GRE Cards Deck E Flashcards
e.g.
abbreviation for Latin “exempli gratia”
Definition: For example, such as
Usage: He was positively traumatized by the romantic comedies his girlfriend made him watch (e.g., He’s Just Not That Into You).
Related Words: i.e. is an abbrevation of Latin “id est,” or “that is” and means “that is to say, in other words,” as in “He finally nailed the lutz—i.e., a toepick-assisted figure skating jump with an entrance from the back outside edge.”
More Info: Use e.g. to introduce examples and i.e. to add a definition or clarification.
eccentric
adj
Definition: Peculiar, odd, deviating from the norm esp. in a whimsical way
Usage: Wearing double coat in summer is eccentric.
Related Words: Idiosyncrasy (a peculiarity specific to a particular person)
More Info: Some have observed that only the rich are called eccentric; regular people are just weird.
eclectic
adj
Definition: Selecting the best of everything or from many diverse sources
Usage: Restaurant having menu from diverse country is eclectic.
Related Words: Heterogeneous means “made up of diverse elements.” Hodgepodge, Medley, Farrago, Potpourri, Pastiche and Olio are all words for mixtures of diverse things.
More Info: The original Eclectics were Greek philosophers who chose what they thought were the best of other philosophers’ doctrines.
eclipse
noun, verb
Definition: The obscuring of one thing by another, such as the sun by the moon or a person by a more famous or talented person (noun); to obscure, darken, make less important (verb)
Usage: During a solar eclipse, the moon eclipses the Sun. / Abhishek Bachaan fame is eclipsed by his dad
Amitabh bachhan.
Related Words: Occult can mean “supernatural, mysterious, arcane,” but as a verb, can also mean “to hide from view or become hidden,” as in “The Pleiades, existing in deep sky, can be occulted by the moon when everything lines up just right” or “Other former members of NSYNC have felt their careers occulted (or eclipsed) by the stunning success of Justin Timberlake.”
efficacy
noun
Definition: The quality of being able to produce the intended effect
Usage: Runing series of test to measure efficacy of drugs.
More Info: Don’t confuse efficacy with efficiency. Something efficacious gets the job done; something efficient gets the job done without wasting time or effort. Efficacity is a variant on efficacy and is identical in meaning.
egalitarian
adj
Definition: Related to belief in the equality of all people, esp. in political, economic, or social spheres
Usage: Egalitarian marriage where husband and wife have equal rights.
More Info: Egalitarian, of course, contains a root for “equal,” but comes into English through French, which explains the spelling (égal is French for “equal”).
egregious
adj
Definition: Extraordinarily or conspicuously bad; glaring
Usage: Egregious conduct.
Related Words: Flagrant (shamelessly bad or offensive, obvious, notorious)
More Info: Egregious shares a root with gregarious (sociable)—“greg” comes from a word for “herd, flock.” Think of egregious in the sense of standing out from the herd (in a bad way).
elated
adj
Definition: Very happy, in high spirits
Usage: I am elated you came for my marriage from US.
Related Words: Ebullient (very enthusiastic, lively, excited), Blithe (joyous, merry; excessively carefree), Exultant (joyful, celebratory)
elevate
verb
Definition: Raise, lift up; lift the spirits of; move up to a higher rank or status or raise up to a higher spiritual or intellectual plane
Usage: Mr Modi elevated himself from CM to PM / Our goal is not just to sell books but elevate our readers.
Related Words: Lofty (in a high position, esp. in character, spirit, or rank), Edify (uplift, enlighten, instruct or improve in a spiritual or moral way)
More Info: Elevate shares the root “lev” (coming from a word meaning “to raise” or “light in weight”) with levitate, lever, and levity, meaning “lightness of personality or behavior, lack of seriousness.”
elicit
verb
Definition: Call forth, bring out, evoke
Usage: Were you able to elicit the idea in the meeting - using web services to move data from TPF to Linux.
Related Words: Educe means “bring out, esp. something that has been dormant,” as in “The speech therapist finally educed (or elicited) a complete sentence from a boy who had been previously labeled ‘non-verbal.’”
More Info: Don’t confuse with illicit, which is an adjective meaning “illegal.”
eloquent
adj
Definition: Marked by forceful, fluid, apt speech; expressive, emotionally moving, powerfull
Usage: Wow, he’s such an eloquent speaker, he could sell snow to Antarcticans! / When Mom suggested that everyone might enjoy a museum instead of the beach, she was met with the children’s eloquent looks of disgust.
Related Words: Rhetorical and oratorical are words related to the art of public speaking. While a lawyer needs good rhetorical skills, sometimes rhetorical and oratorical mean only related to style and effect, and lacking substance. Eloquent, however, is always positive—even in the latter sentence above, the eloquent looks of disgust are very effective in expressing the children’s feelings.
More Info: The root “loq” means “speech” and also appears in loquacious (talkative) and interlocutor (participant in a dialogue; interrogator).
embellish
verb
Definition: Decorate, add ornamentation; enhance (a story) with fictional or fanciful details
Usage: Christmas tree was embellished with jingle bells, gifts, chocolates.
Related Words: Bedeck means “adorn or deck out,” as in “The church was bedecked with flowers for the wedding.” This is essentially the same word as in the Christmas carol “Deck the Halls.”
More Info: Embellish contains a root for beauty, “bell,” as in “belle of the ball.” (This can be a quite confusing root, though, as “bell” can also mean “war,” as in belligerent, bellicose, rebellion. In Latin, “bellus” meant “dress up” and “bellum” meant war).
eminent
adj
Definition: Prominent, distinguished, of high rank
Usage: Amitabh Bacchan is an eminent personality.
Related Words: Venerable (worthy of deep respect, hallowed, dignified)
More Info: Eminent domain is the law allowing the government to appropriate private property, such as forcing people to move so a new highway can be built. And, while supposedly Marshall Mathers selected the pseudonym “Eminem” based on his initials (M&M), we like to think he was aware of the name’s strong resemblance to eminent.
empirical
adj
Definition: Coming from, based on, or able to be verified by experience or experimentation; not purely based on theory
Usage: People always knew empirically that when something is dropped, it falls to the ground; the theory of gravity later explained why.
More Info: In Ancient Greece, practitioners of medicine who relied on experience rather than theory were of the Empiric School; in contrast, the Dogmatic school followed the teachings of Hippocrates above all. In philosophy, a priori knowledge is that which can be deduced from logic alone, and a posteriori knowledge is empirical.
emulate
verb
Definition: Copy in an attempt to equal or be better than
Usage: In Don 2, Sharukh tried to emulate character of Amitabh Bachhan.
More Info: Imitate merely means to copy; emulate means to copy in a positive, admiring way. A word for “copy” that has a somewhat negative connotation is ape (based on the idea of a large primate trying to copy humans), as in “While he tried to ape Hemingway’s style, the truth is, he simply wasn’t a very good writer.”
enervate
verb
Definition: Weaken, tire
Usage: After giving GMAT in morning, I was enervated.
Related Words: Sap (weaken, undermine, destroy in an underhanded way), Enfeeble (weaken, make feeble)
More Info: The “e” in enervate is a variant of the prefix “ex” and means “out,” while “nerv” means “nerve, sinew.” Today, the word doesn’t exactly mean “remove the nerves from,” although that certainly does sound like something that would weaken a person.
enhance
verb
Definition: Raise to a higher value, desirability, etc.
Usage: Girls use Olay cream to enhance their looks.
Related Words: Embellish (decorate, add ornamentation), Aggrandize (make greater; exaggerate)
More Info: Enhance may come from the Old French “enhaucer,” meaning “to raise” and sharing an origin with haughty, or arrogant.
enigma
noun
Definition: Puzzle, mystery, riddle; mysterious or contradictory person
Usage: Where flight MH370 went is still an enigma.
Related Words: Paradox (contradiction, or seeming contradiction that is actually true), Conundrum (a riddle, the answer to which involves a play on words; any mystery)
More Info: Enigma comes from a Greek word for speaking in riddles, which itself comes from a word for “fable.”
entitlement
noun
Definition: Having the right to certain privileges; believing, sometimes without cause, that one deserves or has a right to certain privileges
Usage: IT Professional are entitled to 30 days leave in a year.
More Info: Entitlement originally referred to investing a person with a title, as in “Charles Lennox was entitled Duke of Richmond in 1675.” An entitlement can also mean a government benefit, as in “Social Security payments and other entitlements.”
enumerate
verb
Definition: Count or list; specify one-by-one
Usage: Enumerate the stuffs we want to buy from the grocery store.
Related Words: Reckon means “count” or “consider or regard as,” as in “The math teacher is reckoned the only person in the school who can reckon the number of primes under 500 in less than one minute.”
More Info: Enumerable means “countable,” not to be confused with innumerable, which means “numerous, a lot.”
ephemeral
adj
Definition: Lasting only a short time, fleeting
Usage: Fame in world of rock and pop is ephemeral.
Related Words: Evanescent and Fugacious are synonyms. Transient can mean “lasting only a short time, temporary” or “staying only a short time,” or can be a noun referring to homeless people, temporary workers, or others who move often.
More Info: Ephemeral comes from a Greek word for “day.” It originally meant—and sometimes still means—lasting only one day.
equitable
(adj)
Also equity (noun)
Definition: Fair, equal, just
Usage: In todays world woman possess equitable right as compared to woman.
Related Words: Evenhanded (fair, impartial), Parity (equality or equivalence)
More Info: Don’t confuse equitable and equity with equanimity and equanimous; the first set is about equality, the second set about being even-tempered.
erratic
adj
Definition: Inconsistent, wandering, having no fixed course
Usage: Her mood is erratic - sometimes happy and sometimes sad.
Related Words: Desultory (lacking consistency or order, disconnected, sporadic; going off topic)
More Info: Erratic shares a root with error and the verb err, which originally meant “to stray or wander”—that is, to be erratic—but now means “to make a mistake.”
erroneous
adj
Definition: Mistaken, in error; improper, morally incorrect
Usage: Hilda was completely unable to assemble her new desk chair after the instructions erroneously instructed her to screw the left armrest onto a small lever on the bottom of the seat.
Related Words: Fallible (liable to be in error, capable of making mistakes)
More Info: Erroneous contains the root “err,” from a word for “stray or wander.” The related word errant can mean “incorrect” but can also mean “journeying or roving adventurously,” as in a medieval “knight-errant.”
