GRE Power Vocab - B

Question 1

Baleful

Answer 1

adj. sinister, pernicious, ominous

looks, glances, and glares are more often baleful than anything else is, but other things can be baleful too

Question 2

Bane

Answer 2

adj. cause of injury, source of harm; source of persistent frustration

Baneful means causing harm o ruin, pernicious, destructive

Question 3

Beatify

Answer 3

v. to bless, make happy, or ascribe a virtue to; to regard as saintly

Beatitude is a state of bliss, and beatific means having a blissful appearance

be careful not to confuse with beautify, which means to make beautiful

Question 4

Bedizen

Answer 4

v. to adorn, especially in a cheap, showy manner; festoon, caparison

Question 5

Beguile

Answer 5

v. to influence by trickery, flattery, etc.; to mislead

Question 6

Belie

Answer 6

v. to give a false imperssion of, to misrepresent

Question 7

Bellicose

Answer 7

adj. belligerent, pugnacious, warlike

Bellicose shares a root with belligerent. Both come from the Latin belliger which means warlike

Question 8

Benign

Answer 8

adj. favorable, harmless

in medicine, we oftern hear benign describe a tumor that is not cancerous, though it has other uses

many words that start with ben- have a positive connotation (benefit, benefactor, benediction). Words that stat with mal-, on the other hand, usually have a negative connotation

Question 9

Bent

Answer 9

n. leaning, inclination, proclivity, tendency

Question 10

Blandish

Answer 10

v. to coax with flattery, toady or fawn

Blandishment is flattery intended to cajole or coax

be careful not to confuse with brandish which means to shake or wave menacingly

Question 11

Blithe

Answer 11

adj. carefree, merry

Question 12

Boisterous

Answer 12

adj. loud, noisy, rough, lacking restraint

Question 13

Bolster

Answer 13

v. to provide support or reinforcement

Question 14

Bombastic

Answer 14

adj. pompous; gradiloquent

bombast is self-important or pompous writing or speech

Question 15

Boor

Answer 15

n. a rude or insensitive person; lout; yokel

Question 16

Bridling

Answer 16

v to control or hold back, restrain

Question 17

Broach

Answer 17

v. to bring up, announce, begin to talk about

Question 18

brook

Answer 18

v. to tolerate, endure, countenance

Question 19

Bucolic

Answer 19

adj. rustic and pastoral; characteristics of rural areas and their inhabitants

Question 20

Burgeon

Answer 20

v. to grow rapidly or flourish

Question 21

Burnish

Answer 21

v. to polish, rub to a shine

Question 22

Byzantine

Answer 22

adj. labrythine, complex

when the B is capitalized it is referring to the city of Byzantium or the Byzantine Empire