ACT - SAT Vocab Words - Q, S, T

Question 1

quagmire

Answer 1

(n.) a difficult situation (We’d all like to avoid the kind of military quagmire characterized by the Vietnam War.)

Question 2

quaint

Answer 2

(adj.) charmingly old-fashioned (Hilda was delighted by the quaintbonnets she saw in Amish country.)

Question 3

quandary

Answer 3

(n.) a perplexed, unresolvable state (Carlos found himself in a quandary: should he choose mint chocolate chip or cookie dough?)

Question 4

quell

Answer 4

(v.) to control or diffuse a potentially explosive situation (The skilled leader deftly quelledthe rebellion.)

Question 5

querulous

Answer 5

(adj.) whiny, complaining (If deprived of his pacifier, young Brendan becomes querulous.)

Question 6

quixotic

Answer 6

(adj.) idealistic, impractical (Edward entertained a quixoticdesire to fall in love at first sight in a laundromat.)

Question 7

quotidian

Answer 7

(adj.) daily (Ambika’s quotidianroutines include drinking two cups of coffee in the morning.)

Question 8

saccharine

Answer 8

(adj.) sickeningly sweet (Tom’s saccharinemanner, although intended to make him popular, actually repelled his classmates.)

Question 9

sacrosanct

Answer 9

(adj.) holy, something that should not be criticized (In the United States, the Constitution is often thought of as a sacrosanctdocument.)

Question 10

sagacity

Answer 10

(n.) shrewdness, soundness of perspective (With remarkable sagacity, the wise old man predicted and thwarted his children’s plan to ship him off to a nursing home.)

Question 11

salient

Answer 11

(adj.) significant, conspicuous (One of the salientdifferences between Alison and Nancy is that Alison is a foot taller.)

Question 12

salutation

Answer 12

(n.) a greeting (Andrew regularly began letters with the bizarre salutation “Ahoy ahoy.”)

Question 13

salve

Answer 13

(n.) a soothing balm (After Tony applied a salveto his brilliant red sunburn, he soon felt a little better.)

Question 14

sanctimonious

Answer 14

(adj.) giving a hypocritical appearance of piety (The sanctimoniousBertrand delivered stern lectures on the Ten Commandments to anyone who would listen, but thought nothing of stealing cars to make some cash on the side.)

Question 15

sanguine

Answer 15

(adj.) optimistic, cheery (Polly reacted to any bad news with a sanguinesmile and the chirpy cry, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!”)

Question 16

satiate

Answer 16

(v.) to satisfy excessively (Satiated after eating far too much turkey and stuffing, Liza lay on the couch watching football and suffering from stomach pains.)

Question 17

scathing

Answer 17

(adj.) sharp, critical, hurtful (Two hours after breaking up with Russell, Suzanne thought of the perfect scathingretort to his accusations.)

Question 18

scintillating

Answer 18

(adj.) sparkling (The ice skater’s scintillatingrhinestone costume nearly blinded the judges.)

Question 19

scrupulous

Answer 19

(adj.) painstaking, careful (With scrupulouscare, Sam cut a snowflake out of white paper.)

Question 20

scurrilous

Answer 20

(adj.) vulgar, coarse (When Bruno heard the scurrilousaccusation being made about him, he could not believe it because he always tried to be nice to everyone.)

Question 21

sedentary

Answer 21

(adj.) sitting, settled (The sedentarycat did little but loll in the sun.)

Question 22

semaphore

Answer 22

(n.) a visual signal (Anne and Diana communicated with a semaphoreinvolving candles and window shades.)

Question 23

seminal

Answer 23

(adj.) original, important, creating a field (Stephen Greenblatt’s essays on Shakespeare proved to be seminal, because they initiated the critical school of New Historicism.)

Question 24

sensual

Answer 24

(adj.) involving sensory gratification, usually related to sex (With a coy smile, the guest on the blind-date show announced that he considered himself a very sensualperson.)

Question 25

sensuous

Answer 25

(adj.) involving sensory gratification (Paul found drinking Coke, with all the little bubbles bursting on his tongue, a very sensuous experience.)

Question 26

serendipity

Answer 26

(n.) luck, finding good things without looking for them (In an amazing bit of serendipity, penniless Paula found a $20 bill in the subway station.)

Question 27

serene

Answer 27

(adj.) calm, untroubled (Louise stood in front of the Mona Lisa, puzzling over the famous woman’s serene smile.)

Question 28

servile

Answer 28

(adj.) subservient (The servile porter crept around the hotel lobby, bowing and quaking before the guests.)

Question 29

sinuous

Answer 29

(adj.) lithe, serpentine (With the sinuous movements of her arms, the dancer mimicked the motion of a snake.)

Question 30

sobriety

Answer 30

(n.) sedate, calm (Jason believed that maintaining his sobriety in times of crisis was the key to success in life.)

Question 31

solicitous

Answer 31

(adj.) concerned, attentive (Jim, laid up in bed with a nasty virus, enjoyed the solicitous attentions of his mother, who brought him soup and extra blankets.)

Question 32

solipsistic

Answer 32

(adj.) believing that oneself is all that exists (Colette’s solipsistic attitude completely ignored the plight of the homeless people on the street.)

Question 33

soluble

Answer 33

(adj.) able to dissolve (The plot of the spy film revolved around an untraceable and water-soluble poison.)

Question 34

solvent

Answer 34

(n.) a substance that can dissolve other substances (Water is sometimes called the universal solvent because almost all other substances can dissolve into it.) 2. (adj.) able to pay debts (Upon receiving an unexpected check from her aunt, Annabelle found herself suddenly solvent.)

Question 35

somnolent

Answer 35

(adj.) sleepy, drowsy (The somnolent student kept falling asleep and waking up with a jerk.)

Question 36

sophomoric

Answer 36

(adj.) immature, uninformed (The mature senior rolled her eyes at the sophomoric gross-out humor of the underclassman.)

Question 37

sovereign

Answer 37

(adj.) having absolute authority in a certain realm (The sovereign queen, with steely resolve, ordered that the traitorous nobleman be killed.)

Question 38

speculative

Answer 38

(adj.) not based in fact (Sadly, Tessa was convicted on merely speculative evidence.)

Question 39

spurious

Answer 39

(adj.) false but designed to seem plausible (Using a spurious argument, John convinced the others that he had won the board game on a technicality.)

Question 40

stagnate

Answer 40

(v.) to become or remain inactive, not develop, not flow (With no room for advancement, the waiter’s career stagnated.)

Question 41

staid

Answer 41

(adj.) sedate, serious, self-restrained (The staid butler never changed his expression no matter what happened.)

Question 42

stingy

Answer 42

(adj.) not generous, not inclined to spend or give (Scrooge’s stingy habits did not fit with the generous, giving spirit of Christmas.)

Question 43

stoic

Answer 43

(adj.) unaffected by passion or feeling (Penelope’s faithfulness to Odysseus required that she be stoic and put off her many suitors.)

Question 44

stolid

Answer 44

(adj.) expressing little sensibility, unemotional (Charles’s stolid reaction to his wife’s funeral differed from the passion he showed at the time of her death.)

Question 45

strenuous

Answer 45

(adj.) requiring tremendous energy or stamina (Running a marathon is quite a strenuous task. So is watching an entire Star Trek marathon.)

Question 46

strident

Answer 46

(adj.) harsh, loud (A strident man, Captain Von Trapp yelled at his daughter and made her cry.)

Question 47

stupefy

Answer 47

(v.) to astonish, make insensible (Veronica’s audacity and ungratefulness stupefied her best friend, Heather.)

Question 48

subjugate

Answer 48

(v.) to bring under control, subdue (The invading force captured and subjugated the natives of that place.)

Question 49

sublime

Answer 49

(adj.) lofty, grand, exalted (The homeless man sadly pondered his former wealth and once sublime existence.)

Question 50

submissive

Answer 50

(adj.) easily yielding to authority (In some cultures, wives are supposed to be submissive and support their husbands in all matters.)

Question 51

succinct

Answer 51

(adj.) marked by compact precision (The governor’s succinct speech energized the crowd while the mayor’s rambled on and on.)

Question 52

superfluous

Answer 52

(adj.) exceeding what is necessary (Tracy had already won the campaign so her constant flattery of others was superfluous.)

Question 53

surfeit

Answer 53

(n.) an overabundant supply or indulgence (After partaking of the surfeit of tacos and tamales at the All-You-Can-Eat Taco Tamale Lunch Special, Beth felt rather sick.)

Question 54

surmise

Answer 54

(v.) to infer with little evidence (After speaking to only one of the students, the teacher was able to surmise what had caused the fight.)

Question 55

surreptitious

Answer 55

(adj.) stealthy (The surreptitious CIA agents were able to get in and out of the house without anyone noticing.)

Question 56

surrogate

Answer 56

(n.) one acting in place of another (The surrogate carried the child to term for its biological parents.)

Question 57

swarthy

Answer 57

(adj.) of dark color or complexion (When he got drunk, Robinson’s white skin became rather swarthy.)

Question 58

sycophant

Answer 58

(n.) one who flatters for self-gain (Some see the people in the cabinet as the president’s closest advisors, but others see them as sycophants.)became rather swarthy.)

Question 59

tacit

Answer 59

(adj.) expressed without words (I interpreted my parents’ refusal to talk as a tacit acceptance of my request.)

Question 60

taciturn

Answer 60

(adj.) not inclined to talk (Though Jane never seems to stop talking, her brother is quite taciturn.)

Question 61

tangential

Answer 61

(adj.) incidental, peripheral, divergent (I tried to discuss my salary, but the boss kept veering off into tangential topics.)

Question 62

tantamount

Answer 62

(adj.) equivalent in value or significance (When it comes to sports, fearing your opponent is tantamount to losing.)

Question 63

tedious

Answer 63

(adj.) dull, boring (As time passed and the history professor continued to drone on and on, the lecture became increasingly tedious.)

Question 64

temerity

Answer 64

(n.) audacity, recklessness (Tom and Huck entered the scary cave armed with nothing but their own temerity.)

Question 65

temperance

Answer 65

(n.) moderation in action or thought (Maintaining temperance will ensure that you are able to think rationally and objectively.)

Question 66

tenable

Answer 66

(adj.) able to be defended or maintained (The department heads tore down the arguments in other people’s theses, but Johari’s work proved to be quite tenable.)

Question 67

tenuous

Answer 67

(adj.) having little substance or strength (Your argument is very tenuous, since it relies so much on speculation and hearsay.)

Question 68

terrestrial

Answer 68

(adj.) relating to the land (Elephants are terrestrial animals.)

Question 69

timorous

Answer 69

(adj.) timid, fearful (When dealing with the unknown, timorous Tallulah almost always broke into tears.)

Question 70

tirade

Answer 70

(n.) a long speech marked by harsh or biting language (Every time Jessica was late, her boyfriend went into a long tirade about punctuality.)

Question 71

toady

Answer 71

(n.) one who flatters in the hope of gaining favors (The other kids referred to the teacher’s pet as the Tenth Grade Toady.)

Question 72

tome

Answer 72

(n.) a large book (In college, I used to carry around an anatomy book that was the heaviest tome in my bag.)

Question 73

torpid

Answer 73

(adj.) lethargic, dormant, lacking motion (The torpid whale floated, wallowing in the water for hours.)

Question 74

torrid

Answer 74

(adj.) giving off intense heat, passionate (I didn’t want to witness the neighbor’s torrid affair through the window.)

Question 75

tortuous

Answer 75

(adj.) winding (The scary thing about driving in mountains are the narrow, tortuous roads.)

Question 76

tractable

Answer 76

(adj.) easily controlled (The horse was so tractable, Myra didn’t even need a bridle.)

Question 77

tranquil

Answer 77

(adj.) calm (There is a time of night when nothing moves and everything is tranquil.)

Question 78

transgress

Answer 78

(v.) to violate, go over a limit (The criminal’s actions transgressed morality and human decency.)

Question 79

transient

Answer 79

(adj.) passing through briefly; passing into and out of existence (Because virtually everyone in Palm Beach is a tourist, the population of the town is quite transient.)

Question 80

transmute

Answer 80

(v.) to change or alter in form (Ancient alchemists believed that it was possible to transmute lead into gold.)

Question 81

travesty

Answer 81

(n.) a grossly inferior imitation (According to the school newspaper’s merciless theater critic, Pacific Coast High’s rendition of the musical Oklahoma was a travesty of the original.)

Question 82

tremulous

Answer 82

(adj.) fearful (I always feel a trifle tremulous when walking through a graveyard.)

Question 83

trenchant

Answer 83

(adj.) effective, articulate, clear-cut (The directions that accompanied my new cell phone were trenchant and easy to follow.)

Question 84

trepidation

Answer 84

(n.) fear, apprehension (Feeling great trepidation, Anya refused to jump into the pool because she thought she saw a shark in it.)

Question 85

trite

Answer 85

(adj.) not original, overused (Keith thought of himself as being very learned, but everyone else thought he was trite because his observations about the world were always the same as David Letterman’s.)

Question 86

truculent

Answer 86

(adj.) ready to fight, cruel (This club doesn’t really attract the dangerous types, so why was that bouncer being so truculent?)

Question 87

truncate

Answer 87

(v.) to shorten by cutting off (After winning the derby, the jockey truncated the long speech he had planned and thanked only his mom and his horse.)

Question 88

turgid

Answer 88

(adj.) swollen, excessively embellished in style or language (The haughty writer did not realize how we all really felt about his turgid prose.)

Question 89

turpitude

Answer 89

(n.) depravity, moral corruption (Sir Marcus’s chivalry often contrasted with the turpitude he exhibited with the ladies at the tavern.)