Reading Comprehension Vocabulary Flashcards
Abate
Reduce or diminish.
Her stress over spending so much money on a house abated when the real estate broker told
her about the property’s 15-year tax abatement.
Acquisitiveness
Desire to acquire more, especially an excessive desire.
The firm did well in buying up its competitors as a means of growth, but its acquisitiveness
ultimately resulted in problems related to growing too quickly.
Ad-lib
1) Make something up on the spot, give an unprepared speech;
2) Freely, as needed, according to desire.
We have ended our policy of rationing office supplies—pens may now be given to employees
ad-lib.
Advent
Arrival.
Before the advent of the Internet, people often called reference librarians to look up information
for them in the library’s reference section.
Agency
The ability to use power or influence.
Some global warming deniers acknowledge that the planet is heating up, but argue that human
agency does not affect the climate.
Ambivalent
1) Uncertain, unable to decide;
2) Wanting to do two contradictory things at once.
The health care plan has been met with ambivalence from lawmakers who would like to pass the bill but find supporting it to be politically impossible.
Annex
To add on, or something that has been added on. An annex to a building is a part built later
and added on, or a new building that allows an organization to expand.
Anoint
The literal meaning is “rub or sprinkle oil on, especially as part o f a ceremony that makes
something sacred.” The word is used metaphorically to refer to power or praise being given to someone who is thought very highly of. For instance:
After Principal Smitters raised test scores over 60% at her school, it was only a matter of time
before she was anointed superintendant by a fawning school board.
Archaic
Characteristic of an earlier period, ancient, primitive.
The schools archaic computer system predated even floppy disks—it stored records on tape
drives!
Sometimes, when you look a word up the dictionary, certain definitions are marked “archaic”—unless you are a Shakespeare scholar, you can safely ignore those archaisms.
Baldly
Plainly, explicitly. (This is the same word as in “losing one’s hair.”) To say something baldly is
to be blunt. People are sometimes shocked or offended when things are said too bluntly or baldly.
An article in Mother Jones explained that Maine is not very diverse: “It is, to put it baldly, one
of the whitest states in the union.”
Belie
Contradict or misrepresent.
The actress’s public persona as a perky “girl next door” belied her private penchant for abusing
her assistants and demanding that her trailer be filled with ridiculous luxury goods.
The data belie the accepted theory—either we’ve made a mistake, or we have an amazing new
discovery on our hands!
Benign
1) Harmless;
2) Kind or beneficial;
3) Not cancerous.
He was relieved when the biopsy results came back, informing him that the growth was benign.
He’s a benign fellow. I’m sure having him assigned to your team at work will be perfectly pleasant, without changing the way you do things.
Brook
Suffer or tolerate. Often used with the word no. You could say The dictator will not brook dissent,
but a more common usage would be The dictator will brook no dissent.
Buffer
Something that separates two groups, people, etc., who potentially do not get along. When the U.S. was controlled by England, the state of Georgia was colonized as a buffer between the English
colonies and Spanish Florida. A breakwater of rocks would act as a buffer, protecting the beach against crashing waves.
Bureaucracy
1) Government characterized by many bureaus and petty administrators;
2) Excessive,
seemingly meaningless requirements.
Some nations have a worse reputation for bureaucracy than others— in order to get a Visa, he had to file papers with four different agencies, wait for hours in three different waiting rooms, and, weeks later, follow up with some petty bureaucrat who complained that the original application should’ve been filed in triplicate.
Canon
Body of accepted rules, standards or artistic works; canonical means authorized, recognized,
or pertaining to a canon. Note that the spelling of canon is not the same as cannon (a large weapon).
The “Western canon” is an expression referring to books traditionally considered necessary for a person to be educated in the culture of Europe and the Americas.
School boards often start controversies when replacing canonical books in the curriculum with
modern literature; while many people think students should read works more relevant to their
lives, others point out that Moby Dick is part of the canon for a reason.
Clamor
Noisy uproar or protest, as from a crowd; a loud, continuous noise. (NOT the same word as clamber, “to scramble or climb awkwardly.”)
As soon as a scent o f scandal emerged, the press was clamoring for details.
The mayor couldn’t even make herself heard over the clamor of the protestors.
Coalesce
Come together, unite; fuse together.
While at first, everyone on the team was jockeying for power and recognition, eventually, the group coalesced and everyone was happy to share credit for a job well-done.
East and West Germany coalesced into a single country in 1990.
Cogent
Very convincing, logical.
Most GMAT Critical Reasoning arguments are not terribly cogent— they depend on unspoken
and unjustified assumptions.
Confer
Consult, compare views; bestow or give.
A Ph.D. confers upon a person the right to be addressed as “Doctor” as well as eligibility to
pursue tenure-track professorship.
Excuse me for a moment to make a call— I can’t buy this car until I confer with my spouse.
Contemplative
Contemplating, thoughtful, meditative.
Copious
Plentiful, bountiful.
Although she took copious notes in class, she found that she was missing a big picture that
would have tied all the information together.
Countenance
Approve or tolerate. Countenance can also literally mean “face” {Her countenance was
familiar—did we know each other?). The metaphorical meaning makes sense when you think about a similar expression: “I cannot look you in the face after what you did.” (You would usually say “I cannot face you” when the speaker is the guilty party.)
I saw you cheating off my paper, and I cant countenance cheating—either you turn yourself
in or HI report you.
Curtail
Cut short or reduce.
Debase
Degrade; lower in quality, value, rank, etc.; lower in moral quality.
Members of the mainstream church argued that the fringe sect was practicing a debased version
o f the religion, twisting around its precepts and missing the point.
I can tell from the weight that this isn’t pure gold, but rather some debased mixed metal.
You have debased yourself by accepting bribes.
Decry
Condemn openly. The “cry” in decry has the sense of “cry out against,” as in The activist decried the destruction of the animals’ habitat.
Delimit
Fix, mark, or define the boundaries of.
The role of an executive coach is delimited by our code of conduct—we may not counsel people
for psychological conditions, for instance.
Denote
Be a name or symbol for. A denotation is the literal meaning of a word; a connotation is the feeling that accompanies that word.
There’s nothing in the denotation of “crotchety” (grumpy, having strong and irrational preferences)
that indicates any particular group of people, but because of the expression “crotchety old man,” the word connotes, for many people, an image of an especially unpleasant male senior citizen.
Deride
Mock, scoff at, laugh at contemptuously.
The manager really thought that deriding his employees as “stupid” or “lazy” would motivate
them to work harder; instead, it motivated them to hide his office supplies as an act of revenge.
Dichotomy
Division into two parts or into two contradictory groups.
There is a dichotomy in the sciences between theoretical or “pure” sciences such as physics and
chemistry, and the life sciences, which often deal more with classifying than with theorizing.
Disinterested
Unbiased, impartial; not interested. Don’t confuse with uninterested, which means not interested, bored, apathetic.
Let’s settle this argument once and for all! We’ll get a disinterested observer to judge who can
sing the highest note!
Disparate
Distinct, different.
He chose the college for two disparate reasons: the strength of the computer science program,
and the excellence o f the hip-hop dance squad.
Dispatch
Speed, promptness (noun); send off or deal with in a speedy way (verb).
So, you want to be a bike messenger? I need messengers who approach every delivery with alacrity, care, and dispatch—if the customers wanted their packages to arrive slowly, they’d use the post office.
Acting with all possible dispatch, emergency services dispatched a rescue squad to the scene.
Divest
Deprive or strip of a rank, title, etc., or of clothing or gear; to sell off holdings (opposite of invest).
When she found out that the most profitable stock in her portfolio was that of a company that tested products on animals, she immediately divested by telling her broker to sell the stock.
Once his deception was exposed, he was divested of his position on the Board.
Dovetail
Join or fit together.
When the neuroscientist married an exercise physiologist, neither thought they’d end up working
together, but when Dr. Marion Ansel received a grant to study how exercise improves brain
function and Dr. Jim Ansel was assigned to her team, the two found that their careers dovetailed
nicely.
Echelon
A level, rank, or grade; the people at that level. A stratum is the same idea (strata is the plural,
as in rising through the upper strata/echelons of the firm).
Obtaining a job on Wall Street doesn’t guarantee access to the upper echelon o f executives,
where multi-million dollar bonuses are the norm.
I’m not sure I’m cut out to analyze poetry; I find it hard to dig beyond the most accessible echelon
of meaning.
Eclectic
Selecting the best of everything or from many diverse sources.
Eclectic taste is helpful in being a DJ—crowds love to hear the latest hip-hop mixed with ‘80s classics and other unexpected genres of music.
Efficacy
The quality o f being able to produce the intended effect. Don’t confuse efficacy with efficiency.
Something efficacious gets the job done; something efficient gets the job done without wasting time or effort. Efficacy is frequently used in reference to medicines.
Egalitarian
Related to belief in the equality of all people.
It is very rare that someone turns down an offer to be knighted by the Queen of England; however, he was egalitarian enough to feel uncomfortable with the entire idea of titles and royalty.
Egregious
Extraordinarily or conspicuously bad; glaring.
Your conduct is an egregious violation of our Honor Code—not only did you steal your
roommate s paper off his computer and turn it in as your own, you also sold his work to a plagiarism
website so other cheaters could purchase it!
Eminent
Prominent, distinguished, of high rank.
Empirical
Coming from, based on, or able to be verified by experience or experimentation; not purely based on theory.
The Ancient Greeks philosophized about the nature of matter (concluding, for instance, that
everything was made o f earth, water, air, and fire) without any empirical evidence— that is, the
very idea o f conducting experiments hadn’t been invented yet.
People always knew empirically that when you drop something, it falls to the ground; the theory
of gravity later explained why.
Enigma
Puzzle, mystery, riddle; mysterious or contradictory person.
The enormous rock sculptures in Stonehenge, Scotland, are truly an enigma—were they created
as part of a religious observance, in deference to a great ruler, or for some other reason?
Enumerate
Count or list; specify one-by-one.
The Bill of Rights enumerates the basic rights held by every citizen of the United States.
Equivocal or Equivocate
Use unclear language to deceive or avoid committing to a position.
Not wanting to lose supporters, the politician equivocated on the issue, tossing out buzzwords
related to each side while also claiming more study was needed.
Erstwhile
Former, previous.
A novelist and erstwhile insurance salesman, he told us his story of the long road to literary success, before he was able to quit his day job.
Ethos
The character, personality, or moral values specific to a person, group, time period, etc.
At the prep school, the young man happily settled into an ethos of hard work and rigorous athletic competition.
Exacerbate
Make worse (more violent, severe, etc.), inflame.
Allowing your band to practice in our garage has greatly exacerbated my headache.
Exacting
Very severe in making demands; requiring precise attention.
The boxing coach was exacting, analyzing Joeys footwork down to the millimeter and forcing
him to repeat movements hundreds o f times until they were correct.
Expedient
Suitable, proper; effective (sometimes while sacrificing ethics).
“I need this report by 2pm, and I don’t care what you have to do to make that happen,” said
the boss. “I expect you to deal with it expediently.”
When invited to a wedding you cannot attend, it is expedient to send a gift.
Extrapolate
Conjecture about an unknown by projecting information about something known;
predict by projecting past experience. In math and science, to extrapolate is to infer values in an unobserved interval from values in an observed interval. For instance, from the points (1,4) and (3, 8), you could extrapolate the point (5, 12), since it would be on the same line.
No, I’ve never been to Bryn Mawr, but I’ve visited several small, private women’s colleges in the
Northeast, so I think I can extrapolate.
Faculty
An ability, often a mental ability. Most often used in the plural, as in A stroke can often
deprive a person of important mental faculties. (Of course, faculty can also mean the teachers or professors of an institution of learning.)
Fathom
Understand deeply.
I cannot even remotely fathom how you interpreted an invitation to sleep on my couch as permission
to take my car on a six-hour joyride!
Fledgling
New or inexperienced. A fledgling is also a young bird that cannot fly yet.
The Society of Engineers is available for career day presentations in elementary schools, where
we hope to encourage fledgling talents in the applied sciences.
Fleeting
Passing quickly, transitory.
I had assumed our summer romance would be fleeting, so I was very surprised when you proposed marriage!
Grade, Gradation
A gradation is a progression or process taking place gradually, in stages; to grade is to slant (the road grades steeply) or to blend (the dress’s fabric grades from blue to green).
The hills gradation was so gradual that even those on crutches were able to enjoy the nature trail.
The marshland grades into the water so gradually that it is difficult to tell the land from the bay.
