Barron's Essential Words for the GRE - Sheet2

Question 1

Bucolic

Answer 1

characteristics of the countryside; rustic; pastoral

Question 2

Burgeon

Answer 2

to fourish

Question 3

Burnish

Answer 3

to polish

Question 4

Buttress

Answer 4

to reinforce; support

Question 5

Cacophonous

Answer 5

unpleasant or harsh-sounding

Question 6

Cadge

Answer 6

to beg; sponge

Question 7

Callous

Answer 7

think-skinned; insensitive

Question 8

Calumny

Answer 8

false and malicious accusation; slander

Question 9

Canard

Answer 9

false, deliberately misleading story

Question 10

Canon

Answer 10

an established principle; a basis or standard for judgment; a group of literary works

Question 11

Cant

Answer 11

insincere talk; language of a particular group

Question 12

Cantankerous

Answer 12

irritable; ill-humored

Question 13

Capricious

Answer 13

fickle

Question 14

Captious

Answer 14

fault finding; intended to entrap, as in argument

Question 15

Cardinal

Answer 15

of foremost importance

Question 16

Carnal

Answer 16

of the flesh or body; related to physical appetites

Question 17

Carping

Answer 17

to find fault; complain

Question 18

Cartography

Answer 18

science of making maps

Question 19

Caste

Answer 19

any of the hereditary social classes of Hindu society; social stratification

Question 20

Castigation

Answer 20

punishment; chastisement; criticism

Question 21

Cataclysm

Answer 21

a violent upheaval that causes great destruction and change

Question 22

Catalyst

Answer 22

something causing change

Question 23

Categorical

Answer 23

absolute; without exception

Question 24

Caucus

Answer 24

smaller group within an organization

Question 25

Causal

Answer 25

involving a cause

Question 26

Caustic

Answer 26

sarcastically biting; burning

Question 27

Celestial

Answer 27

concerning the sky or heavens; sublime

Question 28

Centrifugal

Answer 28

moving away from a center

Question 29

Centripetal

Answer 29

moving or directed toward a center

Question 30

Champion

Answer 30

to defend or support

Question 31

Chasten

Answer 31

to correct by punishment or reproof; to restrain or subdue

Question 32

Chicanery

Answer 32

trickery; fraud

Question 33

Chivalry

Answer 33

the qualities idealized by knighthood such as bravery and gallantry toward women

Question 34

Churlish

Answer 34

rude; boorish

Question 35

Circuitous

Answer 35

roundabout

Question 36

Clairvoyant

Answer 36

one who can predict the future; psychic

Question 37

Clamor

Answer 37

noisy outcry

Question 38

Clique

Answer 38

small, exclusive group

Question 39

Cloister

Answer 39

to confine; seclude

Question 40

Coagulate

Answer 40

thicken; congeal

Question 41

Coalesce

Answer 41

to cause to become one

Question 42

Coda

Answer 42

concluding part of a literary or musical composition; something that summarizes or concludes

Question 43

Codify

Answer 43

to systemize

Question 44

Cognizant

Answer 44

informed; conscious; aware

Question 45

Collage

Answer 45

artistic composition of materials pasted over a surface; an assemblage of diverse elements

Question 46

Commensurate

Answer 46

proportional

Question 47

Compendium

Answer 47

brief, comprehensive summary

Question 48

Complacent

Answer 48

self-satisfied

Question 49

Complaisant

Answer 49

overly pollite; willing to please; obliging

Question 50

Complement

Answer 50

something that completes or make up a whole

Question 51

Compliant

Answer 51

yielding

Question 52

Compunction

Answer 52

uneasiness caused by guilt

Question 53

Concave

Answer 53

curving inward

Question 54

Conciliatory

Answer 54

overcoming distrust or hostility

Question 55

Concoct

Answer 55

to invent

Question 56

Concomitant

Answer 56

existing concurrently

Question 57

Condone

Answer 57

to overlook voluntarily; forgive

Question 58

Confound

Answer 58

to baffle; perplex; mix up

Question 59

Congenial

Answer 59

similar in taste and habits; friendly; suited to

Question 60

Conjugal

Answer 60

pertaining to marriage agreement

Question 61

Connoisseur

Answer 61

a person possessing expert knowledge or training; a person of informed and discriminating taste

Question 62

Conscript

Answer 62

person compulsorily enrolled for military services

Question 63

Consecrate

Answer 63

to declare sacred

Question 64

Contend

Answer 64

to assert

Question 65

Contentious

Answer 65

quarrelsome; causing quarrels

Question 66

Contiguous

Answer 66

touching; neighboring; connecting without a break

Question 67

Continence

Answer 67

self-control; abstention from sexual activity

Question 68

Contrite

Answer 68

very sorrowful for a wrong

Question 69

Contumacious

Answer 69

disobedient; rebellious

Question 70

Conundrum

Answer 70

riddle; puzzle with no solution

Question 71

Convention

Answer 71

practice widely observed in a group; custom; accepted technique or device

Question 72

Converge

Answer 72

to approach; come together; tend to meet

Question 73

Convex

Answer 73

curved outward

Question 74

Convivial

Answer 74

sociable

Question 75

Convoluted

Answer 75

twisted; complicated

Question 76

Copious

Answer 76

abundant; plentiful

Question 77

Coquette

Answer 77

woman who flirts

Question 78

Cornucopia

Answer 78

horn overflowing with fruit and grain; state of abundance

Question 79

Cosmology

Answer 79

study of the universe as a totality; theory of the origin and structure of the universe

Question 80

Covert

Answer 80

hidden; secret

Question 81

Covetous

Answer 81

desiring something owned by another

Question 82

Cozen

Answer 82

to mislead by trick or fraud; deceive

Question 83

Crave

Answer 83

cowardly

Question 84

Credence

Answer 84

acceptance of something as true

Question 85

Credo

Answer 85

statement of belief or principle; creed

Question 86

Daunt

Answer 86

to discourage; intimidate; dishearten

Question 87

Dearth

Answer 87

scarcity

Question 88

Debauchery

Answer 88

corruption

Question 89

Decorum

Answer 89

proper behavior

Question 90

Defame

Answer 90

to malign; harm someone's reputation

Question 91

Default

Answer 91

to fail to act

Question 92

Deference

Answer 92

respect; regard for another's wish

Question 93

Defunct

Answer 93

no longer existing

Question 94

Delineate

Answer 94

to represent or depict

Question 95

Demographic

Answer 95

related to population balance

Question 96

Demotic

Answer 96

pertaining to people

Question 97

Demur

Answer 97

to express doubt

Question 98

Denigrate

Answer 98

to slur someone's reputation

Question 99

Denizen

Answer 99

an inhabitant; a regular visitor

Question 100

Denouement

Answer 100

outcome; unraveling of the plot of a play or work of literature