LSAT vocab Flashcards
Abide
If a document doesn’t abide by certain standards, you might not abide the situation.
Follow, conform; tolerate
Abrasive
Think sandpaper.
Rough; causing irritation or annoyance.
Aptitude
An inherent ability to do something.
SAT = scholastic aptitude test
Avant-garde
“works by artists of the Russian avant-garde”
Ahead of its time; innovative; on the forefront
Cohesive
You want your team to be cohesive, to “stick together”
United, connected, causing the forming of a whole.
Collude
“he accused his opponents of colluding with one another”
Conspire; cooperate for illegal or fraudulent purposes.
Deride
Mock; scoff at; laugh at contemptuously.
It’s not fun to be derided, to be the subject of derision or derisive laughter.
Derive
An idea derives from some inspiration./ You derived that idea from that inspiration.
Acquire from a specific source.
Dissuade
As a lawyer, you will likely be in the business of both persuasion and dissuasion.
Prevent or deter from taking a course of action.
Inductive
“instinct rather than inductive reasoning marked her approach to life”
Characterized by the use of particular ideas or instances to form general principles.
You induce the general principles from the specific examples.
In contrast, deductive logic deduces specific examples from general principles.
Inquisitive
“he was very chatty and inquisitive about everything”
Curious, have a desire to know more or investigate.
Inquisitive: positive
Inquiring: neutral
Running an inquisition: negative
Oppressive
“an oppressive dictatorship”
Burdensome; harsh; cruel.
Chastise
No one likes to be chastised.
Intensely scold or condemn.
A word that carries with it the hint of being reprimanded by a teacher or another authority figure.
Connoisseur
“a connoisseur of music”
Expert who is able to pass critical judgment on the fine arts or matters of taste.
Curtail
He had to curtail his speech when time ran out.
Make less, cut down, or put a restraint on.
Disdain
“her upper lip curled in disdain
Having contempt toward someone, or a feeling that they’re underserving of interest or respect (as a noun). Disdain can also be a verb.
Emit
“coal-fired power stations continue to emit large quantities of sulfur dioxide”
Send, give forth, or issue.
Incite
Instigate, stir up or promote the growth of
Usually what you are inciting is something negative, like trouble
Merit
Excellence or worthiness.
Sedentary
Seated most of the time. Physically inactive.
E.g. Sedentary life style.
Superimpose
Set or lay something over something else.
Teeming
Swarming; full of things; abundantly filled.
These things are usually moving, like bugs or people
Determinant
An element that influences the nature or result of something.
A determinant determines the course of events.
Diffuse
Spread out over a large area.
Envisage
Conceive of as a future possibility. Envisage can also simply mean “regard or view” something in some way.
Heed
Take notice of.
When you tell people to take heed, they will. It’s rather a formal word.
Indelible
Incapable of being forgotten, removed or erased.
Manifest
Readily perceived by the eye or mind.
V. become or make evident
N. A list of the cargo or passengers on a vehicle
Perplexing
Utterly baffling; bewildering.
Some LSAT questions are perplexing at first.
Vehement
Exhibiting forceful, intense feeling or energy, even to the point of being antagonistic or otherwise negative.
Mar
impair the appearance of; disfigure.
militarism
the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests.
Contention
heated disagreement
intriguing
arousing one’s curiosity or interest; fascinating
Fore
adjective: situated or placed in front.
“the fore and hind pairs of wings”
noun: the front part of something, especially a ship.
exclamation: called out as a warning to people in the path of a golf ball.
preposition: nonstandard form of before.
“we’ll be harvesting corn ‘fore the end of the month”
Rote
mechanical or habitual repetition of something to be learned
epitomize
- be a perfect example of.
- give a summary of (a written work).
Sleuthin
careful investigation into a crime or mystery
disseminate
Scatter; spread about; broadcast.
The object is usually not physical but informational.
You disseminate a story, a message etc.
Emulate
Copy in an attempt to equal or be better than.
Exemplify
Illustrate, demonstrate by example.
Mollify
Calm or soothe(an angry person); lessen or soften (hurt feelings etc.)
“nature reserves were set up around the power stations to mollify local conservationists”
Necessitate
Require as a result of; be grounds for.
“the severe arthritis eventually necessitated a total hip replacement”
Proliferate
Increase or spread rapidly or excessively.
If asked, most people would be against nuclear proliferation.
Rectify
Correct, amend; make right.
“mistakes made now cannot be rectified later”
Relegate
Downgrade; lower the rank or position of.
Some multitiered sports leagues practice relegation, which is the downgrading of poorly performing teams to the next tier down.
Repudiate
Reject; cast off; deny that something has authority.
“she has repudiated policies associated with previous party leaders”
Repudiate vs renounce:
If you renounce chocolate, that means you’re giving it up (and you used it eat it). But if you repudiate chocolate, you’re rejecting it forcefully. It’s unknown whether you used to eat the stuff.
Simulate
Imitate how something looks or acts.
Transliterate
Represent using the corresponding letters of another alphabet or language.
If you transliterate the Russian word HeT into the Latin alphabet, you get yet, which you can pronounce if you don’t read the Cyrillic alphabet. Translated, the word means “no”.
Typify
Be an ideal or representative example of. If this painting typifies Rembrandt’s approach, then the painting is typical of his approach and represents the approach well.
Adduce
Give reason or proof to support a theory.
A document may adduce a certain piece of evidence to argue a particular position.
Deduce
Draw a conclusion based on logic or reasoning.
You will do a lot of deducing as you prepare for the LSAT.
Dissipate
Steadily disappear or cause to steadily disappear.
“the concern she’d felt for him had wholly dissipated”
Also could mean spend foolishly, or live a spendthrift, drunken life.
“he had dissipated his entire fortune”
Eradicate
Obliterate; remove or destroy completely.
When you eradicate something, you’re not just trimming back the leaves. You’re pulling it out by the roots.
Obliterate
destroy utterly; wipe out.
“the memory was so painful that he obliterated it from his mind”
Expropriate
Seize property from; dispossess (especially for public use).
“the land reform expropriated the Irish landlords”
Induce
Persuade or influence into action; give rise to
Infer a general principle from specific examples
Instantiate
Represent by an occurrence or use of a concrete example.
A concrete thing instantiates an abstract principle or pattern.
Subordinate
Put in such a position; in a lower position.
“his subordinate officers”
“he was mild-mannered, especially with his subordinates”
treat or regard as of lesser importance than something else: “practical considerations were subordinated to political expediency”
Eschew
deliberately avoid using; abstain from.
“he appealed to the crowd to eschew violence”
Extoll
to praise highly; laud; eulogize: to extol the beauty of Naples.
Nihilism
the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.
“they condemned the show for its cynicism and nihilism”
Anarchism
a political theory advocating the abolition of hierarchical government and the organization of society on a voluntary, cooperative basis without recourse to force or compulsion.
anarchists as a political force or movement.
“ruling-class fears of international anarchism during the 1890s”
Ostensible
stated or appearing to be true, but not necessarily so.
“the delay may have a deeper cause than the ostensible reason”
Anarchism
a political theory advocating the abolition of hierarchical government and the organization of society on a voluntary, cooperative basis without recourse to force or compulsion.
anarchists as a political force or movement.
“ruling-class fears of international anarchism during the 1890s”
Allegation
A claim for which proof has not yet been provided.
“after leaving he made allegations of corruption against the company”
Contention
1.
heated disagreement.
“the captured territory was one of the main areas of contention between the two countries”
2.
an assertion, especially one maintained in argument.
“statistics bear out his contention that many runners are undertrained for this event”
Evasion
- the action of evading something.
“their adroit evasion of almost all questions” - an indirect answer; a prevaricating excuse.
plural noun: evasions
“the protestations and evasions of a witness”
Evade: escape or avoid, especially by cleverness or trickery.
“friends helped him to evade capture for a time”
Pretension
an allegation of doubtful value
Prevarication
the deliberate act of deviating from the truth. synonyms: fabrication, lying
Protrusion
something that bulges out/sticks out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings
Rendition
- a performance or interpretation, especially of a dramatic role or piece of music.
“a wonderful rendition of “Nessun Dorma.”” - the practice of sending a foreign criminal or terrorist suspect covertly to be interrogated in a country with less rigorous regulations for the humane treatment of prisoners.
Supposition
an uncertain belief.
“they were working on the supposition that his death was murder”
Acuity
sharpness or keenness of thought, vision, or hearing.
“intellectual acuity”
Affinity
- a spontaneous or natural liking or sympathy for someone or something.
“he has an affinity for the music of Berlioz” - a similarity of characteristics suggesting a relationship, especially a resemblance in structure between animals, plants, or languages.
“a building with no affinity to contemporary architectural styles” - relationship, especially by marriage as opposed to blood ties.
Animosity
strong hostility.
“he no longer felt any animosity toward her”
Civility
formal politeness and courtesy in behavior or speech.
“I hope we can treat each other with civility and respect”