GRE essential words

Question 0

aberrant

Given the aberrant nature of the data, we came to doubt the validity of the entire experiment.

Answer 0

adj. abnormal or deviant.

Question 1

abate.

Rather than leaving immediately, they waited for the storm to abate.

Answer 1

v. subside or moderate.

Question 2

abeyance

The deal was held in abeyance until her arrival.

Answer 2

n. suspended action

Question 3

abscond

The teller who absconded with the bonds went uncaptured until someone recognized him from his photograph on America’s Most Wanted.

Answer 3

v. depart secretly and hide.

Question 4

abstemious

Concerned whether her vegetarian son’s abstemious diet provided him with sufficient protein, the worried mother pressed food on him.

Answer 4

adj. sparing in eating and drinking, temperate.

Question 5

admonish

When her couriers questioned her religious beliefs, Mary Stuart admonish them, declaring that she would worship as she pleases.

Answer 5

v. warn, reprove.

Question 6

adulterate.

It is a crime to adulterate foods without informing the buyer; when consumers learned that Beechnut had adulterated its apple juice by mixing the juice with water, protested vigorously.

Answer 6

v. make impure by adding inferior or tainted substances.

- > adulteration, n.

Question 7

aesthenic.

The beauty of Tiffany’s stained glass appealed to Alice’s awsthenic sense.

Answer 7

adj. artistic, dealing with or capable of appreciating the beautiful.
- > aesthete

Question 8

aggregate.

Before the Wall Street scandals, dealers in so-called junk bonds managed to aggregate great wealth in short periods of time.

Answer 8

n. aggregationv. gather, accumulate.

also adj.

Question 9

alacrity.

Phil and Dave were raring to get off to the mountains; they packed up their ski gear and climbed into the van with alacrity.

Answer 9

n. cheerful promptness, eagerness.

Question 10

alleviate.

This should alleviate the pain; if it does not, we shall have to use stronger drugs.

Answer 10

v. relieve.

Question 11

amalgamate.

The unions will attempt to amalgamate their groups into one national body.

Answer 11

v. combine; unite in one body.

Question 12

ambiguous.

His ambiguous instructions misled us; we dis not know which road to take.

Answer 12

adj. unclear or doubtful in meaning.

- > ambiguity, n.

Question 13

ambivalence.

Torn between loving her parents one minute and hating them the next, she was confused by ambivalence of her feelings.

Answer 13

n. the state of having contradictory or conflicting emotional attitudes.
- > ambivalent, adj.

Question 14

ameliorate.

Many social workers have attempted to ameliorate the conditions of people living in the slums.

Answer 14

v. improve.

Question 15

anachronism.

Shakespeare’s reference to clocks in Julius Caesar is an anachronism; no clocks existed in Caesar’s time.

Answer 15

n. something or someone misplaced in time.

- > anachronistic, adj.

Question 16

analogous.

He called our attention to the things that had been done in an analogous situation and recommended that we do the same.

Answer 16

adj. comparable.

Question 17

anarchy.

The assassination of the leaders led to a period of anarchy.

Answer 17

n. absence of governing body; state of disorder.

Question 18

anomalous.

She was placed in the anomalous position of seeming to approve procedures that she despised.

Answer 18

adj. abnormal; irregular.

Question 19

antipathy.

Tom’s extreme antipathy for dispute keeps him from getting into arguments with his temperamental wife. Noise in any form is antipathetic to him. Among his other antipathies are honking cars; boom boxes, and heavy metal rock.

Answer 19

n. aversion; dislike.

Question 20

apathy.

A firm believer in democratic government, she could not understand the apathy of people who never bothered to vote.

Answer 20

n. lack of caring; indifference.

- > apathetic, adj.

Question 21

appease.

Tom and Jody tried to appease the crying baby by offering him one toy after another. However, he would nit calm down until they appease his hunger by giving him a bottle.

Answer 21

v. pacify or sooth; relieve.

- > appeasement, n.

Question 22

apprise.

When NASA was apprised of the dangerous weather conditions, the head of the space agency decided to postpone the shuttle launch.

Answer 22

v. inform.

Question 23

approbation.

Wanting her parents’ regard, she looked for some sign of their approbation. Benjamin Franklin, that shrewd observer of mankind, once wrote, “We must not in the course of public life expect immediate approbation and immediate grateful acknowledgement of our services.”

Answer 23

n. approval.

Question 24

appropriate.

The ranch owners appropriated the lands that had originally been set aside for the Indians’ use.

Answer 24

v. acquire; take possession of for one’s own use.

Question 25

arduous.

Her arduous efforts had sapped her energy.

Answer 25

adj. hard; strenuous.