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ACT/SAT Vocab Words > ACT - SAT Vocab Words - D > Flashcards

ACT - SAT Vocab Words - D Flashcards

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1
Q

daunting

A

(adj.) intimidating, causing one to lose courage (He kept delaying the dauntingact of asking for a promotion.)

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2
Q

dearth

A

(n.) a lack, scarcity (An eager reader, she was dismayed by the dearthof classic books at the library.)

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3
Q

debacle

A

(n.) a disastrous failure, disruption (The elaborately designed fireworks show turned into a debaclewhen the fireworks started firing in random directions.)

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4
Q

debase

A

(v.) to lower the quality or esteem of something (The large raise that he gave himself debasedhis motives for running the charity.)

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5
Q

debauch

A

(v.) to corrupt by means of sensual pleasures (An endless amount of good wine and cheese debauchedthe traveler.)

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6
Q

debunk

A

(v.) to expose the falseness of something (He debunkedher claim to be the world’s greatest chess player by defeating her in 18 consecutive matches.)

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7
Q

decorous

A

(adj.) socially proper, appropriate (The appreciative guest displayed decorous behavior toward his host.)

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8
Q

decry

A

(v.) to criticize openly (The kind video rental clerk decriedthe policy of charging customers late fees.)

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9
Q

deface

A

(v.) to ruin or injure something’s appearance (The brothers used eggs and shaving cream to defacetheir neighbor’s mailbox.)

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10
Q

defamatory

A

(adj.) harmful toward another’s reputation (The defamatorygossip spreading about the actor made the public less willing to see the actor’s new movie.)

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11
Q

defer

A

(v.) to postpone something; to yield to another’s wisdom (Ron deferredto Diane, the expert on musical instruments, when he was asked about buying a piano.)

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12
Q

deferential

A

(adj.) showing respect for another’s authority (His deferentialattitude toward her made her more confident in her ability to run the company.)

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13
Q

defile

A

(v.) to make unclean, impure (She defiledthe calm of the religious building by playing her banjo.)

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14
Q

deft

A

(adj.) skillful, capable (Having worked in a bakery for many years, Marcus was a deftbread maker.)

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15
Q

defunct

A

(adj.) no longer used or existing (They planned to turn the defunctschoolhouse into a community center.)

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16
Q

delegate

A

(v.) to hand over responsibility for something (The dean delegatedthe task of finding a new professor to a special hiring committee.)

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17
Q

deleterious

A

(adj.) harmful (She experienced the deleteriouseffects of running a marathon without stretching her muscles enough beforehand.)

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18
Q

deliberate

A

(adj.) intentional, reflecting careful consideration (Though Mary was quite upset, her actions to resolve the dispute were deliberate.)

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19
Q

delineate

A

(v.) to describe, outline, shed light on (She neatly delineatedher reasons for canceling the project’s funding.)

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20
Q

demagogue

A

(n.) a leader who appeals to a people’s prejudices (The demagogue strengthened his hold over his people by blaming immigrants for the lack of jobs.)

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21
Q

demarcation

A

(n.) the marking of boundaries or categories (Different cultures have different demarcationsof good and evil.)

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22
Q

demean

A

(v.) to lower the status or stature of something (She refused to demeanher secretary by making him order her lunch.)

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23
Q

demure

A

(adj.) quiet, modest, reserved (Though everyone else at the party was dancing and going crazy, she remained demure.)

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24
Q

denigrate

A

(v.) to belittle, diminish the opinion of (The company decided that its advertisements would no longer denigratethe company’s competitors.)

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25
Q

denounce

A

(v.) to criticize publicly (The senator denouncedher opponent as a greedy politician.)

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26
Q

deplore

A

(v.) to feel or express sorrow, disapproval (We all deploredthe miserable working conditions in the factory.)

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27
Q

depravity

A

(n.) wickedness (Rumors of the ogre’s depravitymade the children afraid to enter the forest.)

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28
Q

deprecate

A

(v.) to belittle, depreciate (Always over-modest, he deprecatedhis contribution to the local charity.)

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29
Q

derelict

A

(adj.) abandoned, run-down (Even though it was dangerous, the children enjoyed going to the deserted lot and playing in the derelicthouse.)

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30
Q

deride

A

(v.) to laugh at mockingly, scorn (The bullies deridedthe foreign student’s accent.)

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31
Q

derivative

A

(adj.) taken directly from a source, unoriginal (She was bored by his music because she felt that it was derivativeand that she had heard it before.)

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32
Q

desecrate

A

(v.) to violate the sacredness of a thing or place (They feared that the construction of a golf course would desecratethe preserved wilderness.)

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33
Q

desiccated

A

(adj.) dried up, dehydrated (The skin of the desiccatedmummy looked like old paper.)

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34
Q

desolate

A

(adj.) deserted, dreary, lifeless (She found the desolatelandscape quite a contrast to the hustle and bustle of the overcrowded city.)

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35
Q

despondent

A

(adj.) feeling depressed, discouraged, hopeless (Having failed the first math test, the despondentchild saw no use in studying for the next and failed that one too.)

36
Q

despot

A

(n.) one who has total power and rules brutally (The despotissued a death sentence for anyone who disobeyed his laws.)

37
Q

destitute

A

(adj.) impoverished, utterly lacking (The hurricane destroyed many homes and left many families destitute.)

38
Q

deter

A

(v.) to discourage, prevent from doing (Bob’s description of scary snakes couldn’t deterMarcia from traveling in the rainforests.)

39
Q

devious

A

(adj.) not straightforward, deceitful (Not wanting to be punished, the devious girl blamed the broken vase on the cat.)

40
Q

dialect

A

(n.) a variation of a language (In the country’s remote, mountainous regions, the inhabitants spoke a dialectthat the country’s other inhabitants had difficulty understanding.)

41
Q

diaphanous

A

(adj.) light, airy, transparent (Sunlight poured in through the diaphanous curtains, brightening the room.)

42
Q

didactic

A

(adj.) intended to instruct (She wrote up a didacticdocument showing new employees how to handle the company’s customers.) 2. (adj.) overly moralistic (His didacticstyle of teaching made it seem like he wanted to persuade his students not to understand history fully, but to understand it from only one point of view.)

43
Q

diffident

A

(adj.) shy, quiet, modest (While eating dinner with the adults, the diffident youth did not speak for fear of seeming presumptuous.)

44
Q

diffuse

A

(v.) to scatter, thin out, break up (He diffusedthe tension in the room by making in a joke.) 2. (adj.) not concentrated, scattered, disorganized (In her writings, she tried unsuccessfully to make others understand her diffusethoughts.)

45
Q

dilatory

A

(adj.) tending to delay, causing delay (The general’s dilatorystrategy enabled the enemy to regroup.)

46
Q

diligent

A

(adj.) showing care in doing one’s work (The diligentresearcher made sure to check her measurements multiple times.)

47
Q

diminutive

A

(adj.) small or miniature (The bullies, tall and strong, picked on the diminutivechild.)

48
Q

dirge

A

(n.) a mournful song, especially for a funeral (The bagpipers played a dirgeas the casket was carried to the cemetery.)

49
Q

disaffected

A

(adj.) rebellious, resentful of authority (Dismayed by Bobby’s poor behavior, the parents sent their disaffectedson to a military academy to be disciplined.)

50
Q

disavow

A

(v.) to deny knowledge of or responsibility for (Not wanting others to criticize her, she disavowedany involvement in the company’s hiring scandal.)

51
Q

discern

A

(v.) to perceive, detect (Though he hid his emotions, she discernedfrom his body language that he was angry.)

52
Q

disclose

A

(v.) to reveal, make public (The CEO disclosedto the press that the company would have to fire several employees.)

53
Q

discomfit

A

(v.) to thwart, baffle (The normally cheery and playful children’s sudden misery discomfitedthe teacher.)

54
Q

discordant

A

(adj.) not agreeing, not in harmony with (The girls’ sobs were a discordant sound amid the general laughter that filled the restaurant.)

55
Q

discrepancy

A

(n.) difference, failure of things to correspond (He was troubled by the discrepancybetween what he remembered paying for the appliance and what his receipt showed he paid for it.)

56
Q

discretion

A

(n.) the quality of being reserved in speech or action; good judgment (Not wanting her patient to get overly anxious, the doctor used discretionin deciding how much to tell the patient about his condition.)

57
Q

discursive

A

(adj.) rambling, lacking order (The professor’s discursivelectures seemed to be about every subject except the one initially described.)

58
Q

disdain

A

(v.) to scorn, hold in low esteem (Insecure about their jobs, the older employees disdainedthe recently hired ones, who were young and capable.) 2. (n.) scorn, low esteem (After learning of his immoral actions, Justine held Lawrence in disdain.)

59
Q

disgruntled

A

(adj.) upset, not content (The child believed that his parents had unjustly grounded him, and remained disgruntledfor a week.)

60
Q

disheartened

A

(adj.) feeling a loss of spirit or morale (The team was disheartenedafter losing in the finals of the tournament.)

61
Q

disparage

A

(v.) to criticize or speak ill of (The saleswoman disparagedthe competitor’s products to persuade her customers to buy what she was selling.)

62
Q

disparate

A

(adj.) sharply differing, containing sharply contrasting elements (Having widely varying interests, the students had disparateresponses toward the novel.)

63
Q

dispatch

A

(v.) to send off to accomplish a duty (The carpenter dispatchedhis assistant to fetch wood.)

64
Q

dispel

A

(v.) to drive away, scatter (She entered the office as usual on Monday, dispelling the rumor that she had been fired.)

65
Q

disperse

A

(v.) to scatter, cause to scatter (When the rain began to pour, the crowd at the baseball game quickly dispersed.)

66
Q

disrepute

A

(n.) a state of being held in low regard (The officer fell into disreputeafter it was learned that he had disobeyed the orders he had given to his own soldiers.)

67
Q

dissemble

A

(v.) to conceal, fake (Not wanting to appear heartlessly greedy, she dissembledand hid her intention to sell her ailing father’s stamp collection.)

68
Q

disseminate

A

(v.) to spread widely (The politician disseminatedhis ideas across the town before the election.)

69
Q

dissent

A

(v.) to disagree (The principal argued that the child should repeat the fourth grade, but the unhappy parents dissented.) 2. (n.) the act of disagreeing (Unconvinced that the defendant was guilty, the last juror voiced his dissentwith the rest of the jury.)

70
Q

dissipate

A

(v.) to disappear, cause to disappear (The sun finally came out and dissipatedthe haze.) 2. (v.) to waste (She dissipatedher fortune on a series of bad investments.)

71
Q

dissonance

A

(n.) lack of harmony or consistency (Though the president of the company often spoke of the company as reliant solely upon its workers, her decision to increase her own salary rather than reward her employees revealed a striking dissonance between her alleged beliefs and her actions.)

72
Q

dissuade

A

(v.) to persuade someone not to do something (Worried that he would catch a cold, she tried to dissuadehim from going out on winter nights.)

73
Q

distend

A

(v.) to swell out (Years of drinking beer caused his stomach to distend.)

74
Q

dither

A

(v.) to be indecisive (Not wanting to offend either friend, he ditheredabout which of the two birthday parties he should attend.)

75
Q

divine

A

(adj.) godly, exceedingly wonderful (Terribly fond of desserts, she found the rich chocolate cake to be divine.)

76
Q

divisive

A

(adj.) causing dissent, discord (Her divisivetactics turned her two friends against each other.)

77
Q

divulge

A

(v.) to reveal something secret (Pressured by the press, the government finally divulgedthe previously unknown information.)

78
Q

docile

A

(adj.) easily taught or trained (She successfully taught the docilepuppy several tricks.)

79
Q

dogmatic

A

(adj.) aggressively and arrogantly certain about unproved principles (His dogmaticclaim that men were better than women at fixing appliances angered everyone.)

80
Q

dormant

A

(adj.) sleeping, temporarily inactive (Though she pretended everything was fine, her anger lay dormantthroughout the dinner party and exploded in screams of rage after everyone had left.)

81
Q

dour

A

(adj.)stern, joyless (The children feared their dourneighbor because the old man would take their toys if he believed they were being too loud.)

82
Q

dubious

A

(adj.) doubtful, of uncertain quality (Suspicious that he was only trying to get a raise, she found his praise dubious.)

83
Q

duplicity

A

(n.) crafty dishonesty (His duplicityinvolved convincing his employees to let him lower their salaries and increase their stock options, and then to steal the money he saved and run the company into the ground.)

84
Q

duress

A

(n.) hardship, threat (It was only under intense duressthat he, who was normally against killing, fired his gun.)

85
Q

dynamic

A

(adj.) actively changing (The parents found it hard to keep up with the dynamicmusic scene with which their children had become very familiar.)

ACT/SAT Vocab Words (10 decks)

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