GRE Power Vocab - D

Question 1

Damp

Answer 1

v. to diminish the intensity or check something, such as a sound or feeling

Question 2

Daunt

Answer 2

v. to intimidate or dismay

the adjective daunting means dismaying, disheartening

There’s another related adjective, dauntless, which means fearless, undaunted, intrepid

Question 3

Dearth

Answer 3

n. smallness of quatity or number; scarcity; lack

Question 4

Debacle

Answer 4

n. rout, fiasco, complete failure

Question 5

Debunk

Answer 5

v. to expose as being pretentious, false, or exaggerated

Question 6

Decorum

Answer 6

n. politeness or appropriateness of conduct or behavior

Something marked by decorum is decorous

Question 7

Deleterious

Answer 7

adj. injurious; harmful

think of delete, something that is deletrious is likely to have a similar harmful effect

Question 8

Demur

Answer 8

v. to question or oppose

Question 9

Denigrate

Answer 9

v. blacken, belittle, sully, defame, disparage

Denigration is the act of denigrating, or the act of making denigrating comments

Question 10

Denouement

Answer 10

n. an outcome or solution; unraveling of a plot

Question 11

Deprecate

Answer 11

v. to disparage or belittle

to be self-deprecating is to belittle yourself or your accomplishments

Question 12

Depredate

Answer 12

v. to plunder, pillage, ravage or destroy; to exploit in a predatory manner

depredations are attacks, or ravages

Question 13

Derision

Answer 13

n. scorn, ridicule, contemptuous treatment

to deride is to express contempt

Question 14

Derivative

Answer 14

adj. unoriginal, obtained from another source

Question 15

Desiccate

Answer 15

v. to dry out or dehydrate; to make dry or dull

Question 16

Desuetude

Answer 16

n. disuse

Question 17

Desultory

Answer 17

adj. random; thoughtless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose

Question 18

Detraction

Answer 18

n. slandering, verbal attack, aspersion

Question 19

Diaphanous

Answer 19

adj. transparent, gauzy

Question 20

Diatribe

Answer 20

n. a harsh denunciation

Question 21

Didactic

Answer 21

adj. intended to teach or instruct

Question 22

Diffident

Answer 22

adj. reserved, shy, unassuming; lacking in self-confidence

the noun, diffidence, means a lack of confidence

Question 23

Digress

Answer 23

v. to stray from the point; to go off on a tangent

A digression is something that has digressed

Question 24

Dilate

Answer 24

v. to become wider or more open

to dilate can also mean to speak or write about something at length

Question 25

Dilatory

Answer 25

adj. causing delay, procrastinating

Question 26

Dilettante

Answer 26

n. one with an amateurish or superficial interest in the arts or a branch of knowledge

A dilettantish effort or interest is one that is frivolous or superficial

Question 27

Din

Answer 27

n. loud sustained noise

for a related word, see cacophony

Question 28

Dirge

Answer 28

n. a mournful song or poem for the dead

Dirge can also be used figuratively, to describe something that sounds like a funeral lament

Question 29

Disabuse

Answer 29

v. to undeceive; to set right

Question 30

Discomfit

Answer 30

v. to defeat, put down

Nowadays, discomfit also means to embarrass or make uncomfortable, but its original meaning is to thwart one’s plans

Question 31

Discordant

Answer 31

adj. conflicting; dissonant or harsh in sound

Question 32

Discretion

Answer 32

n. cautious reesrve in speech; ability to make responsible decisions

Question 33

Disinterested

Answer 33

adj. free from self-interest; unbiased

uninterested means not caring or having an interest in

sometimes uninterested and disinterested get switched around so one must use context

Question 34

Disparage

Answer 34

v. to slight or belittle

disparaging remarks are those that express a negative, usually dismissive, opinion of something or someone

Question 35

Disparate

Answer 35

adj. fundamentally distinct or dissimilar

Question 36

Dissemble

Answer 36

v. to disguise or conceal; to mislead

Question 37

Dissolution

Answer 37

n. disintegration, looseness in morals

the adjective dissolute means licentious, libertine

for related words see libertine and hedonism

Question 38

Dissonance

Answer 38

n. lack of harmony; conflict

literally, dissonance refers to sounds, such as musical notes, that lack harmony. However, it can also refer to any conflict in a figurative sense

Something with dissonance can be described as dissonant

Question 39

Distrait

Answer 39

v. distracted; absentminded, especially due to anxiety

be careful not to confuse this with the somewhat similar distraught, which means extremely agitated with emotion

Question 40

Divulge

Answer 40

v. to disclose something secret

Question 41

Doctrinaire

Answer 41

adj. fanatical; merely theoretical; impractical

Question 42

Doggerel

Answer 42

n. trivial, poorly constructed verse

Question 43

Dogmatic

Answer 43

adj. authoritatively and or arrogantly assertive of principles, which often cannot be proved; stubbornly opinionated

dogma is a related word that you may be familiar with, and it means a statement of ideas that is considered to be absolutely true. Though these ideas can be set forth by a religious order; they don’t have to be; the definition here is purely secular

Question 44

Dross

Answer 44

n. slag, waste or foreign matter, impurity, surface scum

Question 45

Dulcet

Answer 45

adj. melodious, harmonious, mellifuous

Question 46

Dupe

Answer 46

n. one who is deceived

dupe can also be a verb

Question 47

Dynamo

Answer 47

n. generator; forceful, energetic person

the technical definition of a dynamo is a generator of current, which gives rise to a metaphorical use for describing a person as forceful or energetic

it’s no accident if this word reminds you of dynamite or dynamic; all three have roots in the Greek word for power