SAT Vocab Flashcards
Ambiance
Noun
1. the mood, character, quality, tone, atmosphere, etc.,
particularly of an environment or milieu
2. that which surrounds or encompasses; environment.
atmosphere, surroundings, setting
Amenable
Adjective
1. ready or willing to answer, act, agree, or yield; open to influence, persuasion, or advice; agreeable;
submissive; tractable tractable
2. liable to be called to account; answerable; legally responsible
Agreeable, responsive, susceptible, docile
Amplify
Verb
1. to make larger, greater, or stronger; enlarge; extend.
2. to expand in stating or describing, as by details or illustrations; clarify by expanding.
Intensify, magnify, strengthen, heighten
Antecedent
Adiective
1. Preceding, prior
Noun
2. a preceding circumstance, event, object, style, phenomenon, etc.
Former, past, precedent
Anterior
Adiective
1. situated before or at the front of; fore (opposed to posterior)
2. going before in time or sequence; preceding; earlier
Preceding, previous, former
Appalling
Adjective
1. Causing dismay or horror
Alarming, astounding, awful, horrific
Aptitude
Noun
1. capability; ability; innate or acquired capacity for something;
talent
2. readiness or quickness in learning; intelligence
Disposition, proclivity, proneness, predilection
Archaic
Adjective
1. marked by the characteristics of an earlier period; antiquated
2. (of a linguistic form) commonly used in an earlier time but rare in present-day usage except to suggest the older time, as in religious rituals or historical novels
Ancient, obsolete, old-fashioned
Arduous
Adiective
1. requiring great exertion;
laborious; difficult
2. requiring or using much energy and vigor; strenuous
Formidable, rigorous, tiring, trying
Artisan
Noun
1.a person skilled in a utilitarian art, trade, or craft, especially one requiring manual skill; a craftsperson.
2. a person or company that makes a high-quality or distinctive product in small quantities, usually by hand or using traditional methods
Adiective
1.pertaining to an artisan or the product of an artisan
Builder, carpenter, craftsman, professional
Askew
Adverb
1. To one side; out of line; in a crooked position; awry
2. with disapproval, scorn, contempt, etc.; disdainfully
Adiective crooked; awry
Awry, off-center, askance
Aspire
Verb
1. to long, aim, or seek ambitiously; be eagerly desirous, especially for something great or of high value (usually followed by to, after, or an infinitive
Pursue, strive, seek
Assuage
Verb
1. to make milder or less severe;
alleviate; ease; mitigate
2. to appease; satisfy; sate
Alleviate, appease, lessen, soften, temper
Astute
Adiective
1. keenly perceptive or discerning;
sagacious
2. shrewd; cunning
Insightful, intelligent, keen
Asunder
Adjective, Adverb
1. into separate parts; in or into pieces
2. apart or widely separated
Disconnected, disjoined, divided
Atrophy
Noun
1. Pathology. a wasting away of the body or of an organ or part, as from defective nutrition or nerve damage.
2. degeneration, decline, or decrease, as from disuse
Verb
3.to affect with or undergo atrophy
Degeneration, decline, deterioration
Atypical
Adiective
1. not typical; not conforming to the type; irregular; abnormal
Abnormal, divergent, odd, peculiar
Austere
Adiective
1. severe in manner or
appearance; uncompromising;
strict; forbidding
2. rigorously self-disciplined and severely moral; ascetic; abstinent
Exacting, forbidding, formal, rigid, sober
Badger
Verb
1. to harass or urge persistently;
pester; nag
Annoy, harass, hound, tease, torment
Ballistics
Noun
1. the science or study of the motion of projectiles, as bullets, shells, or bombs.
2. the art or science of designing projectiles for maximum flight performance.
Balm
Noun
1. Anything that heals, soothes, or mitigates pain
ointment, salve, application
Beget
Verb
(especially of a male parent) to procreate or generate (offspring). to cause; produce as an effect
Bring about, sire, cause, produce
Beleaguer
Verb
1. to surround with military forces.
2. to surround or beset, as with troubles.
Annoy, plague, bother
Bereave
Verb
1. to deprive and make desolate, especially by death (usually followed by of)
2. to deprive ruthlessly or by force (usually followed by of)
dispossess, leave, strip
Beset
Verb
1. to attack on all sides; assail.
2. to trouble greatly or grievously;
to afflict with mental or physical suffering; harass
3. to surround; hem in
4. to set or place upon; bestud
5. Nautical. to surround (a vessel) by ice, so that control of the helm is lost.
Besiege, overrun, perplex, surround
Bizarre
Adiective
1. markedly unusual in appearance, style, or general character and often involving incongruous or unexpected elements;
outrageously or whimsically strange; odd
Comical, curious, extraordinary, odd
Blather
Noun
1. foolish, voluble talk
Verb
2. to talk or utter foolishly; babble
Babble, chatter, nonsense, prattle
Bleak
Adiective
1. bare, desolate, and often windswept
2. cold and piercing; raw
Desolate, austere, dreary, grim
Bludgeon
Noun
1. a short, heavy club with one end weighted, or thicker and heavier than the other.
Verb
2. to strike or knock down with a bludgeon.
3. to force into something; coerce;
bully
Batter, strike, beat, clobber
Bucolic
Adjective
1. of or relating to shepherds;
pastoral.
2. of, relating to, or suggesting an idyllic rural life.
Noun
3. a pastoral poem.
Agrarian, pastoral, arcadian
