Barron's words List 2 Flashcards
vivisection
noun
dissection, surgery, or painful experiments performed on a living animal for the purpose of scientific research
The book Animal Rights by the philosopher Tom Regan contains a long discussion of vivisection.
petulant
adjective
rude; peevish
The boy’s father worried that his disobedient and petulant child would grow up to be a bitter and annoying man.
visage
noun
countenance; appearance; aspect
The infant studied its mother’s visage intently.
vogue
noun
prevailing fashion or practice
Although protectionist policies are not in vogue today, great capitalist democracies, such as Great Britain and the United States, flourished for long periods of their histories under protectionist trade policies that were nearly mercantilist–policies that imposed high tariffs on many foreign goods to promote domestic production.
itinerant
adjective
wandering from place to place; unsettled
According to state law, companies hiring itinerant workers must provide adequate housing for them.
profound
adjective
deep; not superficial
There is an adage in philosophy that everyone is born either a Platonist or an *Aristotelian, meaning that everyone has a predisposition to believing either that reality is completely “here and now,” or that there exists a more profound, hidden reality.
The noun profundity means the quality of being profound.
tenet
noun
belief; doctrine
In his novel Walden II, the psychologist B. F. Skinner depicts a brave new world based on the tenets of a behavioral psychology that frees human beings from the inhibitions and preconceptions of traditional society.
cornucopia
noun
horn overflowing with fruit and grain; state of abundance
The U.S. economy has produced a cornucopia of employment opportunities.
stricture
noun
something that restrains; negative criticism
As professionals, lawyers are expected to abide by a set of ethical strictures in their practice of the law.
primordial
adjective
original; existing from the beginning
Scholars are divided as to whether polytheism represents a degeneration from a primordial monotheism, or was a precursor to a more sophisticated view, monotheism.
complement
noun
something that completes or makes up a whole
Some people envision chess developing into a game played at the highest levels between teams of humans and computers, each complementing the other and providing investigators with insight into the cognitive processes of each.
qualm
noun
sudden feeling of faintness or nausea; uneasy feeling about the rightness of actions
The judge had no qualms about sentencing the thief to five years imprisonment.
dearth
noun
scarcity
In his book The Affluent Society, published in 1958, the economist J. K. Galbraith pointed out that in America affluence is located disproportionately in the private sector, leaving a dearth of resources available for the public sector.
raconteur
noun
witty, skillful storyteller
Former president Bill Clinton is known as an accomplished raconteur who can entertain guests with amusing anecdotes about politics all evening.
behemoth
noun
huge creature; anything very large and powerful
In the 1980s and 1990s, the trend in American business was toward increased privatization of government industries (such as power generation), partly because it was believed that private industry is more efficient and partly because foreign private companies were becoming commercial behemoths, outstripping government- owned companies in competitiveness.
deterrent
noun
something that discourages or hinders
During the Cold War, the United States maintained a large number of nuclear weapons as a deterrent to aggression by the Soviet Union and its allies.
concoct
verb
to invent
The various human cultures have concocted a great many explanations to describe the beginning of the Earth, life, and humanity.
stultify
verb
to impair or reduce to uselessness
The professor of education believes that over reliance on rote learning stultifies students’ creativity.
fissure
noun
crevice
Geologists measure the width of the fissure regularly to monitor movement of the Earth’s plates in the area.
converge
verb
to approach; come together; tend to meet
Although the People’s Republic of China and India are rivals in many ways, in certain areas their interests converge.
incarnate
adjective
having bodily form
pellucid
adjective
transparent; translucent; easily understood
Two writers often mentioned as having an admirably pellucid style are Bertrand Russell and George Orwell.
servile
adjective
submissive; obedient
None of the dictator’s servile citizens dared question his decree.
olfactory
adjective
concerning the sense of smell
Wine connoisseurs say that the olfactory senses play as important a part in appreciating good wine as the sense of taste.
torque
noun
a turning or twisting force; the moment of a force; the measure of a force’s tendency to produce twisting or turning and rotation around an axis
Internal combustion engines produce useful torque over a rather circumscribed range of rotational speeds (normally from about 1,000 rpm to 6,000 rpm.)
daunt
verb
to discourage; intimidate; dishearten
Do not let the difficulty of learning the 800 words in Essential Words for the GRE daunt you.
Daunting is an adjective that means discouraging or disheartening.
Earning a Ph.D. is a daunting task, but it can be done.
The adjective dauntless means fearless.
execrable
adjective
detestable; abhorrent
When folk artists such as Bob Dylan began to use rock instruments, many folk music traditionalists considered it an execrable travesty.
equable
adjective
steady; unvarying; serene
Throughout the crisis the president remained equable.
Do not confuse equable with equitable, which means fair, or just, or impartial.
Much of modern economic history can be seen as a dialectic between advocates of laissez-faire policies, who want to leave the market free to create wealth untrammeled by restrictions (believing it will “trickle down” to all members of the society), and exponents of redistribution of wealth, who want to ensure that the fruits of capitalism are shared equitably.
harrowing
adjective
extremely distressing; terrifying
The journey “inward” to explore the unconscious mind has been described as more harrowing than the most dangerous voyage to explore the Earth.
copious
adjective
abundant; plentiful
The copious rainfall was welcomed by farmers in the parched land.
idolatry
noun
idol worship; blind or excessive devotion
During the Protestant Reformation images in churches were felt to be a form of idolatry and were banned and destroyed.
ineluctable
adjective
not to be avoided or escaped; inevitable
No one can escape the ineluctable truth that every creature that is born will one day die.
subversive
adjective
intended to undermine or overthrow, especially an established government
The verb is also subvert.
Anything that subverts the market mechanism is believed to cause anomalies in prices, making the economy less efficient.
Subversive is also a noun meaning a person intending to undermine something.
imbroglio
noun
complicated situation; an entanglement
The plot of many of Somerset Maugham’s stories consists of an unraveling of an imbroglio in which the main character finds himself.
sylvan
adjective
related to the woods or forest
The house’s sylvan setting provides the family with beauty and tranquility.
travesty
noun
parody; exaggerated imitation; caricature
The playwright complained that the musical comedy version of his play was a travesty of his work.
convex
adjective
curved outward
The term for a lens with one convex and one concave side is “convex-concave.”
malign
verb
to speak evil of
Lawyers are sometimes maligned as greedy and dishonest.
savor
verb
to enjoy; have a distinctive flavor or smell
The coach gave his team a day off practice to savor their big victory.
chasten
verb
to correct by punishment or reproof; to restrain or subdue
The child’s behavior improved after she had been chastened by punishment.
factotum
noun
a person who does all sorts of work; a handyman
In Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, the character Malvolio aspires to become more than merely a factotum in the house of Lady Olivia.
kudos
noun
fame; glory; honor
Kudos won by Bob Dylan include an honorary doctorate in music from Princeton University.
atavism
noun
In biology, the reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence; individual or a part that exhibits atavism; return of a trait after a period of absence
Some modern political theorists reject nationalism as a tribal atavism.
substantive
adjective
essential; pertaining to the substance
The judge cautioned the attorney to present only information that was substantive to the case at hand.
errant
adjective
mistaken; straying from the proper course
The pitcher’s errant fastball struck the batter on the shoulder.
minatory
adjective
threatening; menacing
Intelligence information suggests minatory troop concentrations on the border.
obsequy
noun
funeral ceremony (often used in the plural, obsequies)
Solemn obsequies were held for President John F. Kennedy following his assassination on November 22, 1963.
banter
noun
playful conversation
The governor engaged in some banter with reporters before getting to the serious business of the news conference.
precept
noun
principle; law
A good precept to follow in writing is to avoid redundancies such as “track record” (unless the record was set on a racecourse), “revert back,” “free gift,” and “general consensus.”
appellation
noun
name
The discovery of the bones of a person with the appellation Kennewick Man in the state of Washington in 1996 has raised important questions about who the earliest people to populate America were.
