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GRE Barron's 2 > GRE Barron's 31-32 > Flashcards

GRE Barron's 31-32 Flashcards

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1
Q

missive

A

letter. The ambassador received a missive from the Secretary of State.

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1
Q

mite

A

very small object or creature; small coin. Gnats are annoying mites that sting.

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2
Q

modish

A

fashionable. She always discarded all garments that were no longer modish.

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3
Q

modulate

A

tone down in intensity; regulate; change from one key to another. Always singing at the top of her lungs, the budding Brunhilde never learned to modulate her voice.

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3
Q

mogul

A

powerful person. The oil moguls made great profits when the price of gasoline rose.

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4
Q

mollycoddle

A

pamper; indulge excessively; を過保護に扱う、甘やかす. Don’t mollycoddle the boy, Maud!

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5
Q

molten

A

melted. The city of Pompeii was destroyed by volcanic ash rather than by molten lava flowing from Mount Vesuvius.

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6
Q

momentous

A

very important. When Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium, they had no idea of the momentous impact their discovery would have upon society.

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7
Q

monochromatic

A

having only one color. Most people who are color blind actually can distinguish several colors; some, however, have a truly monochromatic view of a world all in shades of gray.

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8
Q

monotony

A

sameness leading to boredom. What could be more deadly dull than the monotony of punching numbers into a computer hour after hour?

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9
Q

monumental

A

massive. Writing a dictionary is a monumental task.

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10
Q

moodiness

A

fits of depression or gloom. We could not discover the cause of her recurrent moodiness.

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11
Q

morbid

A

given to unwholesome thought; moody; characteristic of disease; 恐ろしい、ぞっとさせる、病的な. People who come to disaster sites just to peer at the grisly wreckage are indulging their morbid curiosity.

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12
Q

mordant

A

biting; sarcastic; stinging. Actors feared the critic’s mordant pen.

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13
Q

mores

A

conventions; moral standards; customs. In America, Benazir Bhutto dressed as Western women did; in Pakistan, however, she followed the mores of her people, dressing in traditional veil and robes.

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14
Q

moribund

A

dying. Hearst took a moribund, failing weekly newspaper and transformed it into one of the liveliest, most profitable daily papers around.

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15
Q

mortify

A

humiliate; punish the flesh. She was so mortified by her blunder that she ran to her room in tears.

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16
Q

mote

A

small speck; 小さなほこり、小さな欠点. The tiniest mote in the eye is very painful.

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17
Q

motility

A

ability to move spontaneously. Certain organisms exhibit remarkable motility; motile spores, for example, may travel for miles before coming to rest.

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18
Q

mottled

A

blotched in coloring; spotted; まだらの、シミだらけの. When old Falstaff blushed, his face became mottled, all pink and purple and red.

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19
Q

mountebank

A

charlatan; boastful pretender. The patent medicine man was a mountebank.

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20
Q

muddle

A

confuse; mix up. Her thoughts were muddled and chaotic.

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21
Q

muggy

A

warm and damp. August in New York City is often muggy.

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22
Q

mulct

A

defraud a person of something; だまし取る. The lawyer was accused of trying to mulct the boy of his legacy.

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23
Q

munificent

A

very generous. Shamelessly fawning over a particularly generous donor, the dean kept referring to her as “our munificent benefactor.”

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24
Q

murky

A

dark and gloomy; thick with fog; vague. The murky depths of the swamp were so dark that you couldn’t tell the vines and branches from the snakes.

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25
Q

muse

A

ponder. For a moment he mused about the beauty of the scene, but his thoughts soon changed as he recalled his own personal problems.

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26
Q

musty

A

stale; spoiled by age. The attic was dark and musty.

27
Q

mutability

A

ability to change in form; fickleness. Going from rags to riches, and then back to rags again, the bankrupt financier was a victim of the mutability of fortune.

28
Q

muted

A

silent; muffled; toned down. Thanks to the thick, sound-absorbing walls of the cathedral, only muted traffic noise reached the worshippers within.

29
Q

mutinous

A

unruly; rebellious. The captain had to use force to quiet his mutinous crew.

29
Q

myopic

A

nearsighted; lacking foresight. Stumbling into doors despite the coke-bottle lenses on his glasses, the nearsighted Mr. Magoo is markedly myopic. In playing all summer long and failing to store up food for winter, the grasshopper in Aesop’s fable was myopic as well.

30
Q

myriad

A

very large number. Myriads of mosquitoes from the swamps invaded our village every twilight.

31
Q

nadir

A

lowest point. Although few people realized it, the Dow-Jones averages had reached their nadir and would soon begin an upward surge.

32
Q

naiveté

A

quality of being unsophisticated; simplicity; artlessness; gullibility. Touched by the naivete of sweet, convent-trained Cosette, Marius pledges himself to protect her innocence.

33
Q

nascent

A

incipient; coming into being; 発生（出現）しようとしている. If we could identify these revolutionary movements in their nascent state, we would be able to eliminate serious trouble in later years.

34
Q

natty

A

neatly or smartly dressed. Priding himself on being a natty dresser, the gangster Bugsy Siegel collected a wardrobe of imported suits and ties.

35
Q

nauseate

A

cause to become sick; fill with disgust. The foul smells began to nauseate her.

36
Q

nebulous

A

vague; hazy; cloudy. Phil and Dave tried to come up with a clear, intelligible business plan, not some hazy, nebulous proposal.

37
Q

nefarious

A

very wicked. The villain’s crimes, though various, were one and all nefarious.

38
Q

nemesis

A

someone seeking revenge. Abandoned at sea in a small boat, the vengeful Captain Bligh vowed to be the nemesis of Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers.

39
Q

nepotism

A

favoritism (to a relative). John left his position with the company because he felt that advancement was based on nepotism rather than ability.

40
Q

nether

A

lower. Tradition locates hell in the nether regions.

41
Q

nettle

A

annoy; vex. Do not let her nettle you with her sarcastic remarks.

42
Q

nib

A

beak; pen point. The nibs of fountain pens often become clotted and corroded.

43
Q

nicety

A

precision; minute distinction. I cannot distinguish between such niceties of reasoning.

44
Q

niggardly

A

meanly stingy; parsimonious; ケチな、乏しい. The niggardly pittance the widow receives from the government cannot keep her from poverty.

45
Q

niggle

A

spend too much time on minor points; carp. Let’s not niggle over details.

46
Q

nip

A

stop something’s growth or development; snip off; bite; make numb with cold. The twins were plotting mischief, but Mother intervened and nipped their plan in the bud. The gardener nipped off a lovely rose and gave it to me.

47
Q

noisome

A

foul-smelling; unwholesome. The noisome atmosphere downwind of the oil refinery not only stank but also damaged the lungs of everyone living in the area.

48
Q

nomenclature

A

terminology; system of names. Sharon found Latin word parts useful in translating medical nomenclature: when her son had to have a bilateral myringotomy, she figured out that he needed a hole in each of his eardrums to end his earaches.

49
Q

nominal

A

in name only; trifling; 名前だけの、ほんのわずかの. He offered to drive her to the airport for only a nominal fee.

50
Q

nonchalance

A

indifference; lack of concern; composure. Cool, calm, and collected under fire, James Bond shows remarkable nonchalance in the face of danger.

51
Q

noncommittal

A

neutral; unpledged; undecided. We were annoyed by his noncommittal reply for we had been led to expect definite assurances of his approval.

52
Q

nondescript

A

undistinctive; ordinary. The private detective was a short, nondescript fellow with no outstanding features, the sort of person one would never notice in a crowd.

53
Q

nonentity

A

person of no importance; nonexistence. Because the two older princes dismissed their youngest brother as a nonentity, they did not realize that he was quietly plotting to seize the throne.

54
Q

novelty

A

something new; newness. The computer is no longer a novelty around the office.

55
Q

noxious

A

harmful. We must trace the source of these noxious gases before they asphyxiate us.

55
Q

oaf

A

stupid, awkward person. “Watch what you’re doing, you clumsy oaf!” Bill shouted at the waiter who had drenched him with iced coffee.

56
Q

obeisance

A

bow. She made an obeisance as the king and queen entered the room.

57
Q

obfuscate

A

confuse; muddle; cause confusion; make needlessly complex. Was the president’s spokesman trying to clarify the Whitewater mystery, or was he trying to obfuscate the issue so the voters would never figure out what went on?

57
Q

obituary

A

death notice. I first learned of her death when I read the obituary in the newspaper.

57
Q

oblique

A

indirect; slanting (deviating from the perpendicular or from a straight line). Casting a quick, oblique glance at the reviewing stand, the sergeant ordered the company to march “Oblique Right.”

58
Q

obliterate

A

destroy completely. The tidal wave obliterated several island villages.

59
Q

oblivion

A

obscurity; forgetfulness. After a decade of popularity, Hurston’s works had fallen into oblivion; no one bothered to read them any more.

60
Q

oblivious

A

inattentive or unmindful; wholly absorbed. Deep in her book, Nancy was oblivious to the noisy squabbles of her brother and his friends.

61
Q

obloquy

A

slander; disgrace; infamy. I resent the obloquy that you are casting upon my reputation.

62
Q

obnoxious

A

offensive. I find your behavior obnoxious; please mend your ways.

GRE Barron's 2 (25 decks)

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