Vocab List Week 1 Flashcards
Master GRE Week 1 Vocabulary list list from the GRE Course Handouts Book (25 cards)
Inchoate
(in·cho·ate)
(in-koh-it, -eyt)
Definition:
(adj. ) Incipient, still developing or incomplete
(adj. ) Imperfectly formed, incoherent or lacking order.
Sentences:
1) The questions are often going to be kind of inchoate, maybe not very carefully phrased.
2) The engineer considered his prototype to be an inchoate version of his final product.
3) He had an inchoate mass of ideas on the subject.
Etymologies: From Latin incohātus (“begun, unfinished”)
Obdurate
ob·du·rate
[ob-doo-rit, -dyoo-]
Definition:
(adj) Hardened in wrongdoing or wickedness; stubbornly impenitent: “obdurate conscience of the old sinner”
(adj) Hardened against feeling; hardhearted: an obdurate miser.
(adj) Not giving in to persuasion; intractable. Synonyms: inflexible.
Sentences:
“George passed from life with the kind of obdurate resistance and strength of spirit with which he had lived.”
When students are challenged in a classroom they often become obdurate in their refusal to move to a new seat.
Etymologies
Latin obdūrātus (past participle of obdūrāre to harden)
Effrontery
ef·fron·ter·y
[ih-fruhn-tuh-ree]
Definition:
(n) Insolence, boldness, or presumptuousness
(n) shameless or impudent boldness; barefaced audacity: “She had the effrontery to ask for two free samples.”
Sentences:
“Their latest topic is the “effrontery” of Jon Stewart who, by interviewing Jim Cramer, invaded [political pundits’] territory.”
Daejour had the effrontery to walk right up to my board and change the section sheet score!
Etymologies
1705–15; < French effronterie, equivalent to Old French esfront shameless
Rarefy
rar·e·fy
[rair-uh-fahy]
Definition:
verb (used with object)
1. to make rare or rarer; make less dense: “to rarefy a gas.”
- to make more refined, spiritual, or exalted.
verb (used without object)
3. to become rare or less dense; become thinned: “Moisture rarefies when heated.”
Sentences:
At the top of the mountain they breathed the rarified air.
When the Buddha sat under the lotus tree he became rarified.
I guess I also can’t always relate to the “bike culture,” since they seem so determined to rarefy the normal.”
Diatribe
di·a·tribe
[dahy-uh-trahyb]
Definition:
(noun) a bitter, sharply abusive denunciation, attack, or criticism: repeated diatribes against the senator.
Sentences:
When Ochocinco slapped his lawyer’s ass in court he received a diatribe from the judge.
“This diatribe is about companies with lousy customer service.”
Etymologies
Greek diatribḗ pastime, study, discourse, derivative of diatríbein to rub away
Precipitate
pre·cip·i·tate
[v. pri-sip-i-teyt]
[adj., n. pri-sip-i-tit, -teyt]
Definition:
verb (used with object)
- to hasten the occurrence of; bring about prematurely, hastily, or suddenly: to precipitate an international crisis.
- to cast down headlong; fling or hurl down.
- to cast, plunge, or send, especially violently or abruptly: He precipitated himself into the struggle.
- Chemistry . to separate (a substance) in solid form from a solution, as by means of a reagent.
- *verb** (used without object)
5. Meteorology . to fall to the earth’s surface as a condensed form of water; to rain, snow, hail, drizzle, etc.
- to separate from a solution as a precipitate.
- to be cast or thrown down headlong.
adjective
- Moving rapidly and heedlessly; speeding headlong.
- Acting with or marked by excessive haste and lack of due deliberation. See Synonyms at impetuous, reckless.
- Occurring suddenly or unexpectedly.
- *noun**
1. Chemistry A solid or solid phase separated from a solution.
- A product resulting from a process, event, or course of action.
Sentences:
When he mixed the two chemicals together a salt began to precipiate out of the solution and form a white layer at the bottom of the beaker.
The attempt to steal a mate precipiated violent fighting between male adult rams.
The speed with which the man rand down the side of the slope was precipitate.
Disabuse
dis·a·buse
[dis-uh-byooz]
Definition:
(verb) to free someone from a misconception or deception
Sentences:
I try to disabuse my students of the notion that air does not have mass.
I disabused her of the idea that money grows on trees.
Aver
a·ver
[uh-vur]
Definition:
(verb) to assert or affirm positively
(verb) to formally (in law) assert or prove in pleading a case or cause
Sentences:
In these disagreements, participants aver they are for the good of the entire group.
I frequently aver that dessert isn’t dessert unless it contains chocolate
Undermine
un·der·mine
[uhn-der-mahyn or
uhn-der-mahyn]
Definition:
- to injure or destroy by insidious activity or imperceptible stages, sometimes tending toward a sudden dramatic effect.
- to attack by indirect, secret, or underhand means; attempt to subvert by stealth.
- to make an excavation under; dig or tunnel beneath, as a military stronghold.
- to weaken or cause to collapse by removing underlying support, as by digging away or eroding the foundation.
Sentences:
Despite seemingly supporting the learning of the students, she was constantly undermining their success by not holding them to the highest standards.
The British undermined the enemies fort by digging a tunnel through the bedrock beneath the fort.
Laconic
la·con·ic
[luh-kon-ik]
Definition
adjective
using few words; expressing much in few words; concise: a laconic reply.
Sentences
The crew members themselves are laconic about the planned mission.
He doesn’t waste his time blabbering; he’s very laconic.
Enervate
en·er·vate
[v. en-er-veyt; adj. ih-nur-vit]
Definition
verb
To weaken or sap the strength, vigor or vitality of
Sentences
Tony Parker’s miraculous bank shot at the end of the 24 second clock enervated the Heat and dimished their chances of a last-second comeback.
The stabbing of Rob Stark’s young wife enervated the young self-proclaimed King of the North.
Eulogy
eu·lo·gy
[yoo-luh-jee]
Definition
(n) a praising speech or tribute, especially honoring someone who has died
(n) High praise
Sentences
When Adam Yauch died, another famous rapper from the era of the Beastie Boys delivered a great eulogy, priasing Yauch for his contributions to music and social change.
When describing Nelson Mandela, the South African spoke of the former president with eulogy.
Placate
pla·cate
[pley-keyt, plak-eyt]
Definition
(v) To soothe the anger of, mollify or appease
Sentences
Some party leaders had earlier hinted that he should step down to placate the public’s outrage at the scandal.
When a baby is crying, a father is often inclined to placate his child.
Quotidian
quo·tid·i·an
[kwoh-tid-ee-uhn]
Definition
(adj. ) Everyday, common place or ordinary paintings of no more than quotidian artistry.
(adj. ) daily (something that happens every day) a quotidian report.
(adj. ) usual or customary; everyday quotidian needs.
Sentences
The child from the country had such a quotidian sensibility compared to the cosmopolitan city kid.
Their cabinets are quotidian , their surroundings absolutely ordinary.
Gainsay
gain·say
[geyn-sey, geyn-sey]
Definition
(v) To deny or prove false
(v) To oppose or speak out against
Sentences
Almost nobody dares to gainsay him, even when he goes over the top.
“Say what you will about that view, it’s hard to gainsay the economic gains that Singapore, Malaysia and China all made over the last 30-odd years.”
Pith
pith
[pith]
Definition
(n) the important or essential part; essence; core; heart: the pith of the matter.
(n) significant weight; substance; solidity: an argument without pith.
Sentences
The climate denyers present arguments with little pith.
The pith of the matter was that he was just really upset, the attempt at other justifications was just superfulous.
Hackneyed
hack·neyed
[hak-need]
Definition
(adj.) Unoriginal, so commonplace as to be stale; trite, or banal: the hackneyed images of his poetry.
Sentences
The writing of the young author seemed very exciting to the college student at first but on further inspection and after discussion with his more well-read friends, he realized this writer’s prose was just hackneyed –derivative of earlier greats.
Ebullience
e·bul·lience
[ih-buhl-yuhns, ih-bool-]
Definition
(n) Liveliness or exuberance, especially in manner or expression
Sentences
After learning he’d been accepted to his first-choice college, Matthew could not restrain his ebullience.
Yet behind the ebullience there were signs that all is not ship-shape.
It was his personality, his ebullience, that allowed him to serve a record five terms as mayor here.
Artless
art·less
[ahrt-lis]
Definition
(adj) Uncultured or ignorant, lacking in knowledge
(adj) Poorly or crudely made
(adj) Without artificiality; natural, sincere
Sentences
His pictures can seem at a superficial glance mundane, even artless.
The country boy’s language was artless relateive to the refined speech of the cosmopolitan city boy.
The long boring book offers details of individual battles and eighteenth century army life in artless and uninhibited accounts.
Artifice
ar·ti·fice
[ahr-tuh-fis]
Definition
- *noun**
1. a clever trick or stratagem; a cunning, crafty device or expedient; wile.
- trickery; guile; craftiness.
- cunning; ingenuity; inventiveness: a drawing-room comedy crafted with artifice and elegance.
- a skillful or artful contrivance or expedient.
Sentences
It is often an artifice of the devil to make a novice undertake too much at first, and run indiscreetly beyond his strength.
Etymology
Latin artificium craftsmanship, art, craftiness
_Synonyms _
- subterfuge. See trick. 2. deception, deceit, art, duplicity. See cunning.
Tortuous
tor·tu·ous
[tawr-choo-uhs]
Definition
adjective
- full of twists, turns, or bends; twisting, winding, or crooked: a tortuous path.
- not direct or straightforward, as in procedure or speech; intricate; circuitous: tortuous negotiations lasting for months.
- deceitfully indirect or morally crooked, as proceedings, methods, or policy; devious.
Sentences
The calculations can be complicated by the tortuous accounting used to calculate the private-equity industry’s returns.
His goal was simple and clear, and yet the road toward it was tortuous beyond imagination.
Many at the conference likened it to the tortuous process of conquering addiction.
Etymology
< Latin tortuōsus , equivalent to tortu ( s ) a twisting ( tor ( quēre ) to twist, bend
maybe related to “contort” or to “torturous”
Profuse
pro·fuse
[pruh-fyoos]
Definition
adjective
- spending or giving freely and in large amount, often to excess; extravagant (often followed by in ): profuse praise.
- made or done freely and abundantly: profuse apologies.
- abundant; in great amount.
Sentences
It looks over a green belt of profuse tropical vegetation intersected by a solitary railway line.
He never indulges in needless extravagance of rhetoric, lavish epithets, profuse imagery.
Mullet are so profuse they will literally jump into a fisherman’s boat.
Other less specific signs include nausea, profuse sweating and fainting.
Rather, they would be munificent givers of foreign aid, vigorous investors abroad and profuse lenders.
Etymology
< Latin profūsus, past participle of profundere to pour out or forth.
Propitiate
pro·pi·ti·ate
[pruh-pish-ee-eyt]
Definition
verb
To gain or regain the favor of; to appease or concilliate
Sentences
The greeks of old would make sacrifices in order to propitiate the gods of Olympus.
“Bond markets, those invisible deities that debt reduction is designed to propitiate, could never be confident that debt triggers will actually reduce government debt.”
Etymology
< Latin propitiātus, past participle of propitiāre to appease.
Veneration
ven·er·a·tion
[ven-uh-rey-shuhn]
Definition
noun
The act of regarding or treating with profound respect, awe, or admiration
Sentences
But they are unanimous in their veneration of small business.
The well-secured yoke and chariot remained there as an object of veneration.
The study of science must not be reduced to the veneration of a corpus of approved knowledge.
They were filled with veneration for their priests.
A memorial was erected in veneration of the dead of both world wars.
