Barron's words list 1

Question 0

diverge

verb

Answer 0

to vary; go in different directions from the same point

A famous line in American poetry is from Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by ….

Divergence is the noun.

Psychological tests show that there is a wide divergence between citizens of different countries in how much importance they place on the virtue of justice, on the one hand, and the virtue of mercy, on the other hand.

Question 1

syllogism

noun

Answer 1

a form of deductive reasoning that has a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion

The following syllogism is often taught in logic courses: “All Xs are Ys, all Ys are Zs; therefore, all Xs are Zs.”

Question 2

juxtapose

verb

Answer 2

place side by side

To illustrate their case, opponents of functionalism juxtapose the products of modern architecture and those of classical architecture, such as the Parthenon, or those of medieval architecture, such as the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.
The noun juxtaposition means a side-by-side placement.

Question 3

sidereal

adjective

Answer 3

relating to the stars

A sidereal year is longer than a solar year by 20 minutes and 23 seconds.

Question 4

finesse

verb

Answer 4

to handle with a deceptive or evasive strategy; to use finesse, that is, refinement in performance

Engineers decided that the problem could be finessed by using lighter materials.

Question 5

deride

verb

Answer 5

to mock

Innovation often requires challenges to orthodox thinking; for example, in the late 1960s, scientists from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency presented their idea of a vast network of computers to leading scientists from IBM and AT&T–companies with innumerable research breakthroughs to their credit–and were derided as impractical visionaries.

Question 6

rubric

noun

Answer 6

title or heading; category; established mode of procedure or conduct; protocol

The data from the experiment was so diverse that the scientist decided to design a new rubric to organize it.

Question 7

Impervious

Answer 7

impossible to penetrate; incapable of being affected.

example: we were amazed how Laura sit at the noisy party studying organic chemistry, impervious to the noise around her

Question 8

fractious

adjective

Answer 8

quarrelsome; unruly; rebellious

In an effort to unify their divided party, its leaders decided to first placate the party’s most fractious elements.

Question 9

Lilliputian

adjective

Answer 9

extremely small
Less important

Microbiologists study Lilliputian organisms.

Question 10

bewildered

adjective

Answer 10

مشوش

The members of the football team were bewildered by the presence of a female reporter in the locker room.

Question 11

codify

verb

Answer 11

to systematize

The state legislature voted to codify regulations governing banking fraud.

Codification is the noun.

The most influential codification of civil law was the Napoleonic Code in France, which became the paradigm for law in the non- English-speaking countries of Europe and had a generally civilizing influence on most of the countries in which it was enacted.

Codified is the adjective.

Common law is the system of laws that originated in England; it is based on court decisions and on customs rather than on codified written laws.

Question 12

junta

noun

Answer 12

group of people united in political intrigue

The country’s ruling junta consists of a general, an admiral, and the mayor of the capital city.

Question 13

raiment

noun

Answer 13

clothing

It took two hours for the princess’ handmaidens to help her put on her splendid raiment for her coronation as queen.

Question 14

treatise

noun

Answer 14

article treating a subject systematically and thoroughly

The thesis of the philosopher’s treatise is that reality is, ultimately, opaque to human understanding.

Question 15

satyr

noun

Answer 15

a creature that is half-man, half-beast with the horns and legs of a goat; it is a follower of Dionysos; a lecher

One of the best-known satyrs is Pan, the god of the woods in Greek mythology.

Question 16

simile

noun

Answer 16

comparison of one thing with another using “like” or “as”

In his autobiographical book Chronicles, Volume 1, Bob Dylan uses two similes in succession to try to convey the experience of writing a song: “A song is like a dream, and you try to make it come true. They’re like strange countries you have to enter.”

Question 17

repine

verb

Answer 17

fret; complain

The president told the congressional representative he should stop repining over the lost opportunity and join the majority in exploring new ones.

Question 18

detraction

noun

Answer 18

the act of taking away; derogatory comment on a person’s character

The writer responded in a letter to the critic’s long list of detractions about his book.

Question 19

miscellany

noun

Answer 19

mixture of writings on various subjects

The book is a fascinating miscellany collected from the writer’s life work.

Question 20

sensuous

adjective

Answer 20

relating to the senses; operating through the senses

The American painter Georgia O’Keeffe is known especially for her sensuous paintings of plants and flowers and for her landscapes.

Question 21

subsume

verb

Answer 21

to include; incorporate

The philosopher described his work as an attempt to arrive at a final generalization that will subsume all previous generalizations about the nature of logic.

Question 22

histrionic

adjective

Answer 22

تمثيلي
مسرحي

Whenever the star of the movie does not get her way on the set, she flies into a histrionic fit.

The noun histrionics means emotional behavior done for effect.

“Cut the histrionics and tell me how you really feel,” the woman said to her angry husband.

Question 23

accrue

verb

Answer 23

to accumulate; grow by additions

Regulating the growth of large companies when they begin to become monopolistic is a difficult task for government in a capitalist country; if it limits monopolies too much, the nation’s firms could become less competitive than foreign companies that enjoy the advantages accruing from greater monopolies.

Question 24

ruse

noun

Answer 24

trick; crafty stratagem; subterfuge

In July, 1999, a group of Christians from the United Kingdom traveled to various countries in which Crusaders had massacred people to apologize; however, many of the Moslems spurned this overture, believing it to be another Crusade in the form of a ruse.

Question 25

talisman

noun

Answer 25

charm to bring good luck and avert misfortune

The soldier’s mother gave him a talisman to protect him from harm during battle.

Question 26

tutelary

adjective

Answer 26

serving as a guardian or protector

Most of the people of ancient Rome believed in the existence of tutelary spirits.

Question 27

riposte

noun

Answer 27

a retaliatory action or retort

The commander decided that the enemy attack must be countered with a quick riposte.

Question 28

megalomania

noun

Answer 28

delusions of power or importance

In his farewell speech the retiring trial judge warned his colleagues to beware of megalomania as they exercise their power in the courtroom.

Question 29

dichotomy

noun

Answer 29

division into two usually contradictory parts

The philosopher is a dualist who argues that there is a dichotomy between the mind and physical phenomena.

Question 30

staccato

adjective

Answer 30

marked by abrupt, clear-cut sounds

We listened to the staccato steps of the woman in high heels running down the street.

Question 31

homily

noun

Answer 31

sermon; tedious moralizing lecture; platitude

The pastor’s homilies have been published in an anthology.

Question 32

timbre

noun

Answer 32

the characteristic quality of sound produced by a particular instrument or voice; tone color

The audience was delighted by the rich timbre of the singer’s soprano.

Question 33

lascivious

adjective

Answer 33

lustful

The court ruled that the movie could be censored because its sole aim was to promote lascivious thoughts.

Question 34

filibuster

noun

Answer 34

use of obstructive tactics in a legislature to block passage of a law
مماطلة
The senator threatened that his filibuster would include a full reading of his eight-volume autobiography.

Question 35

labile

adjective

Answer 35

likely to change

Blood pressure in human beings is, to varying degrees, labile.

Question 36

carnal

adjective

Answer 36

of the flesh or body; related to physical appetites

The yogi’s goal is to achieve nirvana through, among other things, the overcoming of carnal desires.

Question 37

expository

adjective

Answer 37

explanatory

There is no one model of expository prose that a student can emulate, since each piece of good writing is unique.

Question 38

brazen

adjective

Answer 38

bold; shameless

The brazen student irritated his teacher by saying that he could learn more from a day spent “surfing” the World Wide Web than a day spent in school.

Question 39

seismic

adjective

Answer 39

relating to earthquakes; earthshaking

The study of seismic waves enables scientists to learn about the Earth’s structure.

Question 40

ethnocentric

adjective

Answer 40

based on the attitude that one’s group is superior

The words “primitive” and “savage” reflect an ethnocentric bias in Western culture that regards societies that do not have Western science and technology as inferior because they have not achieved as much material success as Western societies.

The noun is ethnocentrism.

During certain periods of Chinese history, foreigners were considered to be “barbarians”; perhaps this ethnocentrism made it difficult for the Chinese to accept innovations from other countries.

Question 41

allay

verb

Answer 41

to lessen; ease; soothe

Improvements in antivirus software have allayed many people’s fears of having their computers “infected” with malicious software.

Question 42

modicum

noun

Answer 42

limited quantity

The scientist Carl Sagan wrote about astronomy and other scientific subjects in a way that enabled a reader with even a modicum of knowledge of science to understand what he was saying.

Question 43

mesmerize

verb

Answer 43

to hypnotize

The audience sat, mesmerized, listening to the retired soldier’s account of hand-to-hand combat against the Japanese in New Guinea during World War II.

Question 45

default

verb

Answer 45

to fail to act

Economists have pointed out the danger of using government money to help banks in danger of defaulting on a loan: such help might encourage banks to take excessive risks on the future, knowing they will be “bailed out” by the government.

Question 46

captious

adjective

Answer 46

faultfinding; intended to entrap, as in an argument

The pedantic and captious critic seems incapable of appreciating the merits of even the most highly regarded books.

Question 47

nugatory

adjective

Answer 47

trifling; invalid

The historian has a knack for focusing on information that appears nugatory but that, upon examination, illuminates the central issue.

Question 48

apropos

adjective

Answer 48

relevant

Apropos of nothing, the speaker declared that the purpose of life is to love.

Question 49

pique

noun
verb

Answer 49

fleeting feeling of hurt pride

Sally left the restaurant in a fit of pique after her date called to say he couldn’t come because he was working late.

As a verb, pique means to provoke or arouse.

The geologist’s curiosity was piqued by the unusual appearance of the rock formation.

Question 49

amulet

noun

Answer 49

ornament worn as a charm against evil spirits

The early Christian Church forbade the use of amulets, which had become common in the Roman Empire at the time the Christian Church began to develop.

Question 50

prudish

Adj

Answer 50

شديد الاحتشام

Question 51

exquisite

Adj

Answer 51

Beautiful

رائع

Question 52

raucous

Adj

Answer 52

صاخب