GRE Cards Deck D Flashcards

Question

discerning | adj

Answer 1

Definition: Having good judgment or insight; able to distinguish mentally Usage: In an age in which we are bombarded with advertising, it’s important to be a discerning consumer. For instance, the term “all natural” is not federally regulated and doesn’t have to mean anything at all, so a smart shopper still reads ingredients. Related Words: Keen, Perceptive, and Perspicacious are all related to having good judgment or perception. Descry means to discover or see by looking carefully.

Answer 2

Definition: Injure the reputation of, destroy credibility of or confidence in Usage: Congresswoman Huffman’s opponent tried to use her friendship with a certain radical extremist to discredit her, even though the Congresswoman hadn’t seen this so-called “extremist” since sixth grade summer camp. Related Words: Slander, Traduce, and Defame all mean “to speak maliciously and falsely of.” Note, however, that slander is always wrong (slanderous statements are, by definition, lies), whereas it is possible (and sometimes for the greater good) to discredit someone by exposing the truth about that person—for instance, a lying political candidate, or a fake “expert” giving damaging advice. More Info: The root “cred” means “belief” and also appears in credit, credible, creed, credo, credulous, incredulous, and accreditation.

Answer 3

Definition: Difference or inconsistency Usage: When there is a discrepancy between a store’s receipts and the amount of money in the register, the cashier’s behavior is generally called into question. Related Words: Incongruity (standing out), Discord or Discordance (harshness or inharmoniousness; disagreement) More Info: Unlike a mere incongruity, which could be as innocent as one guy with a mohawk at an otherwise straight-laced gathering, a discrepancy usually indicates that someone has done something wrong. A discrepancy in your medical records means someone has made a mistake; a discrepancy in your story means you’re lying.

Answer 4

Definition: Judicious, discerning, having good judgment or insight Usage: He is a man of discriminating tastes—all his suits are handmade in Italy, and I once saw him send back an entree when he complained that black truffle oil had been substituted for white. The chef was astounded. / You can tell a real Prada bag by the discriminating mark on the inside. More Info: Many people automatically think of discriminating as bad, because they are thinking of racial discrimination. However, discriminating is simply telling things apart and can be an important skill—it is important to discriminate legitimate colleges from fraudulent diploma mills, for instance.

Answer 5

Definition: Insincere, not genuine Usage: Christine used the fact that her mother spoke limited English as an opportunity to be disingenuous. When her mother asked, “Will there be boys at this sleepover?” she replied “There won’t not be boys there!” Related Words: Dissembling (misleading, concealing the truth, acting hypocritically), Prevaricating (misleading or lying) More Info: Disingenuous appropriately describes misleading behavior that isn’t quite lying, like when you say “Let’s do the dishes!” when you really mean “Why don’t you do the dishes?” The opposite of disingenuous is ingenuous, or genuine.

Answer 6

Definition: Unbiased, impartial; not interested Usage: Let’s settle this argument once and for all! We’ll get a disinterested observer to judge who can sing the highest note! Related Words: Dispassionate (unbiased, not having a selfish or personal motivation), Nonpartisan (impartial, not controlled by a political party) More Info: Disinterested and uninterested have a confusing history. Some insist that disinterested only means “unbiased” and uninterested only means “not interested, apathetic.” However, throughout history, both words have been used to denote both meanings, so you’ll have to be guided by context in interpreting these words.

Answer 7

Definition: Disconnected, not coherent, jerky; having the joints separated Usage: The novel seemed disjointed, as though whole chunks of it were missing, or as though the author had tried to stitch together drafts of several different stories. / To begin the recipe, you’ll need a whole chicken that has been disjointed. More Info: In math, disjointed means having no common elements, as in “The set of all odd numbers and the set of all even numbers are disjointed.”

Answer 8

Definition: Allow to disperse or leave; fire from a job; put aside or reject, especially after only a brief consideration Usage: “Before I dismiss class,” said the teacher, “I want to remind you of the importance of dismissing biases in your research by ruling out or adjusting for factors other than the variable you are testing that may have led to your results.” Related Words: Discount as a verb can mean “disregard, ignore, or downgrade so as to compensate for exaggeration.” More Info: To dismiss an idea is generally to choose to ignore it without having considered it seriously.

Answer 9

Definition: Unbiased, not having a selfish or personal motivation; calm, lacking emotion Usage: The defendant tearfully described how much her young child needed her at home, but the judge, who dispassionately sentenced her to ten years for selling drugs, was unmoved. Related Words: Disinterested (unbiased, impartial; not interested), Nonpartisan (impartial, not controlled by a political party) More Info: Dispassionate could be positive or negative, depending on the context—a judge should be dispassionate, but if someone dispassionately broke up with you, you’d probably think that was pretty cold.

Answer 10

Definition: Speed, promptness; send off or deal with in a speedy way Usage: So, you want to be a bike messenger? I need messengers who approach every delivery with alacrity, care, and dispatch—if the customers wanted their packages to arrive slowly, they’d use the post office. / Acting with all possible dispatch, emergency services dispatched a rescue squad to the scene. Related Words: Expediency (promoting a goal; advantageous, sometimes at the expense of morals or justice) More Info: A dispatch can also be a report from a journalist or something delivered by messenger, or the act of sending a messenger. To dispatch a person can also mean to execute him or her—presumably, in a speedy manner.

Answer 11

Definition: Scatter, spread widely, cause to vanish Usage: Because the demonstrators didn’t have a permit, the police showed up with megaphones, demanding loudly that the crowd disperse. / Get the hose so I can disperse the dirt on our driveway. Related Words: Disseminate (scatter, spread about, broadcast), Diffuse (spread widely, disseminate; dispersed; or wordy and going off-topic) More Info: Use disperse for something that spreads out and disappears (the crowd dispersed and went their separate ways); use disseminate for something that spreads out and remains significant (writers want to disseminate their ideas; disseminating seeds grows new plants).

Answer 12

Definition: A person’s general or natural mood; tendency Usage: She was possessed of a kind and helpful disposition—she wouldn’t just help you move, she’d bring home-baked muffins to the affair. / I could really use some help in the kitchen, if you are so disposed. Related Words: Penchant and Predilection mean “tendency, preference” (a penchant for fast cards, a predilection to get angry easily). More Info: Disposed and disposition are slightly old-fashioned words and occur in old-fashioned expressions: “possessed of a ____ disposition” and “so disposed” (meaning “inclined towards the kind of activities I just mentioned”).

Answer 13

Definition: Disturbing, causing anxiety Usage: Mr. Peters’ lack of emotion at his wife’s death was disquieting—so much so, in fact, that even his own family began to suspect he’d had something to do with it. / He was deeply disquieted by the racism he encountered in his new neighborhood. Related Words: Discomfiting (disconcerting, confusing, frustrating) More Info: Think of disquiet not as the opposite of quiet, but more as an opposite to quiescent, meaning peaceful and calm.

Answer 14

Definition: Scatter, spread about, broadcast Usage: Many plants use attractive fruits to disseminate their seeds—animals eat the fruit and excrete the seeds, allowing new plants to grow. / In the 1760s, revolutionary ideas were disseminated via pamphlets such as Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense.” Related Words: Disperse (scatter, spread widely, cause to vanish), Diffuse (spread widely, disseminate; dispersed; or wordy and going off-topic) More Info: Disseminate contains the Latin root for “seed.” Use disperse for something that spreads out and disappears (the crowd dispersed); use disseminate for something that spreads out and remains significant (writers disseminate ideas; disseminating seeds grows new plants).

Answer 15

Definition: Disagree or take an opposing view, esp. in relation to a formal body such as a government, political party, or church; such a view Usage: Judge Antonin Scalia cast the only dissenting vote, explaining in his written decision why he thought all the other justices had it wrong. / Not every country has a right to free speech (and thus to dissent), although nations that throw dissenters in jail are condemned by the international community at large. Related Words: Gainsay (deny, refute, oppose), Sedition (incitement of dissent against a government; promoting rebellion by speech or writing) More Info: The variant dissidence tends to be a strong, longstanding, determined practice of dissenting.

Answer 16

Definition: Harsh, inharmonious sound; cacophony; disagreement Usage: After allowing her sixth-grader’s heavy metal band to practice in her living room, Mrs. Rosen decided she’d better get used to dissonance. Related Words: Din (loud, confused noise), Clamor (noisy uproar, as from a crowd), Hubbub (loud noise, confusion) More Info: An opposite to dissonance is assonance, primarily a poetry term, meaning sound resemblance or vowel rhyme. Harmony or euphony, meaning “good sound,” are more general antonyms.

Answer 17

Definition: Purify; extract the essential elements of Usage: While traveling in certain countries, it is important to only drink distilled water so you don’t get sick. / Bob, it’s not necessary to read your entire Powerpoint presentation to us—can you just distill it down to the main point? Related Words: Gist and Pith can both be used to mean “essence, main idea,” as in, “This summary really distills the idea down to its pith, allowing me to get the gist without reading the whole book.” More Info: Water is distilled through a process of vaporization and then condensation (when the water evaporates, impurities are left behind).

Answer 18

Definition: Differ, deviate; branch off or turn aside, as from a path Usage: Go five miles until the old post office, then the road diverges—you want the branch that winds off to the left. / The high school sweethearts found that their paths diverged when they were accepted to different colleges. Related Words: Disparate (divergent, different) More Info: The antonym of diverge is converge.

Answer 19

Definition: Deprive or strip of a rank, title, etc., or of clothing or gear; to sell off holdings (opposite of invest) Usage: When she found out that the most profitable stock in her portfolio was that of a company that tested products on animals, she immediately divested by telling her broker to sell the stock. / Once his deception was exposed, he was divested of his position on the Board. Related Words: Arrogate (claim or take presumptuously or without right), Appropriate (as a verb, to set aside or authorize for a particular purpose; take for one’s own use)

Answer 20

Definition: Discover through divination or supernatural means; perceive by insight Usage: I’ve been poring over these quarterly reports all day, trying to divine whether I should buy or sell this stock. Related Words: Ascertain (find out with certainty), Perspicacity (acuteness of perception) More Info: Of course, divine is most commonly an adjective, meanly “of or like a god; heavenly.” I read online reviews of the spa to divine whether it would really be as divine an experience was advertised

Answer 21

Definition: Support with evidence, cite sources in a detailed way, create documentary evidence of Usage: Journalists embedded with military units are able to document a war as it happens. / It’s hard to deny her conclusion when her book is so well documented—she cites a relevant scientific study on practically every page. Related Words: Corroborate, substantiate and verify can all mean to prove true or provide evidence in favor of. More Info: Of course, document can also be a noun (a factual printed item); this card focuses on the less common definition.

Answer 22

Definition: A system of principles laid down by an authority; established belief Usage: It is part of the dogma of modern education that there are multiple intelligences that are equally valuable; try to suggest that some people just aren’t that smart, and you’ll find yourself a pariah. / Dogmatic people will never change their minds, even in the face of evidence. Related Words: Doctrinaire (person who applies doctrine in an impractical or close-minded way) More Info: Dogmatic is always meant in a negative way. However, dogma can be meant in a neutral or positive way as well; when people refer to their church’s dogma, they generally mean that they believe those tenets on the church’s authority.

Answer 23

Definition: Asleep, inactive, on a break Usage: Some famous writers’ skills have lain dormant until quite late in life; Laura Ingalls Wilder didn’t publish Little House on the Prairie until she was 65. Related Words: Abeyance (temporary suspension, inactivity), Hiatus (break or gap in an activity), Deferment or Deferral (postponement) More Info: If you speak Spanish or French, dormant will certainly remind you of the verb dormir, to sleep.

Answer 24

Definition: Doubtful, questionable, suspect Usage: This applicant’s resume is filled with dubious qualifications—this is a marketing position, and this resume is mostly about whitewater rafting. Related Words: Apocryphal (of questionable authenticity, false), Ersatz (artificial, synthetic, serving as a substitute), Faux (fake, imitation, as in “faux fur”), Specious (pleasing to the eye but deceptive) More Info: Dubious is related to the Latin word for “two,” perhaps in the sense of there being two explanations for something—the one presented, and the true one being hidden.

Answer 25

Definition: Speak in an impassioned, pompous, or oratorical manner; give a formal speech Usage: After a drink or two, Gabe will declaim all night about campaign finance reform—you won’t be able get a word in edgewise in between all his grandstanding and “expertise.” Related Words: Grandstand (perform showily as if to impress an audience) More Info: Don’t confuse with disclaim, which simply means “deny, repudiate.”

Answer 26

Definition: Downward slope Usage: Not just any declivity can serve as a wheelchair ramp—I’m pretty sure this thing is too steep to pass regulations. Related Words: Declination (downward slope, deterioration, deviation from the norm, refusal) More Info: The opposite of declivity is acclivity, an upward slope.

Answer 27

Definition: Fix, mark, or define the boundaries of Usage: The role of an executive coach is delimited by our code of conduct—we may not counsel people for psychological conditions, for instance. Related Words: Demarcate (mark the boundaries of, separate) More Info: Delimit is one of those words where the “de” doesn’t seem to be doing much—the definition is pretty close to that of limit.

Answer 28

Definition: A leader who lies and gains power by arousing the passions and especially prejudices of the people Usage: Political demagogues lie and twist the facts, depending more on their natural charisma and ability to determine exactly what their audience wants to hear than any actual understanding or perspicacity. Related Words: A Propagandist or Provocateur influences the public in ways that are probably more emotional than logical. More Info: The Greek root “demos,” for “people,” also appears in democracy, demographics, and demotic (populist, pertaining to the people).

Answer 29

Definition: Show reluctance or object, especially for moral reasons Usage: When asked to name her favorite professor in the department, she demurred—she was pretty sure that, if she said anything, it would come back to haunt her. Related Words: Balk (refuse to proceed or to do something)

Answer 30

Definition: Lacking consistency or order, disconnected, sporadic; going off topic Usage: Lulu said she’d been studying for the GRE for a year, but she had been doing so in only the most desultory way—a few vocab words here and there, then nothing for a month, and practice tests whenever she felt like it, which was rarely. / Don’t mind my daughter—there’s no need to let a toddler’s desultory remarks pull an adult conversation off track. More Info: Desultory comes from the Latin “desultor,” a circus rider who jumps from one horse to another

Answer 31

Definition: Very sheer, fine, translucent Usage: The wedding dress was a confection of diaphanous silk, made of at least ten layers of the thin fabric, each layer of which was so fine you could see through it. Related Words: Gossamer (a fine, filmy cobweb, or a fine, light fabric) More Info: Diaphanous generally describes fabric or the (beautiful, translucent) wings of certain insects.

Answer 32

Definition: Division into two parts or into two contradictory groups Usage: There is a dichotomy in the sciences between theoretical or “pure” sciences such as physics and chemistry, and the life sciences, which often deal more with classifying than with theorizing. Related Words: Binary (consisting of or involving two), Duality (a dual state, existence in two parts, as in “Descartes posited a duality between mind and body”) More Info: Dichotomy comes from the Greek “dicha” (apart) and “tomos” (cutting).

Answer 33

Definition: Formal or authoritative pronouncement; saying or proverb Usage: “A stitch in time saves nine” is an old dictum meaning that it’s easier to solve a problem before it gets too big. / The king’s dictum stated that each feudal lord must provide a certain number of soldiers within three weeks’ time. Related Words: Maxim, Apothegm, and Adage are all words for a proverb, saying, or truism More Info: The root “dict” comes from “dicere” (to say) and also appears in dictator, dictionary, indict (connect to a crime), malediction (curse), benediction (blessing), and many others.

Answer 34

Definition: Lacking confidence, shy Usage: Natasha was so diffident that she never believed her comments could be worth anything in class, even when she knew the answer. Related Words: Timorous (fearful, timid), Self-Effacing (modest, downplaying one’s own presence or accomplishments) More Info: Diffident contains the root “fid,” for “trust,” also appearing in fidelity, fiduciary, and infidel. The connection is that a diffident person may be mistrustful of others, and thus shy.

Answer 35

Definition: Spread widely, disseminate (verb); dispersed, widely spread out, or wordy and going off-topic (adj) Usage: The spy attempted to root out the dissenters at the gala, but he was only able to detect a diffuse sense of discontent all around the room. / It will be very difficult to diffuse the power among the people when transitioning from autocracy to democracy. More Info: A diffuser is a device that spreads air freshener or other scent by being plugged into an outlet. Don’t confuse diffuse with defuse, to calm or put an end to (to “defuse a fight”).

Answer 36

Definition: To become wider or make wider, cause to expand; to speak or write at length, elaborate upon Usage: The doctor gave her eye drops to make her pupils dilate. / These dinners at Professor Hwang’s house usually run rather late—after the meal, he’ll typically dilate on his latest research for at least an hour. Related Words: Expatiate (to expand or elaborate on a topic, to explain in detail) More Info: Dilate is used frequently in medicine—being a certain number of centimeters dilated is an important part of childbirth.

Answer 37

Definition: Slow, late; procrastinating or stalling for time Usage: Jack was supposed to start his presentation ten minutes ago and he isn’t even here? I’m not surprised—he’s a dilatory fellow. Related Words: Tardy (late), Temporize (stall for time)

Answer 38

Definition: Person who takes up an art or activity for amusement only or in a superficial way Usage: The “arts center” in the rich neighborhood was populated by dilettantes—a sculpture here, a bit of music appreciation there, two weeks of painting class until they got bored and quit. Related Words: Dabbler is a synonym, although somewhat less negative (like hobbyist). As in, “Are you a poet?” “I wouldn’t call myself a poet—I just dabble in poetry.” More Info: Dilettante comes from the Latin “delectare,” meaning “to delight” and also found in delectable and delicious.

Answer 39

Definition: A funeral or mourning song or poem Usage: It was supposed to be a wedding march, but when the organist started playing, the reluctant bride thought the song sounded more like a dirge for her former, carefree life. Related Words: Lament (express sorrow, mourn), Requiem (musical service or hymn for the dead), Threnody (poem or song of mourning), Elegy (song or poem of sorrow, esp. for a deceased person) More Info: Dirge is simply a version of the first word (“Direct, O Lord, my God...”) from a Latin prayer cycle said in the Roman Catholic Church for a deceased person.

Answer 40

Definition: Disconcerting, confusing, frustrating Usage: His fiancee’s family said they were comfortable with the fact that he was of a different religion, but he found their constant probing about his beliefs quite discomfiting./ He hates telemarketers so much that he likes to discomfit them by asking them personal questions and suggesting he call them at their homes instead. Related Words: Abash (destroy the confidence of, make ashamed, disconcert), Disquiet (disturb or cause anxiety to, as in “The anonymous phone message disquieted him.”) More Info: Discomfit originally meant “defeat in battle” but today is closer to disconcert—possibly, over the years, people confused discomfit and discomfort, causing the shift in meaning.

Answer 41

Definition: Harsh or inharmonious in sound; disagreeing, incongruous Usage: In a graduation ceremony full of hopeful and congratulatory speeches, the salutatorian’s address about the terrible economy struck a discordant note. Related Words: Dissonance (harsh, inharmonious sound; cacophony; disagreement) More Info: The opposite of discord is accord. Just as discord can be either about sound or ideas, accord can mean agreement or harmony, as in the sound of a (well-played) accordion.

Answer 42

Definition: Separate, distinct, detached, existing as individual parts Usage: Be sure to use quotation marks and citations as appropriate in your paper in order to keep your ideas discrete from those of the experts you are quoting. / The advertising agency pitched us not on one campaign, but on three discrete ideas. More Info: Don’t confuse discrete with discreet, which means “secretive, undercover.”

Answer 43

Definition: Belittle, put down; bring shame upon, discredit Usage: An Ad Hominem attack is a logical fallacy in which the arguer disparages his opponent rather than addressing the opponent’s ideas. / Your shoplifting arrest has disparaged this family! Related Words: Denigrate (belittle, attack the reputation of) More Info: The root “par” means “equal” and appears in peer and parity, meaning “equivalence or equality,” as well as disparate, meaning “distinct, different.”

Answer 44

Definition: Distinct, different Usage: He chose the college for two disparate reasons: the strength of the computer science program, and the excellence of the hip-hop dance squad. Related Words: Divergent (different, deviating), Incommensurable (not comparable, totally disproportionate) More Info: The root “par” means “equal” and appears in peer and parity, meaning “equivalence or equality,” as well as disparage, meaning “belittle.”

Answer 45

Definition: Mislead, conceal the truth, put on a false appearance of Usage: Roxanne was used to dissembling in job interviews; when asked about the gap on her resume from 1999–2003, she would say, “Oh, I was out of the workforce fulfilling some obligations”—a somewhat misleading way to describe a prison stint. / He won so much money at pool halls by dissembling inexperience, pretending at first that he had no idea how to even hold a pool cue; once bets were placed, he handily defeated his opponents. Related Words: Disingenuous (not genuine), Prevaricating (misleading or lying)

Answer 46

Definition: Dissolving, the state of having been dissolved; breaking bonds or breaking up of a group of people; death, disintegration; sinking into extreme hedonism, vice, and degradation Usage: Raoul went from garden-variety hedonism to utter dissolution—his three-day drug benders cost him his job and may land him in jail. / Following the dissolution of the corporation and the liquidation of our assets, each investor will receive a cash payment proportional to his or her shareholding in the company. Related Words: Licentiousness (excessive freedom, extreme hedonism), Profligacy (reckless extravagance, shameless behavior

Answer 47

Definition: Female, esp. relating to the maternal side of the family; women or women’s work; a staff that holds wool or flax for spinning Usage: In completing your medical history, please try to remember which illnesses occurred on the distaff side of your family. / Medical studies using all male study groups may produce results that cannot be replicated in distaff subjects. More Info: If using a word related to spinning wool to mean “women” seems offensive, some would agree, although the word is generally not offensive when discussing science and medicine; the NY Times has recently referred to “distaff subjects” in a medical study.

Answer 48

Definition: Swell, expand, stretch, bloat Usage: The emergency room doctor constantly saw people who came in with distended bellies, sure that they had appendicitis; usually, it was just gas. Related Words: Balloon (swell or puff out), Turgid or Tumid (swollen, inflated; or, metaphorically “inflated,” such as in overblown, pompous speech)

Answer 49

Definition: Act indecisively (verb); a state of fear or trembling excitement Usage: “Stop dithering,” said the mother to her daughter. “Pick which sweater you want so I can pay for it and we can get out of here.” / The haunted house brought the children to a dither from which it was difficult for their parents to calm them down. Related Words: Vacillate and Equivocate also mean “act irresolutely,” or in common parlance, “flip-flop” in making a decision. More Info: Dither may be related to dodder, meaning to shake or tremble, usually used in the sense of “a doddering old man.”

Answer 50

Definition: Occurring every day; happening in the daytime (rather than at night) Usage: While many Americans rarely have a sit-down family meal, in many other cultures, dining as a family is a diurnal affair. / Wall Street is a diurnal neighborhood—hectic in the day, but quiet once people pile on the rush hour trains to go home. Related Words: Quotidian (daily; everyday, ordinary)

Answer 51

Definition: Person who applies doctrine in an impractical or rigid and close-minded way (noun); merely theoretical, impractical, or fanatical about other people accepting one’s ideas (adj) Usage: The old science professor was so doctrinaire that he refused to even consider any evidence that flew in the face of his own research, and thereby failed to recognize when his graduate students made an exciting new discovery. / Don’t be a doctrinaire—try actually considering the views of those you disagree with! Related Words: Dogmatic (close-minded, expressing one’s own opinions as though they were facts) More Info: Doctrinaire is based on the word doctrine, meaning “official beliefs.” While doctrine can be good or bad, doctrinaire is always bad and denotes someone who has taken belief in a doctrine much too far.

Answer 52

Definition: Take off (such as clothes), put aside; remove one’s hat as a gesture Usage: Before the spring break revelers could consider doffing their clothes, they saw the sign: “No skinny dipping.” / In my grandfather’s day, it was considered polite to doff your hat when a lady entered the room; to us today, lifting your hat a few inches off your head and then putting it right back seems to some like a silly way to show respect. More Info: The opposite of doff is don, to put on. Interestingly, don came into being as a contraction of “do on.”

Answer 53

Definition: Join or fit together Usage: When the neuroscientist married an exercise physiologist, neither thought they’d end up working together, but when Dr. Marion Ansel received a grant to study how exercise improves brain function and Dr. Jim Ansel was assigned to her team, the two found that their careers dovetailed nicely. Related Words: Converge (move towards one another or towards a point; unite) More Info: In carpentry, a “dovetail joint” fits together in a precise way and resembles the shape of a dove’s tail.

Answer 54

Definition: Funny in an odd way Usage: The play was a droll production—not laugh-out-loud hilarious, but funny especially because it was so strange. Who’s ever seen a fairy be mistaken for a block of cheese? Related Words: Waggish (merry, roguish), Risible (laughable, related to laughing), Jocular, Jocund, or Jocose (jesting, jolly) More Info: Droll comes from a Middle Dutch word for imp, a mischievous demon.

Answer 55

Definition: Person who is easily fooled or used (noun); to fool or exploit (verb) Usage: The dashing rogue used flattery and lies to dupe several old ladies out of their money. “I feel like a total dupe,” said Hazel Rosenbaum, 87. “I thought he and I were going to get married, but he really just wanted my Social Security checks.” Related Words: Hoodwink, Bilk, Swindle, Con, and Fleece are all verbs for cheating others. Fleece is perhaps more severe, having the connotation of taking everything from the victim, the way one sheers all of the fleece from a sheep. More Info: Dupe comes from Old French duppe, a bird known for being very stupid. Dupe can also be a short version of “duplicate,” although this meaning is somewhat informal and less likely on the GRE.

Answer 56

Definition: Deceit, double-dealing, acting in two different ways for the purpose of deception Usage: The campaign worker’s duplicity finally came to light when it was discovered that, despite rising to a trusted position within the local Workers Party, he was actually a registered National Party member and was feeding information back to his cronies. Related Words: Dissembling (misleading, concealing the truth, acting hypocritically), Prevaricating (misleading or lying), Disingenuous (not genuine) More Info: Duplicity was a 2009 film starring Julia Roberts. It was about spies.

Answer 57

Definition: Grumpy, pessimistic, irritable; suffering from dyspepsia (indigestion) Usage: The dyspeptic professor was so angered by a question from a student who hadn’t done the homework that he actually stomped out of class. Related Words: Curmudgeon (bad-tempered, difficult person), Crotchety (grouchy, picky, given to odd notions), Cantankerous (disagreeable, contentious), Crank (an unbalanced person who is fanatical about a private, generally petty cause) More Info: Dyspeptic describes a physical condition but is often used metaphorically; indigestion does tend to make a person feel irritable. Similarly, myopia describes the physical condition of nearsightedness, but is often used metaphorically to mean “given to unwisely short-term thinking.”