GRE Top vocab

Question 1

corroborate

Answer 1

to provide supporting evidence

-Fingerprints corroborated the witness’s testimony that he saw the defendant in the victim’s apartment.

Question 2

capricious

Answer 2

changing one’s mind quickly and often

-Queen Elizabeth I was quite capricious; her courtiers could never be sure which of their number would catch her fancy.

Question 3

propriety

Answer 3

correct behavior, obedience to rules and customs

-The aristocracy maintained a high level of propriety, adhering to even the most minor social rules.

Question 4

ephemeral

Answer 4

lasting a short time

-The lives of mayflies seem ephemeral to us, since the flies’ average life span is a matter of hours.

Question 5

laudable

Answer 5

worthy of praise

-improving the schools is a laudable goal.

Question 6

pedant

Answer 6

someone who shows off learning

-The graduate instructors’ tedious and excessive commentary on the subject soon gained her a reputation as a pedant.

Question 7

laconic

Answer 7

using few words

-She was a laconic poet who built her reputation on using words as sparingly as possible.

Question 8

volatile

Answer 8

easily aroused or changeable; lively or explosive

-His volatile personality made it difficult to predict his reaction to anything.

Question 9

homogenous

Answer 9

of a similar kind
-The class was fairly homogenous, since almost all of the students were senior journalism majors.

Question 10

pragmatic

Answer 10

practical as opposed to idealistic
-While daydreaming gamblers think they can get rich by frequently casinos, pragmatic gamblers realize that the odds are heavily stacked against them.

Question 11

abstain

Answer 11

to choose not to do something

-She abstained from choosing a mouthwatering dessert from the tray.

Question 12

audacious

Answer 12

fearless and daring

-Her audacious nature allowed her to fulfill her dream of skydiving.

Question 13

loquacious

Answer 13

talkative

-She was naturally loquacious, which was a problem in situations in which listening was more important than talking.

Question 14

gullible

Answer 14

easily deceived
-The con man pretended to be a bank officer so as to fool gullible bank customers into giving him their account information.

Question 15

adulterate

Answer 15

to make impure

-The chef made his ketchup last longer by adulterating it with water.

Question 16

engender

Answer 16

to produce, cause, or bring about

-His fear and hatred of clowns was engendered when he witnessed the death of his father at the hands of a clown.

Question 17

apathy

Answer 17

lack of interest or emotion

-The apathy of voters is so great that less than half the people who are eligible to vote actually bother to do so.

Question 18

mitigate

Answer 18

to soften, to lessen

-a judge may mitigate a sentence if she decides that a person committed a crime out of need.

Question 19

desiccate

Answer 19

to dry out thoroughly

-After a few weeks of lying on the desert’s baking sands, the cow’s carcass became completely desiccated.

Question 20

vacillate

Answer 20

to sway physically; to be indecisive

-The customer held up the line as he vacillated between ordering chocolate chip or rocky road ice cream.

Question 21

precipitate

Answer 21

to throw violently or bring about abruptly; lacking deliberation
-upon learning that the couple married after knowing each other only 2 months, friends and family members expected such a precipitate marriage to end in divorce.

Question 22

lucid

Answer 22

clear and easily understood
-The explanations were written in a simple and lucid manner so that students were immediately able to apply what they learned.

Question 23

zeal

Answer 23

passion, excitement

-She brought her typical zeal to the project, sparking enthusiasm in the other team members.

Question 24

fervid

Answer 24

intensely emotional, feverish

-The fans of Maria Callas were unusually fervid, doing anything to catch a glimpse of the great opera singer.

Question 25

enigma

Answer 25

a puzzle, a mystery

-Speaking in riddles and dressed in old robes, the artist gained a reputation as something of an enigma.

Question 26

equivocal

Answer 26

having 2 or more possible meanings, not easily understood or explained.
-The experiment produced equivocal results.

Question 27

prodigal

Answer 27

lavish, wasteful

-The prodigal son quickly wasted all of his inheritance on a lavish lifestyle devoted to pleasure.

Question 28

anomaly

Answer 28

deviation from what is normal

-Albino animals may display too great an anomaly in their coloring to attract normally colored mates.

Question 29

opaque

Answer 29

impossible to see through; preventing the passage of light

-The heavy build up of dirt and grime on the windows almost made them opaque.

Question 30

erudite

Answer 30

learned, scholarly, bookish
-The annual meeting of philosophy professors was a gathering of the most erudite, well-published individuals in the field.

Question 31

assuage

Answer 31

to make something unpleasant less severe

-Serena used aspirin to assuage her pounding headache.

Question 32

placate

Answer 32

to soothe or pacify

-The burglar tried to placate the snarling dog by saying “nice doggy” and offering it a treat.