From practice tests

Question 1

eminence

Answer 1

successful; fame;

ex: the more his eminence as an artist increased, the more tumultuous (uproarish, thunderous) his life become

Question 2

precariously

Answer 2

about to collapse, not securely held; uncertain

ex: she made a precarious living by writing

Question 3

trifling

Answer 3

trivial; not important

ex: a trifling sum of money

Question 4

ascertain

Answer 4

to discover; find out

ex: an attempt to ascertain the cause of the accident

Question 5

proliferation

Answer 5

to multiply extremely in numbers

ex: the proliferation of ragwort was ill-timed

Question 6

profligate

Answer 6

wasteful; unnecessarily extravagant

Question 7

conspicuous

Answer 7

clear; noticable

ex: he was very thin, with a conspicuous adam’s apple

Question 8

concomitant

Answer 8

accompanying; associating

ex: she loved to travel with all its concomitant worries

Question 9

confer

Answer 9

grant or bestow

ex: she conferred a knighthood on him

Question 10

obscure

Answer 10

not clear; confusing; obfuscate;

ex: she was obscuring her words on purpose to fool us

Question 11

predilection

Answer 11

preference

ex: he had a predilection for focusing on morbid subjects

Question 12

recondite

Answer 12

little known; abstruse

ex: this class is awful - all the professor does is spew recondite information.

Question 13

fecklessness

Answer 13

lacking initiative

ex: the media once portrayed the governor as anything but ineffective; they now, however, make her out to be the epitome of fecklessness

Question 14

scintillating

Answer 14

sparkiling; bright

Question 15

luminaries

Answer 15

inspirations

Question 16

incendiary

Answer 16

designed to cause fire

Question 17

veracious

Answer 17

truth

Question 18

acquisitiveness

Answer 18

like to acquire; interested in materialism

Question 19

tepid

Answer 19

unenthusiastic, apathetic

ex: after her mediocre performance, the audience produced a tepid repsponse

Question 20

conspire

Answer 20

scheme; to plot against or make plans jointly to commit a harmful act

ex: the monkeys conspired together to fool the zookeeper

Question 21

dissemble

Answer 21

disguise or conceal; feign; pretend

ex: the monkeys dissembled an injury to trick the zookeeper

Question 22

abstruse

Answer 22

little known information; recondite

Question 23

adverse

Answer 23

harmful effect; hostile

ex: adverse book reviews

Question 24

transgressions

Answer 24

offenses

ex: her transgressions were pointed out in her criticizing book reviews

Question 25

penchant

Answer 25

a strong habitual liking for something ex: she had a penchant for old-school movies

Question 26

capricious

Answer 26

fickle; prone to changing emotions often ex: when she is having a bad day, her actions are very capricious

Question 27

relish

Answer 27

to enjoy

Question 28

confound

Answer 28

to trick, confuse ex: confounded again!

Question 29

banal

Answer 29

lacking originality to the point that it is boring sims: hackneyed, trite, insipid

Question 30

prescient

Answer 30

foresight; knowing beforehand ex: the band's long-standing strategy of laying leisurely explorations atop a steady funk beat has proven to be surprisingly prescient: a concert in cologne from 1972 sounds as if it could have taken place today.

Question 31

serendipitous

Answer 31

happy/lucky chance

Question 32

lucrative

Answer 32

profitable ex: kpop is a lucrative business

Question 33

pretensions

Answer 33

claims, usually a false claim

Question 34

commensurate

Answer 34

corresponding in size/proportion

Question 35

kindred

Answer 35

similar (think "kin"); related

Question 36

imperative

Answer 36

critical/essential ex: this next goal is imperative -- if we dont finish it by the deadline, we will be pushed back by a week

Question 37

doctrinaire

Answer 37

imposing one's beliefs without care; inflexible in ones beliefs; fixedly opinionated sims: dogmatic

Question 38

dogmatic

Answer 38

focused on one's beliefs; peremptory, fixedly opinionated sims: doctrinare

Question 39

ubiquitous

Answer 39

omnipresent; everywhere

Question 40

scanty

Answer 40

limited in quantity, meager ex: scanty wages

Question 41

outmoded

Answer 41

old-fashioned; outdated sims: obselete

Question 42

disparate

Answer 42

contrasting/different; especially different

Question 43

panacea

Answer 43

cure to diseases; cure-all

Question 44

herald

Answer 44

official messenger bringing news

Question 45

harbinger

Answer 45

person who announces signals for others sims: herald

Question 46

perfunctory

Answer 46

cursory; doing something hastily without reflection on actions

Question 47

cursory

Answer 47

perfunctory; hasty and not detailed

Question 48

Arcane

Answer 48

Mysterious or secret

Question 49

Equivocal

Answer 49

ambiguous; uncertain

Question 50

Ambivalent

Answer 50

Having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something

Question 51

Adroit

Answer 51

Clever or skillful in hands or mind Ex: he was far less adroit than his opponent

Question 52

Spurious

Answer 52

Not what it is meant to be; false; fake; illegitimate

Question 53

Impetus

Answer 53

Forcs or energy

Question 54

Vindicate

Answer 54

Clear of blame or suspision Sims: exculpate, exonerate

Question 55

Boon

Answer 55

Something that is good or beneficial

Question 56

Debacle

Answer 56

Failure

Question 57

Hidebound

Answer 57

Unwilling to change bc of tradition or convention

Question 58

Surly

Answer 58

Bad tempered and unfriendly Sims: inimical, sullen

Question 59

acerbic

Answer 59

sharp and forthright - style of speaking ex: in his unexpurgated autobio, M.T. commented freely on the flaws and foibles of his country, some observations so acerbic that his heirs feared it would damage his reputation.

Question 60

unexpurgate

Answer 60

unremoved, uncensored

Question 61

premonitory

Answer 61

a given warning, predictive

Question 62

temperate

Answer 62

mild conditions

Question 63

provincial

Answer 63

concerning only one area, narrow domain

Question 64

loquacious

Answer 64

talkative

Question 65

alacrity

Answer 65

cheerful eagerness

Question 66

rhapsody

Answer 66

exuberant expression of emotions

Question 67

devolve

Answer 67

transfer power to a lower level

Question 68

quandary

Answer 68

a state of perplexity or uncertainty of what to do in a situation

Question 69

inconsequential

Answer 69

not important, insignificant. ant: substantive

Question 70

zealot

Answer 70

a person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political, or other ideals.

Question 71

sycophant

Answer 71

a person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain advantage.

Question 72

adulator

Answer 72

praise excessively or obsequiously