GRE5 Flashcards
1
Q
POOR
A
indigent, esurient, impecunious, destitute
2
Q
destitute
A
POOR:
his extravagant lifestyle after retiring left him destitute by the time he died.
3
Q
esurient
A
POOR, or hungry/greedy:
The growling stomach proclaimed him esurient.
4
Q
impecunious
A
POOR:
I first knew him as an impecunious student living in a tiny bedsit.
5
Q
indigent
A
POOR:
The man lost his job and became indigent.
6
Q
FAVORING/NOT IMPARTIAL
A
zealot, ardent/ardor, doctrinaire, fervid, partisan, tendentious
7
Q
ardent/ardor
A
passionate; fervent, very enthusiastic FAVORING/NOT IMPARTIAL:
an ardent supporter of Arsenal
8
Q
doctrinaire
A
dogmatic, opinionated, biased, authoritarian, bigot FAVORING/NOT IMPARTIAL:
These principles are doctrinaire.
9
Q
fervid
A
describes beliefs that are strongly and sincerely felt or people who have strong and sincere beliefs FAVORING/NOT IMPARTIAL :
It is his fervent hope that a peaceful solution will soon be found.
10
Q
partison
A
an adherent or supporter of a person, group, party, or cause, especially a person who shows a biased, emotional allegiance FAVORING/NOT IMPARTIAL:
The partisan was very supportive of the party.
11
Q
tendentious
A
having or showing a definite tendency, bias, or purpose FAVORING/NOT IMPARTIAL:
She tendentiously espoused her particular solution at every opportunity.
12
Q
zealot
A
an excessively zealous person; fanatic FAVORING/NOT IMPARTIAL:
a religious zealot
13
Q
DENYING OF SELF
A
abstain, stoic, ascetic, temperate etc
14
Q
abnegate
A
to refuse or deny oneself (some rights, reject; renounce DENYING OF SELF:
It’s hard to abnegate habit of smoking once started.
15
Q
ascetic
A
a person who leads an austerely simple life, especially one who abstains from the normal pleasures of life or denies himself or herself material satisfaction DENYING OF SELF:
They live a very ascetic life.
16
Q
spartan
A
self-denying, very simple and not comfortable or luxurious DENYING OF SELF:
The rooms were clean but spartan.
17
Q
temperate
A
moderate or self-restrained; not extreme in opinion, statement, etc. DENYING OF SELF:
a temperate response to an insulting challenge.
18
Q
WALKING ABOUT
A
meander, itinerant etc
19
Q
ambulatory
A
of, pertaining to, or capable of walking WALKING ABOUT:
an ambulatory exploration of the countryside.
20
Q
itinerant
A
characterized by such traveling, journeying, migratory, moving, nomadic, on foot, WALKING ABOUT:
an itinerant preacher
21
Q
meander
A
to wander aimlessly; ramble zigzag WALKING ABOUT:
We meandered around town for a couple of hours.
22
Q
peripatetic
A
walking or traveling about; itinerant. WALKING ABOUT:
The peripatetic animal never stayed in one place for too long.
23
Q
INSINCERE
A
unctuous, ostensible etc
24
Q
unctuous
A
groveling, ingratiating, obsequious, servile INSINCERE:
his unctuous manner/voice/smile is ridiculous.
25
ostensible
outwardly appearing as such; professed; pretended INSINCERE:
an ostensible cheerfulness concealing sadness.
26
PREVENT/OBSTRUCT
discomfit, impede, hinder, occlude, inhibit,
27
encumber
to impede or hinder; hamper; retard PREVENT/OBSTRUCT:
| Today, thankfully, women tennis players are not encumbered with/by long, heavy skirts and high-necked blouses.
28
fetter
to confine; restrain PREVENT/OBSTRUCT:
| The fetters of his job kept him from advancing as fast as he would like to
29
forfend
to defend, secure, or protect, inhibit from action PREVENT/OBSTRUCT:
My roommate claims that the best way to forfend a nasty cold is to chew
garlic.
30
ECCENTRIC/DISSIMILAR
aberrant, anachronism, anomalous, eclectic, esoteric, discrete, iconoclast
31
anachronism
something out of place in time ECCENTRIC/DISSIMILAR:
| For some people, marriage is an anachronism from the days when women needed to be protected.
32
aberrant
deviant, departing from the right, normal, or usual course, ECCENTRIC/DISSIMILAR:
aberrant behaviour/sexuality
33
iconoclast
a person who attacks cherished beliefs, traditional institutions, cynic, denouncer, dissenter, dissident, heretic, nonbeliever ECCENTRIC/DISSIMILAR:
Rogers, an iconoclast in architecture, is sometimes described as putting the insides of buildings on the outside.
34
FUNNY
facetious, jocular, ludicrous, simper
35
chortle
chuckle gleeful FUNNY:
| She chortled with glee at the news.
36
droll
amusing in an odd way; whimsically humorous; waggish. ridiculous, preposterous clownish FUNNY:
a droll remark/expression/person
37
flippant
```
frivolously disrespectful, shallow, or lacking in seriousness, characterized of levity FUNNY:
She was flippant in her class so she got very bad grades in her report card.
```
38
gibe
to utter mocking or scoffing words; jeer, ridicule, jeer, joke, mockery FUNNY:
The bullies gibed at the new kid in school because he had glasses.
39
levity
lightness of mind, character, or behavior; lack of appropriate seriousness or earnestness.funniness, silliness FUNNY:
a brief moment of levity amid the solemn proceedings
40
raillery
good-humored ridicule; banter, a bantering remark, joking or laughing at someone in a friendly way FUNNY:
Have you heard the latest Raillery about the new principal and his bad toupe
41
reposte
a quick and clever remark, often made in answer to a criticism FUNNY:
She made a sharp/witty/neat riposte.
42
simper
to smile in a silly, self-conscious way, smile coyly, grin, smile in a silly or annoying way FUNNY:
She gave her teacher a simpering smile.
43
SORROW
doleful, melancholy, morose, plaintive,
44
disconsolation
without consolation or solace; hopelessly unhappy, SORROW:
| The team were disconsolate after losing what should have been an easy game.
45
dolor
sorrow; grief, misery, anguish, agony SORROW:
| The family was filled with much dolor after the death of their son.
46
elegiac/elegy
expressing sorrow or lamentation, doleful, funereal, melancholy, mournful, sad, sorrowful, SORROW:
Such a poem would employ a mournful or elegiac tone
47
forlorn
unhappy or miserable, as in feeling, condition, or appearance. expressive of hopelessness; despairing: forlorn glances. SORROW:
The captured soldiers looked forlorn and helpless.
48
lament
to feel or express sorrow or regret for: SORROW:
| to lament his absence
49
lugubrious
mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially in an affected, exaggerated, or unrelieved manner SORROW:
lugubrious songs of lost love.
50
threnody
a poem, speech, or song of lamentation, especially for the dead; dirge; funeral song. SORROW:
The choir sang the threnody at the funeral.
51
DISGUSTING/OFFENSIVE
fetid, odious,
52
defile
to make foul, dirty, or unclean; pollute; taint; debase, to violate the chastity of, corrupt, violate DISGUSTING/OFFENSIVE:
The employee's reputation for looking professional was defiled when he arrived at work without wearing proper attire.
53
invidious
offensively or unfairly discriminating; injurious DISGUSTING/OFFENSIVE:
invidious comparisons.
54
noisome
very unpleasant and offensive, offensive or disgusting, as an odor DISGUSTING/OFFENSIVE:
Symptoms are noisome and include headache and cranial nerve deficits.
55
putrid
decaying and smelling bad DISGUSTING/OFFENSIVE:
| putrid smell
56
rebarbative
causing annoyance, irritation, or aversion; repellent. troubling DISGUSTING/OFFENSIVE:
he became rebarbative and prickly and spiteful
57
WITHDRAWAL/RETREAT
abnegation, rescind, abrogate, demur,
58
abeyance
temporary inactivity, cessation, or suspension WITHDRAWAL/RETREAT:
Let's hold that problem in abeyance for a while.
59
abjure
to renounce, repudiate, or retract, especially with formal solemnity; recant WITHDRAWAL/RETREAT:
to abjure one's errors.
60
abortive
failing to succeed; unsuccessful WITHDRAWAL/RETREAT: an abortive rebellion; an abortive scheme.
61
abrogate
to abolish by formal or official means; annul by an authoritative act; repeal WITHDRAWAL/RETREAT:
to abrogate a law.
62
decamp
to depart quickly, secretly, or unceremoniously WITHDRAWAL/RETREAT:
The band of thieves decamped in the night.
63
recidivism
habitual relapse into crime WITHDRAWAL/RETREAT:
| With a high recidivism rate, the parole program's success story is often the exception rather than the rule.
64
remission
pardon; forgiveness, as of sins or offenses WITHDRAWAL/RETREAT:
to be in a period of time when a serious illness is better:
He is in remission at the moment.
The disease seems to be in remission.
65
renege
not to do what you promise or say WITHDRAWAL/RETREAT:
| to renege on a promise.
66
retrograde
moving backward; having a backward motion or direction; retiring or retreating WITHDRAWAL/RETREAT:
After Sally's accident, her progress in school went retrograde.
67
DEATH/MOURNING
dolorous
68
bereave
to deprive and make desolate, especially by death (usually followed by of ) DEATH/MOURNING:
Illness bereaved them of their mother.
69
cadaver
a dead body, especially a human body to be dissected; corpse DEATH/MOURNING:
The cadaver helped medical students understand human anatomy
70
knell
a sound or sign announcing the death of a person or the end, extinction, failure, etc., of something DEATH/MOURNING:
the knell of parting day.
71
macabre
gruesome and horrifying; ghastly; horrible (related to death):
a macabre story
72
moribund
in a dying state; near death DEATH/MOURNING:
| How can the Trade Department be revived from its present moribund state?
73
obsequy
a funeral rite or ceremony DEATH/MOURNING:
| Some of the mourners left after the obsequies.
74
sepulchral
of or pertaining to burial DEATH/MOURNING:
| The curtain rose to reveal a gloomy, sepulchral set for the play.
75
wraith
spirit of a dead person DEATH/MOURNING:
| a wraith-like (= thin and pale) figure in a grey floating dress
76
COPY
emulate, factitious,
77
counterpart
a copy; duplicate COPY:
| The artist worked together with her foreign counterpart.
78
facsimile
an exact copy, as of a book, painting, or manuscript. COPY:
| a facsimile of the original manuscript
79
quintessence
the purest example or representative of a type COPY:
| An American football game is the quintessence of machismo.
80
vicarious
Experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions of another person: "vicarious pleasure" COPY:
It gives me vicarious pleasure to watch him eat.
81
EQUAL
equitable, equity,
82
tantamount
equivalent COPY:
| Resignation would be tantamount to admitting he was guilty.
83
UNUSUAL
aberration, anomaly, iconoclast,
84
idiosyncrasy
characteristic that is peculiar to an individual UNUSUAL:
| She had an idiosyncratic fashion sense
85
WANDERING
itinerant, peripatetic, expatiate
86
forage
search madly for WANDERING:
| Chimpanzees spend most of the day foraging for fruit, leaves, and insects.
87
peregrination
travel from one place to another, especially on foot WANDERING:
He brought back souveniers and photos from his peregrination abroad.
88
sojourn
a temporary stay WANDERING:
| during his sojourn in Paris.
89
GAPS/OPENINGS
aperture
90
fissure
a narrow opening produced by cleavage or separation of parts GAPS/OPENINGS:
The green glob seeped into the fissures on the rock
91
meretricious
based on pretense, deception, or insincerity:
| He claims that a lot of journalism is meretricious and superficial.
92
pejorative
having a disparaging, derogatory, or belittling effect:
| Make sure students realise that 'fat' is an unflattering or pejorative word
93
celibacy
abstention from sexual relations:
| They couple remained celibate until they got married.
94
hiatus
a missing piece (as a gap in a manuscript), an interruption in the intensity or amount of something GAPS/OPENINGS:
When it began to require too much effort, he took a hiatus from his coin collecting hobby.
While on hiatus from the university, the professor wrote a book on economics.
95
interregnum
any pause or interruption in continuity, any period of freedom from the usual authority GAPS/OPENINGS:
Postwar interregnum as conflicting plans for central intelligence are shaken down into a presidential directive.
96
interstice
a small or narrow space or interval between things or parts GAPS/OPENINGS:
The wall was old and crumbling with plants growing in the interstices between/in/of the bricks.
97
lull
to soothe or quiet GAPS/OPENINGS:
| Soft music lulled him to sleep.
98
orifice
an opening or aperture GAPS/OPENINGS:
| I was stuffing cake into every available orifice.
99
respite
pause, suspension in activity, pause from doing something (as work) GAPS/OPENING:
The weekend was a brief respite from the pressures of work.
100
rift
an opening made by splitting, cleaving, fissure, serious disagreement GAPS/OPENINGS:
the deepening rift between the government and the unions.
101
ABBREVIATED COMMUNICATION
curtail, terse, compendium,
102
abridge
to shorten by omissions while retaining the basic contents ABBREVIATED COMMUNICATION:
to abridge a reference book.
103
cursory
done quickly and without much care ABBREVIATED COMMUNICATION:
a cursory glance
104
WISDOM
aphorism, axiom,
105
adage
a traditional saying expressing a common experience or observation, a wise saying; proverb aphorism, apothegm, axiom WISDOM:
He remembered the old adage 'Look before you leap'.
106
apothegm
a short, pithy, instructive saying; a terse remark or aphorism WISDOM:
Apothegms are normally used by dumb people to try to make themselves seem more intelligent.
107
bromide
a platitude or trite (dull & boring) saying, a trite or obvious remark WISDOM
108
dictum
saying, proverb, adage, aphorism, apothegm, axiom WISDOM:
| He followed the famous American dictum, 'Don't get mad, get even'.
109
epigram
any witty, ingenious, or pointed saying tersely expressed WISDOM:
One of Oscar Wilde's most frequently quoted epigrams is "I can resist everything except temptation".
110
sententious
abounding in pithy aphorisms or maxims WISDOM: a sententious book.
111
FAMILY
conjugal, scion, progenitor, filial, fratricide, distaff, consanguine, endogamous
112
conjugal
relating to marriage FAMILY:
| Maria often spent hours awake in bed, dreaming of future conjugal bliss.
113
consanguine
having the same ancestry or descent; related by blood FAMILY:
114
distaff
pertaining to females; a stick that holds wool or flax for spinning FAMILY:
115
endogamous
marriage within a specific tribe or similar social unit. Compare exogamy FAMILY
116
filial
of, pertaining to, or befitting a son or daughter FAMILY: filial obedience.
117
fratricide
the act of killing one's brother FAMILY:
| "My Brother carried out an act of fractricide".
118
progenitor
predecessor in family, a person who first thinks of something and causes it to happen FAMILY:
Marx was the progenitor of communism.
119
scion
a descendant FAMILY:
| He's the scion of a very wealthy newspaper-publishing family.
120
NOT STRAIGHT
careen, circumvent, carom, labyrinth, meander
121
askance
with suspicion, mistrust, or disapproval sideways, disapprovingly NOT STRAIGHT:
He looked askance at my offer
122
awry
away from the expected or proper direction; amiss; wrong NOT STRAIGHT: Our plans went awry.
123
careen
to lean, sway, or tip to one side while in motion NOT STRAIGHT: The car careened around the corner.
124
gyrate
to move in a circle or spiral, or around a fixed point; whirl NOT STRAIGHT:
A line of male dancers gyrated to the music while the audience screamed their appreciation.
125
labyrinth
maze, complexity NOT STRAIGHT:
| Finally, through a labyrinth of corridors she found his office.
126
oblique
not straight or direct, as a course NOT STRAIGHT:
| an oblique comment
127
sidle
to move sideways or obliquely NOT STRAIGHT:
| He sidled up to her and whispered something in her ear.
128
undulating
to move with a sinuous or wavelike motion NOT STRAIGHT:
| undulating roads, undulating waves
129
INVESTIGATE
assay, ascertain, appraise, descry. peruse
130
appraise
to estimate the monetary value of; determine the worth of; assess INVESTIGATE:
We had an expert appraise the house before we bought it.
131
ascertain
to find out definitely; learn with certainty or assurance, confirm; determine INVESTIGATE:
We are still trying to ascertain whether the fire was started deliberately.
132
assay
to examine or analyze INVESTIGATE:
| to assay a situation; to assay an event.
133
descry
to see (something unclear or distant) by looking carefully; discern; espy INVESTIGATE: The lookout descried land.
134
peruse
to survey or examine in detail INVESTIGATE:
| If there are comments, take a second and peruse them.
135
TIME/ORDER/DURATION
anachronism, antecede, antedate, anterior, archaic, ephemeral, epoch, fortnight, temporal, synchronous.
136
antecede
to precede TIME/ORDER/DURATION:
| Behavior problems antecede the development of respiratory conditions in children.
137
antedate
precede in time TIME/ORDER/DURATION: The Peruvian empire antedates the Mexican empire.
138
anterior
going before in time or sequence; preceding; earlier TIME/ORDER/DURATION: events anterior to the outbreak of war.
139
diurnal
occurring every day; during the day TIME/ORDER/DURATION:
| We should see the days are warming faster than days and the diurnal temperature differences increasing.
140
eon
an indefinitely long period of time; age TIME/ORDER/DURATION:
I've been waiting eons for my new computer.
141
epoch
a particular period of time marked by distinctive features, events, etc TIME/ORDER/DURATION:
The treaty ushered in an epoch of peace and good will.
142
fortnight
two weeks TIME/ORDER/DURATION:
| We usually get together about once a fortnight.
143
penultimate
next to the last TIME/ORDER/DURATION:
| the penultimate scene of the play.
144
BAD MOOD
petulant, irascible, pique, dudgeon, bilious, pettish, querulous, umbrage, waspish.
145
bilious
peevish; irritable; cranky, not healthy BAD MOOD:
| She suffered from bilious attacks.
146
dudgeon
anger, bitterness, displeasure, fury BAD MOOD:
| We left in high dudgeon.
147
pettish
petulantly peevish, very angry BAD MOOD:
| a pettish refusal.
148
pique
anger, irritation BAD MOOD:
| She was greatly piqued when they refused her invitation.
149
querulous
full of complaints; complaining BAD MOOD:
| He became increasingly dissatisfied and querulous in his old age.
150
umbrage
offense; annoyance; displeasure BAD MOOD:
| to feel umbrage at a social snub; to give umbrage to someone; to take umbrage at someone's rudeness.
151
waspish
irascibly or petulantly spiteful BAD MOOD:
| She had a waspish tongue which could hurt.
