trickery. Think: CHICK-GAIN-ERY Your frat brother’s feigned interest in that cute girl’s paintings was clearly CHICANERY; his motive was “CHICK-GAIN-ERY”.

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