Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM


Top Flashcards (Certified)
All Flashcards

Greek Roots/prefix > GRE Power Vocab - S > Flashcards

GRE Power Vocab - S Flashcards

(66 cards)

Start Studying
1
Q

Sagacious

A

adj. having sound judgment, perceptive, wise

Sagacious means like a sage, who is a person recognized as having great wisdom. Safe can also be an adjective, meaning wise

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Salacious

A

adj. appealing to or causing sexual desire, bawdy

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Salient

A

adj. prominent, protruding, conspicuous, highly relevant

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Salubrious

A

adj. promoting health or well-being

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Salutary

A

adj. remedial, whoelsome, causing improvement

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Sanctimony

A

n. self-righteousness, pretended piety

Sanctimonious means hypocritcally pretending to be pious or being excessively pious

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Sanction

A

n. authoritative permission or approval; a penalty intended to enforce compliance

this one can be confusing, since it has two, nearly opposite, meanings: approval and penalty

Sanction can also be used as a verb. Up until the last few decades it only meant to encourage or approve, but it has recently come to mean to punish as well

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Sanguine

A

adj. cheerful, confident, optimistic

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Sap

A

v. to enervate or weaken the vitality of

as a noun used informally, a spa is a gullible person, a fool

A sap can also be a blackjack (a short, leather-covered club) or to hit someonbody with such a weapon

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Sartorial

A

adj. of or pertaining to clothing or style

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Satiate

A

v. to overindulge, satisfy to excess

Sate is a synonym of satiate

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Satire

A

n. a literary work that ridicules or criticizes human vice through humor or derision

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Saturnine

A

adj. gloomy, dark, sullen, morose

Saturnine is similar in defintion to melancholy. Like mercurial, it draws its name from its name from astrology and the gods associated with certain planets

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Scintillating

A

adj. animated, witty, brilliantly clever

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Scurvy

A

adj. contemptible, despicable

Scurvy is a vitamin C deficiency that was familiar part of a sailor’s life before refrigeration

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Sedulous

A

adj. diligent persistnet, hardworking

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Seine

A

n. a large net hung out and dragged in to catch fish

Seine also means to fish using a seine, and the Seine is a river in the middle of Paris in which people might seine or something like that

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Sere

A

adj. withered, arid

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Seminal

A

adj. like a seed, constituting a source, originative

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

Serendipitous

A

adj. come upon or dound by accident; fortuitous

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

Shard

A

n. a piece of broken pottery or glass, any small piece or part

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

Simper

A

v. to smirk; to say something with a silly, coy smile

as a noun, simper is the silly smile itself

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

Sinecure

A

n. position requiring little or no work and usually providing an income

this word was first applied to priests without churches (or without parish duties of curing souls), who were said to have beneficium sine cura

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

Singular

A

adj. exceptional, unusual, odd

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Sinuous
adj. winding, curving, moving lithely, devious
26
Slake
v. to satisfy, quench, lessen the intensity of
27
Sodden
adj soaked or drenched, unimaginative, dull
28
Solder
v. to weld, fuse or join, as with a soldering gun
29
Solicitous
adj. concerned and attentive, eager
30
Solvent
adj. able to meet finanical obligations; able to dissolve other substances n. the liquid in which a solute is dissolved to form a solution
31
Sophistry
n. fallacious reasoning; plausible but faulty logic Greek root soph gave rise to many English words about knowledge (either love of it, possession of it, or the lack of it). Philosophy is a love or pursuit of knowledge, and someone with great knowledge of the world might be called sophisticated Sophistry is somewhat opposite as is sophomoric
32
Sophomoric
adj. exhibiting immaturity, lack of judgment, pretentious Sophomoric literally means of or pertaining to a sophomore
33
Soporific
adj. causing drowsiness, tending to induce sleep Soporific can also be used as a noun
34
Sordid
adj. characterized by filth, grime, or squalor, foul
35
Sparse
adj. thin, not dense, arranged at widely spaced intervals
36
Specious
adj. seeming true, but actually false, misleadingly attractive
37
Spendthrift
n. one who spends money wastefully spendthrift can also be an adjective
38
Splenetic
adj. bad-tempered, irritable Splenetic also means relating to the spleen, which was the seat of ill temper in classical knowledge
39
Sporadic
adj. occurring only occasionally, or in scattered instances
40
Spurious
adj. lacking authenticity or validity, false, counterfeit
41
Squalid
adj. Sordid, wretched and dirty as from neglect Squalor is a wretched or filthy condition
42
Squander
v. to waste by spending or using irresponsibly
43
Stanch
v. to stop the flow of a fluid don't confuse with staunch, an adj., meaning firmly commited. sometimes stanch and staunch are spelt the same but can guess meaning based on context
44
Static
adj. not moving, active, or in motion; at rest
45
Steep
v. to saturate or completely soak
46
Stentorian
adj. extremely loud and powerful
47
Stint
v. to restrain, be sparing or frugal stinting, and its opposite, unstinting are the adjectives that mean restraining and bestowed liberally, respectively stint as a noun means a length of time spent in a specific way, as in a stint inthe military, in the White House, or as a roadie
48
Stoic
adj. indifferent to or unaffected by pleasure or pain, steadfast Stoicism is the noun
49
Stolid
adj. calm, impassive if you associate this word solid, stolid people show litle animation or emotion
50
Striated
adj. striped, grooved, or banded Striations are the bands themselves
51
Strut
n. a structural support used to brace a framework Strut can also be used as a verb to mean baffle or amaze
52
Stymie
v. to block, thwart
53
Subpoena
n. a court order requiring appearance and/or testimony Subpoena can also be used as a verb
54
Subtle
adj. not obvious, elusive, difficult to discern, crafty or sly
55
Succinct
adj. brief, concise
56
Succor
n. assistance, relief in time of distress
57
Sundry
adj. various, miscellaneous, separate If you've heard the phrase torn asunder, you are familiar with the etymology of this word. Sundry originally meant separate or distinct, but now also means various
58
Supercilious
adj. disdainful, arrogant, haught, characterized by haughty scorn
59
Superfluous
adj. exceeding what is sufficient or necessary
60
Supine
adj. inactive, lying on one's back, apathetic, mentally or morally slack Supine means lying face up and prone means lying face down
61
Supplant
v. to take the place of supersede
62
Suppliant
adj. asking humbly, beseeching as a noun, a suppliant is same thing as a supplicant
63
Supplicant
n. beggar, who prays or begs for something a supplicant is supplicating when he or she begs for something. Supplication is related to application, or the act of bringing yourself close to something. In supplication, though, there is the element of folding the leds under, or kneeling, that gives the sup- prefix
64
Surfeit
v. to feed or supply in excess surfeit is also a noun, meaning excess, overindulgence
65
Sycophant
n. someone who tries to flatter or please for personal gain, parasite
66
Synthesis
n. the combination of parts to make a whole

Greek Roots/prefix (25 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2025 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions