GRE Vocabulary 6 Flashcards
Pedant (n)
A person who is excessively concerned with displaying academic learning.
The royal palace (some pedants would say the ex-royal palace).
Penchant (n)
Strong liking or preference for.
He has a penchant for adopting stray dogs.
Penury (n)
Poverty.
He couldn’t face another year of penury.
Tangent (n)
A completely different line of thought or action.
Loretta’s mind went off at a tangent.
Technocracy (n)
The government or control of society or industry by an elite of technical experts.
Failure in the war on poverty discredited technocracy.
Tedium (n)
The quality or state of being bored.
The tedium of car journey.
Tenacious (adj)
Holding fast, characterized by keeping a firm hold.
A tenacious grip.
Timorous (adj)
Cowardly, fearful.
A timorous voice.
Tirade (n)
A long vehement speech.
A tirade of abuse.
Torpid (adj)
Inactive or dormant.
We sat around in a torpid state.
Torpor (n)
State of low energy, sluggish inactivity or inertia.
They veered between apathetic torpor and hysterical fanaticism.
Torrid (adj)
Oppressively hot, parching or burning.
The torrid heat of the afternoon.
Totalitarianism (n)
Absolute control by the state or a governing body.
Democratic countries were fighting against totalitarianism.
Tractable (adj)
Docile, easily manageable.
She has always been tractable and obedient, even as a child.
Anomalous (adj)
Deviating from or inconsistent with the common order.
An anomalous situation.
Antipathy (n)
Hatred, loathing.
His fundamental antipathy to capitalism.
Approbate (v)
To approve officially.
I approbate the one, I reprobate the other.
Arbiter (n)
A person empowered to decide matters at issue.
The Secretary of State is the final arbiter.
Archetype (n)
The original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied.
He was the archetype of the old-style football club chairman.
Ardor (n)
Fervor, passion or enthusiasm.
The rebuff did little to dampen his ardor.
Arduous (adj)
Requiring great exertion, laborious.
An arduous journey.
Aria (n)
An elaborate melody sung solo
Arid (adj)
Dry, parched.
The arid plains north of Cape Town.
Sundry (n)
Miscellaneous.
A drugstore selling magazines, newspapers, and sundries.
Reprise (n) (v)
Repeat act.
A stale reprise of past polemic.
Harrow (v) (adj)
Distress the mind, feelings.
Unfazed by harrowing stories of religious repression, she exhibited courage under fire.
Sardonic (adj)
Characterized by bitter or scornful derision.
Starkey attempted a sardonic smile.
Subterfuge (n)
An artifice or expedient used to evade a rule, escape a consequence.
He had to use subterfuge and bluff on many occasions.
Axiom (n)
A self-evident truth that requires no proof.
The axiom that sport builds character.
Controvert (v)
To argue against, dispute, deny.
Subsequent work from the same laboratory controverted these results.
Progeny (n)
A descendant or offspring.
Potentate (n)
A person who possesses great power, as a sovereign, monarch.
Diplomatic missions to foreign potentates.
Cardinal (adj)
Of prime importance, chief, principal.
Two cardinal points must be borne in mind.
Hidebound (adj)
Rigid, unwilling to change.
They are working to change hidebound corporate cultures.
Chary (adj)
Cautious or careful, wary.
She is chary of media attention.
Arabesque (n)
Any ornament as a rug or mosaic, in which flowers, foliage, fruits, vases, animals, and figures are represented in a fancifully combined pattern.
Arabesque scrolls.
Prattle (v)
To utter by chattering or babbling.
She began to prattle on about her visit to the dentist.
Simian (adj)
Of or relating to an ape or monkey.
Simian immunodeficiency virus.
Precipice (n)
A cliff with a vertical or overhanging face.
We swerved toward the edge of the precipice.
Augury (n)
Divination, the art or practice of conjecture from signs or omens.
They heard the sound as an augury of death.
Picayune (adj)
Of little value, worthless.
The picayune squabbling of party politicians.
Anthropomorphic (adj)
Resembling or made to resemble a human form.
Anthropomorphic bears and monkeys.
Ramify (v)
To divide or spread out into branches.
An elaborate system of canals was built, ramifying throughout the UK.
Upbraid (v)
To find fault with or reproach severely.
He was upbraided for his slovenly appearance.
Banality (n)
Devoid of freshness or originality, hackneyed.
There is an essential banality to the story he tells.
Base (n)
The principal element or ingredient of anything, considered as its fundamental part.
Sodden (adj)
Soaked with liquid or moisture.
His clothes were sodden.
Stolid (adj)
Not easily stirred or moved mentally, unemotional.
A stolid bourgeois gent.
Phthisis (n)
[Fysis]
Pulmonary tuberculosis.
Vinter (n)
Wine maker.
Salient (adj)
Prominent or conspicuous.
It succinctly covered all the salient points of the case.
Haughty (adj)
Proud or arrogant.
A look of haughty disdain.
Blanch (v)
Turn white or pale.
The cold light blanched her face.
Inimitable (adj)
That which cannot be imitated.
They took the charts by storm with their inimitable style.
Accretion (n)
The act of acquiring or growth.
The accretion of sediments in coastal mangroves.
Trenchant (adj)
Keen, incisive.
The White Paper makes trenchant criticisms of health authorities.
Turgid (adj)
Swollen, distended.
A turgid and fast-moving river.
Belabor (v)
Talk at length.
Bernard was belaboring Jed with his fists.
Belie (v)
To show to be false.
His lively, alert manner belied his years.
Benign (adj)
Showing or expressive of gentleness or kindness.
His benign but firm manner.
Bent (adj)
Determined or resolved.
A missionary bent on saving souls.
Berate (v)
Scold, rebuke.
She berated herself for being fickle.
Blithe (adj)
Joyous, merry or gay in disposition.
A blithe disregard for the rules of the road.
Capacious (adj)
Capable of holding much, spacious or roomy.
She rummaged in her capacious handbag.
Capitulate (v)
To give up resistance.
The patriots had to capitulate to the enemy forces.
Caprice (n)
A sudden, unpredictable change, as of one’s mind.
Her caprices made his life impossible.
Carp (v)
To find fault or complain.
I don’t want to carp about the way you did it.
Cascade (n)
A mass of something that falls or hangs in copious quantities.
The waterfall raced down in a series of cascades.
Castigate (v)
To criticize or reprimand severely.
He was castigated for not setting a good example.
Caustic (adj)
Sarcastic in a scathing and bitter way.
The players were making caustic comments about the refereeing.
Censure (n)
Strong or vehement expression of disapproval.
Lawyers who violate the regulations are privately censured.
Chauvinism (n)
Biased devotion to any group, attitude, or cause
Chimera (n)
A thing which is hoped for but is illusory or impossible to achieve.
The economic sovereignty you claim to defend is a chimera.
Collusion (n)
A secret agreement, especially for fraudulent or treacherous purposes.
The armed forces were working in collusion with drug traffickers.
Complaisant (adj)
Inclined or disposed to please others
A complaisant husband whose wife has taken a lover
Concise (adj)
Brief in form but comprehensive in scope.
Conjecture (n)
The formation or expression of an opinion or theory without sufficient evidence
for proof.
Conjectures about the newcomer were many and varied.
Consternation (n)
A sudden, alarming amazement or dread that results in utter confusion.
The call raised consternation in Beijing which sees the self-ruled island as a threat
Consummate (adj)
To bring to a state of perfection.
She dressed with consummate elegance.
Contention (n)
Dispute, controversy OR an assertion.
Freud’s contention that all dreams were wish fulfillment.
Contrite (adj)
Caused by or showing sincere remorse.
A contrite tone.
Convalesce (v)
To recover health and strength after illness.
He spent eight months convalescing after the stroke.
Deleterious (adj)
Injurious to health.
Divorce is assumed to have deleterious effects on children.
Demagogue (n)
A person who gains power and popularity by arousing the emotions.
The Senator was a gifted demagogue, with particular skill in manipulating the press.
Denigrate (v)
To speak disparaging of.
Doom and gloom merchants who denigrate their own country.
Denote (v)
To be a mark or sign of.
This mark denotes purity and quality.
Desiccate (v)
To dry thoroughly.
Desiccated coconut.
Despond (v)
To be depressed by loss of hope.
I thought it right not to let my young lady despond.
Desultory (adj)
Digressing from or unconnected with the main subject.
The desultory conversation faded.
Diatribe (n)
A bitter sharply abusive denunciation.
A diatribe against consumerism.
Discreet (adj)
Judicious in one’s conduct or speech.
We made some discreet inquiries.
Disparage (v)
Regard or represent as being of little worth.
He never missed an opportunity to disparage his competitors.
Disparate (adj)
Distinct in kind, essentially different.
They inhabit disparate worlds of thought.
Dispassionate (adj)
Free from or unaffected by passion.
She dealt with life’s disasters in a calm, dispassionate way.
Disposed (adj)
Having a certain inclination or disposition.
James didn’t seem disposed to take the hint.
Tendentious (adj)
Having or showing a definite tendency or bias.
A tendentious reading of history.
Complacent (adj)
Pleased, especially with oneself or one’s merits, advantages, situation, etc.
You can’t afford to be complacent about security.
Rapturous (adj)
Full of feeling or manifesting ecstatic joy.
He was greeted with rapturous applause.
Amalgamate (v)
To mix or merge so as to make a combination.
He amalgamated his company with another.
Appropriate (v)
Take (something) for one’s own use, typically without the owner’s permission.
The accused had appropriated the property.
