GRE Vocabulary 1 Flashcards
Temerity (adj)
Bold recklessness OR audacity.
No one had the temerity to question his conclusions
Depredate (v)
Plunder, loot.
Many types of predators depredate bird nests
Genuflect (v)
Bow in obeisance.
Politicians had to genuflect to advance their careers.
Wend (v)
Find you way through.
They wended their way across the city.
Pelagic (adj)
Of the open seas.
There are very few pelagic fish to be seen.
Froward (adj)
Stubborn, intractable, difficult to manage
Punctilious (adj)
Paying attention to details, meticulous.
He was punctilious in providing every amenity for his guests.
Aphorism (n)
Tersely worded saying.
The old aphorism ‘the child is father to the man’.
Purloin (v)
Steal.
He must have managed to purloin a copy of the key.
Esoteric (adj)
Difficult to understand.
Esoteric philosophical debates.
Succor (n)
Aid, relief, rescue.
The wounded had little chance of succour.
Protean (adj)
Versatile able to change quickly.
Shostakovich was a remarkably protean composer.
Callous (adj)
Hard, unfeeling.and insensitve.
His callous comments about the murder made me shiver.
Proscribe (v)
Forbidden by law.
Strikes remained proscribed in the armed forces.
Denouement (n)
Conclusion of a series of events.
The film’s denouement was unsatisfying and ambiguous.
Supercillious (adj)
Haughty, imperious.
Parley (n)
Meeting between parties.
A parley is in progress and the invaders may withdraw.
Apoplectic (adj)
Angry, infurious.
Mark was apoplectic with rage at the decision.
Simper (v)
Say with a coy smile.
She simpered, looking pleased with herself.
Miscegenation (n)
A mixture of different races.
They believe in miscegenation as the answer to world peace.
Androgynous (adj)
Partly male and partly female.
A stunningly androgynous dancer.
Covey (n)
A small group of people or things.
Coveys of actors rushed through the rooms.
Supine (n)
Lying on your back.
Cozen (v)
Cheat.
Do not think to cozen your contemporaries.
Limpid (adj)
Calm, clear.
The limpid waters of the Caribbean.
Refulgent (adj)
Shining very brightly.
Refulgent blue eyes.
Phelgmatic (adj)
Calm
Attenuate (adj)
Reduce the strength of.
Her intolerance was attenuated by an unexpected liberalism.
Disingenuous (adj)
Dishonest not candid.
This journalist was being somewhat disingenuous as well as cynical.
Epistle (n)
Short message.
Activists firing off angry epistles.
Factitious (adj)
Fake, artificial.
A largely factitious national identity.
Pied (adj)
Dappled colors.
The pied flycatcher.
Militate (v)
Be a powerful or conclusive factor in preventing.
These fundamental differences will militate against the two communities.
Stygian (adj)
Dark, gloomy.
The Stygian crypt.
Gainsay (v)
Deny, contradict a fact.
The impact of the railways cannot be gainsaid.
Palliate (v)
To lessen the suffering of.
Treatment works by palliating symptoms.
Nostrum (n)
Fake medicine.
A charlatan who sells nostrums.
Obstreperous (adj)
Stubborn and difficult to control.
The boy is cocky and obstreperous.
Precocious (adj)
Well developed(of a child).
A precocious, solitary boy.
Regale (v)
Entertain or amuse.
He regaled her with a colorful account of that afternoon’s meeting.
Ambit (n)
Within the range or scope of.
A full discussion of this complex issue was beyond the ambit of one book.
Apostate (n)
Disbeliever.
After fifty years as an apostate he returned to the faith.
Sophistry (n)
The use of clever but false arguments.
Trying to argue that I had benefited in any way was pure sophistry.
Perspicuity (adj)
Clarity.
Enjoin (v)
Ordered to.
The code enjoined members to trade fairly.
Fulsome (adj)
Copious, overdone in praise.
The press are embarrassingly fulsome in their appreciation
Imprecation (n)
Curse.
I pushed my way through, screaming imprecations.
Extenuate (v)
Reduce the strength of.
Hunger and poverty are not treated extenuating circumstances.
Ineluctable (adj)
Unavoidable.
The ineluctable facts of history.
Vitiate (v)
Spoil, tarnish.
Development programmes have been vitiated by the rise in population
Turpitude (n)
Wickedness.
Acts of moral turpitude.
Plaintive (adj)
Mournful.
A plaintive cry.
Pertinacious (adj)
Unyielding holding firmly.
He worked with a pertinacious resistance to interruptions.
Recreant (n)
Coward.
The recreant acted with outward boldness.
Adduce (v)
Put forward or cite as evidence.
A number of factors are adduced to explain the situation.
Traduce (v)
Speak malicious of.
It was regarded as respectable political tactics to traduce him.
Apposite (adj)
Appropriate
His remarks seemed to be regarded as apposite.
Discursive (adj)
Talking aimlessly or digressing.
Students often write dull, second-hand, discursive prose
Avocation (n)
Side vocation.
They are basically doctors, and negotiators by avocation.
Adumbrate (v)
To outline or sketch.
Hobhouse had already adumbrated the idea of a welfare state.
Alchemy (n)
Conversion of lead to gold
Allege (v)
Insinuate.
He alleged that he had been assaulted.
Allude (v)
Refer to indirectly.
She had a way of alluding to Jean.
Altruism (n)
Concern for others well being.
Some may choose to work with vulnerable elderly people out of altruism.
Ambivalence (n)
Undecided
The law’s ambivalence about the importance of a victim’s identity.
Amble (v)
Walk leisurely.
They ambled along the riverbank.
Ameliorate (v)
Lessen the suffering of.
The reform did much to ameliorate living standards
Amenable (adj)
Agreeable.
Parents who have amenable children.
Analgesic (adj)
Pain reliever.
Acting to relieve pain.
Anecdote (n)
Short incident.
He told anecdotes about his job.
Annul (v)
Cancel or declare invalid.
The elections were annulled by the general amid renewed protest.
Didactic (adj)
Inclined to teach or lecture others too much
A boring, didactic speaker.
Diffident (adj)
Unwilling modest or shy.
A diffident youth.
Diffuse (v)
Spread out.
Technologies diffuse rapidly.
Dilapidated (adj)
Run down, broken.
Old, dilapidated building.
Dilate (v)
Open, extend.
Her eyes dilated with horror.
Dillettante (n)
Novice.
Dirge (n)
Funeral song.
Singers chanted dirges.
Disabuse (v)
Clear a misconception.
He quickly disabused me of my fanciful notions.
Disaffect (adj)
To cause to loose affection.
The dictator’s policies had soon disaffected the people.
Discern (v)
Understand clearly or recognize.
I can discern no difference between the two policies.
Discomfit (v)
To confuse and deject
To be discomfited by a question.
Hackneyed (adj)
Trite, commonplace.
Hackneyed old sayings.
Hallmark (n)
The distinguishing character of.
The tiny bubbles are the hallmark of fine champagnes.
Harangue (n)
Bitter diatribe.
They were subjected to a ten-minute harangue by two border guards.
Hedonism (n)
Indulgence in sensual pleasure.
Tan (v)
To convert (a hide) into leather.
Heretical (adj)
Going against established doctrine.
This is a heretical view and if it were left at that, I don’t think much good would come of it.
Hieroglyphic (adj)
[HI ro glyphic]
Egyptian symbolic script.
Writing in hieroglyphic script.
Homogenous (adj)
Of the same composition.
Hone (v)
Sharpen.
To hone one’s skills.
Husband (v)
Conserve
To husband one’s resources.
Nonplussed (adj)
To render utterly perplexed.
And she claims to be nonplussed by those presidential invitations.
Noxious (adj)
Harmful or injurious to health.
Noxious vapors emanated from the chimney.
Nuance (n)
Subtle difference in or shade of meaning.
He was familiar with the nuances of the local dialect.
Obdurate (adj)
Stubborn.
I argued this point with him, but he was obdurate.
Obsequious (adj)
Slavish insincere flattery.
They were served by obsequious waiters.
Obstinate (adj)
Stubborn refusing to change opinion.
Her obstinate determination to pursue a career in radio.
Obviate (v)
Get rid of, make unnecessary.
The internet has all but obviated the need for radios.
Occlude (v)
Block off.
The entrance to the cave was occluded by the mount of fresh snow.
