SAT 2.0 Flashcards
abase
to humiliate, degrade
(After being overthrown and abased, the deposed
leader offered to bow down to his conqueror.)
abate
to reduce, lessen
(The rain poured down for a while, then abated.)
abdicate
to give up a position, usually one of leadership
(When he realized that the
revolutionaries would surely win, the king abdicated his throne.)
abduct
to kidnap, take by force
(The evildoers abducted the fairy princess from her
happy home.)
aberration
something that differs from the norm
(In 1918, the Boston Red Sox won
the World Series, but the success turned out to be an aberration, and the Red Sox
have not won a World Series since.)
abet
to aid, help, encourage
(The spy succeeded only because he had a friend on the
inside to abet him.)
abhor
to hate, detest
(Because he always wound up kicking himself in the head
when he tried to play soccer, Oswald began to abhor the sport.)
abide
to put up with
(Though he did not agree with the decision, Chuck decided
to abide by it.)
2. (v.) to remain
(Despite the beating they’ve taken from the weather
throughout the millennia, the mountains abide.)
abject
wretched, pitiful
(After losing all her money, falling into a puddle, and
breaking her ankle, Eloise was abject.)
abjure
to reject, renounce
(To prove his honesty, the President abjured the evil
policies of his wicked predecessor.)
abnegation
) denial of comfort to oneself (The holy man slept on the floor, took only
cold showers, and generally followed other practices of abnegation.)
abort
to give up on a half-finished project or effort (After they ran out of food, the
men, attempting to jump rope around the world, had to abort and go home.)
abridge
to cut down, shorten
(The publisher thought the dictionary was too long
and abridged it.)
2. (adj.) shortened
(Moby-Dick is such a long book that even the
abridged version is longer than most normal books.)
abrogate
to abolish, usually by authority
(The Bill of Rights assures that the
government cannot abrogate our right to a free press.)
abscond
to sneak away and hide (In the confusion, the super-spy absconded into the
night with the secret plans.)
absolution
freedom from blame, guilt, sin
(Once all the facts were known, the jury
gave Angela absolution by giving a verdict of not guilty.)
abstain
to freely choose not to commit an action (Everyone demanded that Angus
put on the kilt, but he did not want to do it and abstained.)
abstruse
hard to comprehend
(Everyone else in the class understood geometry
easily, but John found the subject abstruse.)
accede
to agree
(When the class asked the teacher whether they could play baseball
instead of learn grammar they expected him to refuse, but instead he acceded to
their request.)
accentuate
to stress, highlight
(Psychologists agree that those people who are
happiest accentuate the positive in life.)
accolade
) high praise, special distinction
(Everyone offered accolades to Sam after
he won the Noble Prize.)
accessible
obtainable, reachable
(After studying with SparkNotes and getting a great score on the SAT, Marlena happily realized that her goal of getting into an
Ivy-League college was accessible.)
acclaim
high praise
(Greg’s excellent poem won the acclaim of his friends.)
accommodating
helpful, obliging, polite
(Though the apartment was not big
enough for three people, Arnold, Mark, and Zebulon were all friends and were
accommodating to each other.)
accord
an agreement
(After much negotiating, England and Iceland finally came to
a mutually beneficial accord about fishing rights off the cost of Greenland.)
accretion
slow growth in size or amount
(Stalactites are formed by the accretion of
minerals from the roofs of caves.)
accost
to confront verbally
(Though Antoinette was normally quite calm, when the
waiter spilled soup on her for the fourth time in 15 minutes she stood up and accosted
the man.)
acquiesce
to agree without protesting
(Though Mr. Correlli wanted to stay outside
and work in his garage, when his wife told him that he had better come in to dinner,
he acquiesced to her demands.
acerbic
biting, bitter in tone or taste
(Jill became extremely acerbic and began to
cruelly make fun of all her friends.)
acrimony
bitterness, discord
(Though they vowed that no girl would ever come
between them, Biff and Trevor could not keep acrimony from overwhelming their
friendship after they both fell in love with the lovely Teresa.)
