SAT Vocab Week ??? Flashcards

1
Q

circuitous

A

(adj.) roundabout (The bus’s circuitous route took us through numerous
outlying suburbs.)

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2
Q

circumscribed

A

(adj.) marked off, bounded (The children were permitted to play tag
only within a carefully circumscribed area of the lawn.)

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3
Q

circumlocution

A

(n.) indirect and wordy language (The professor’s habit of speaking in
circumlocutions made it difficult to follow his lectures.)

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4
Q

circumspect

A

(adj.) cautious (Though I promised Rachel’s father I would bring her home
promptly by midnight, it would have been more circumspect not to have specified a
time.)

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5
Q

circumvent

A

(v.) to get around (The school’s dress code forbidding navel-baring jeans
was circumvented by the determined students, who were careful to cover up with
long coats when administrators were nearby.)

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6
Q

clairvoyant

A

(adj.) able to perceive things that normal people cannot (Zelda’s uncanny
ability to detect my lies was nothing short of clairvoyant.)

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7
Q

clamor

A
  1. (n.) loud noise (Each morning the birds outside my window make such a
    clamor that they wake me up.) 2. (v.)to loudly insist (Neville’s fans clamored for
    him to appear on stage, but he had passed out on the floor of his dressing room.)
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8
Q

clandestine

A

(adj.) secret (Announcing to her boyfriend that she was going to the gym,
Sophie actually went to meet Joseph for a clandestine liaison.)

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9
Q

cleave

A
  1. (v.) to divide into parts (Following the scandalous disgrace of their leader, the
    entire political party cleaved into warring factions.) 2. (v.) to stick together firmly
    (After resolving their marital problems, Junior and Rosa cleaved to one another all
    the more tightly.)
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10
Q

cloying

A

(adj.) sickeningly sweet (Though Ronald was physically attractive, Maud
found his constant compliments and solicitous remarks cloying.)

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11
Q

clemency

A

(n.) mercy (After he forgot their anniversary, Martin could only beg Maria
for clemency.)

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12
Q

collusion

A

(n.)secret agreement, conspiracy (The three law students worked in collusion
to steal the final exam.)

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12
Q

coagulate

A

(v.) to thicken, clot (The top layer of the pudding had coagulated into a thick
skin.)

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12
Q

coalesce

A

(v.) to fuse into a whole (Gordon’s ensemble of thrift-shop garments coalesced
into a surprisingly handsome outfit.)

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13
Q

collateral

A
  1. (adj.)secondary (Divorcing my wife had the collateral effect of making me
    poor, as she was the only one of us with a job or money.) 2. (n.) security for a debt
    (Jacob left his watch as collateral for the $500 loan.)
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13
Q

coerce

A

(v.) to make somebody do something by force or threat (The court decided that
Vanilla Ice did not have to honor the contract because he had been coerced into
signing it.)

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14
Q

cogent

A

(adj.)intellectually convincing (Irene’s arguments in favor of abstinence were so
cogent that I could not resist them.)

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14
Q

coherent

A

(adj.) logically consistent, intelligible (Renee could not figure out what
Monroe had seen because he was too distraught to deliver a coherent statement.)

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15
Q

cognizant

A

(adj.) aware, mindful (Jake avoided speaking to women in bars because he
was cognizant of the fact that drinking impairs his judgment.)

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15
Q

colloquial

A

(adj.) characteristic of informal conversation (Adam’s essay on sexual
response in primates was marked down because it contained too many colloquial
expressions.)

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16
Q

commendation

A

(n.) a notice of approval or recognition (Jared received a commendation
from Linda, his supervisor, for his stellar performance.)

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16
Q

commensurate

A

(adj.) corresponding in size or amount (Ahab selected a very long roll
and proceeded to prepare a tuna salad sandwich commensurate with his enormous
appetite.)

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17
Q

commodious

A

(adj.)roomy (Holden invited the three women to join him in the back seat
of the taxicab, assuring them that the car was quite commodious.)

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18
Q

complacency

A

(n.) self-satisfied ignorance of danger (Colin tried to shock his friends out
of their complacency by painting a frightening picture of what might happen to
them.)

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19
Q

compelling

A

(adj.) forceful, demanding attention (Eliot’s speech was so compelling that
Lenore accepted his proposal on the spot.)

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20
Q

complicit

A

(adj.) being an accomplice in a wrongful act (By keeping her daughter’s affair
a secret, Maddie became complicit in it.)

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20
Q

comprehensive

A

(adj.) including everything (She sent me a comprehensive list of the
ingredients needed to cook rabbit soufflé.)

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21
Q

compunction

A

(n.) distress caused by feeling guilty (He felt compunction for the shabby
way he’d treated her.)

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21
Q

concede

A

(v.) to accept as valid (Andrew had to concede that what his mother said about
Diana made sense.)

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22
Q

conciliatory

A

(adj.) friendly, agreeable (I took Amanda’s invitation to dinner as a very
conciliatory gesture.)

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22
Q

concoct

A

(v.) to fabricate, make up (She concocted the most ridiculous story to explain her
absence.)

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23
Q

concomitant

A

(adj.) accompanying in a subordinate fashion (His dislike of hard work
carried with it a concomitant lack of funds.)

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24
Q

condolence

A

(n.) an expression of sympathy in sorrow (Brian lamely offered his
condolences on the loss of his sister’s roommate’s cat.)

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24
Q

concord

A

(n.) harmonious agreement (Julie and Harold began the evening with a
disagreement, but ended it in a state of perfect concord.)

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24
Q

conduit

A

(n.) a pipe or channel through which something passes (The water flowed
through the conduit into the container.)

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25
Q

condone

A
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26
Q

confluence

A

(n.) a gathering together (A confluence of different factors made tonight the
perfect night.)

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27
Q

confidant

A

(n.) a person entrusted with secrets (Shortly after we met, she became my
chief confidant.)

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27
Q

conflagration

A

(n.) great fire (The conflagration consumed the entire building.)

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28
Q

congruity

A

(n.) the quality of being in agreement (Bill and Veronica achieved a perfect
congruity of opinion.)

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28
Q

consonant

A

(adj.) in harmony (The singers’ consonant voices were beautiful.)

28
Q

conformist

A

(n.) one who behaves the same as others (Julian was such a conformist that
he had to wait and see if his friends would do something before he would commit.)

29
Q

connive

A

(v.) to plot, scheme (She connived to get me to give up my vacation plans.)

29
Q

consensus

A

(n.) an agreement of opinion (The jury was able to reach a consensus only
after days of deliberation.)

29
Q

confound

A

(v.) to frustrate, confuse (MacGuyver confounded the policemen pursuing
him by covering his tracks.)

29
Q

congenial

A

(adj.) pleasantly agreeable (His congenial manner made him popular
wherever he went.)

30
Q

consign

A

(v.) to give something over to another’s care (Unwillingly, he consigned his
mother to a nursing home.)

30
Q

consecrate

A

(v.) to dedicate something to a holy purpose (Arvin consecrated his spare
bedroom as a shrine to Christina.)

31
Q

constituent

A

(n.) an essential part (The most important constituent of her perfume is
something called ambergris.)

32
Q

constrain

A

(v.)to forcibly restrict (His belief in nonviolence constrained him from taking
revenge on his attackers.)

33
Q

construe

A

(v.) to interpret (He construed her throwing his clothes out the window as a
signal that she wanted him to leave.)

33
Q

consummate

A

(v.) to complete a deal; to complete a marriage ceremony through sexual
intercourse (Erica and Donald consummated their agreement in the executive
boardroom.)

34
Q

contemporaneous

A

(adj.) existing during the same time (Though her novels do not
feature the themes of Romanticism, Jane Austen’s work was contemporaneous with
that of Wordsworth and Byron.)

34
Q

contentious

A

(adj.) having a tendency to quarrel or dispute (George’s contentious
personality made him unpopular with his classmates.)

35
Q

copious

A

(adj.) profuse, abundant (Copious amounts of Snapple were imbibed in the
cafeteria.)

35
Q

contravene

A

(v.) to contradict, oppose, violate (Edwidge contravened his landlady’s rule
against overnight guests.)

35
Q

contrite

A

(adj.) penitent, eager to be forgiven (Blake’s contrite behavior made it
impossible to stay angry at him.)

36
Q

contusion

A

(n.) bruise, injury (The contusions on his face suggested he’d been in a fight.)

36
Q

conundrum

A

(n.) puzzle, problem (Interpreting Jane’s behavior was a constant
conundrum.)

36
Q

convoluted

A

(adj.) intricate, complicated (Grace’s story was so convoluted that I couldn’t
follow it.)

37
Q

convene

A

(v.) to call together (Jason convened his entire extended family for a
discussion.)

37
Q

culpable

A

(adj.) deserving blame (He was culpable of the crime, and was sentenced to
perform community service for 75 years.)

38
Q

convention

A
  1. (n.) an assembly of people (The hotel was full because of the cattleranchers’ convention.) 2. (n.) a rule, custom (The cattle-ranchers have a convention
    that you take off your boots before entering their houses.)
38
Q

convivial

A

(adj.) characterized by feasting, drinking, merriment (The restaurant’s
convivial atmosphere put me immediately at ease.)

38
Q

cordial

A

(adj.) warm, affectionate (His cordial greeting melted my anger at once.)

39
Q

corpulence

A

(adj.)extreme fatness (Henry’s corpulence did not make him any less
attractive to his charming, svelte wife.)

40
Q

criteria

A

(n.) standards by which something is judged (Among Mrs. Fields’s criteria for
good cookies are that they be moist and chewy.)

40
Q

cosmopolitan

A

(adj.) sophisticated, worldly (Lloyd’s education and upbringing were
cosmopolitan, so he felt right at home among the powerful and learned.)

40
Q

counteract

A

(v.) to neutralize, make ineffective (The antidote counteracted the effect of
the poison.)

41
Q

coup

A
  1. (n.) a brilliant, unexpected act (Alexander pulled off an amazing coup when he
    got a date with Cynthia by purposely getting hit by her car.) 2. (n.) the overthrow of
    a government and assumption of authority (In their coup attempt, the army officers
    stormed the Parliament and took all the legislators hostage.)
42
Q

covet

A

(v.) to desire enviously (I coveted Moses’s house, wife, and car.

42
Q

cunning

A

(adj.) sly, clever at being deceitful (The general devised a cunning plan to
surprise the enemy.)

42
Q

covert

A

(adj.)secretly engaged in (Nerwin waged a covertcampaign against his enemies,
while outwardly appearing to remain friendly.)

43
Q

credulity

A

(n.) readiness to believe (His credulity made him an easy target for con men.)

43
Q

cupidity

A

(n.) greed, strong desire (His cupidity made him enter the abandoned gold
mine despite the obvious dangers.)

43
Q

crescendo

A

(n.) a steady increase in intensity or volume (The crescendo of the brass
instruments gave the piece a patriotic feel.)

44
Q

cumulative

A

(adj.) increasing, building upon itself (The cumulative effect of hours spent
in the sun was a deep tan.)

44
Q

culmination

A

(n.) the climax toward which something progresses (The culmination of
the couple’s argument was the decision to divorce.)

45
Q

cursory

A

(adj.) brief to the point of being superficial (Late for the meeting, she cast a
cursory glance at the agenda.)

45
Q

daunting

A

(adj.) intimidating, causing one to lose courage (He kept delaying the
daunting act of asking for a promotion.)

45
Q

cultivate

A

(v.) to nurture, improve, refine (At the library, she cultivated her interest in
spy novels.)

45
Q

curt

A

(adj.) abruptly and rudely short (Her curt reply to my question made me realize
that she was upset at me.)

45
Q

curtail

A

(v.) to lessen, reduce (Since losing his job, he had to curtail his spending.)

46
Q

dearth

A

(n.) a lack, scarcity (An eager reader, she was dismayed by the dearth of classic
books at the library.)

47
Q

debauch

A

(v.) to corrupt by means of sensual pleasures (An endless amount of good wine
and cheese debauched the traveler.)

47
Q

debacle

A

(n.) a disastrous failure, disruption (The elaborately designed fireworks show
turned into a debacle when the fireworks started firing in random directions.)

48
Q

decorous

A

(adj.)socially proper, appropriate (The appreciative guest displayed decorous
behavior toward his host.)

48
Q

debase

A

(v.) to lower the quality or esteem of something (The large raise that he gave
himself debased his motives for running the charity.)

49
Q

defamatory

A

(adj.) harmful toward another’s reputation (The defamatory gossip
spreading about the actor made the public less willing to see the actor’s new movie.)

49
Q

defer

A

(v.) to postpone something; to yield to another’s wisdom (Ron deferred to Diane,
the expert on musical instruments, when he was asked about buying a piano.)

50
Q

decry

A

(v.) to criticize openly (The kind video rental clerk decried the policy of charging
customers late fees.)

51
Q

deferential

A

(adj.) showing respect for another’s authority (His deferential attitude
toward her made her more confident in her ability to run the company.)

52
Q

defile

A

(v.) to make unclean, impure (She defiled the calm of the religious building by
playing her banjo.)

52
Q

defunct

A

(adj.) no longer used or existing (They planned to turn the defunct schoolhouse
into a community center.)

53
Q

deft

A

(adj.) skillful, capable (Having worked in a bakery for many years, Marcus was a
deft bread maker.)

54
Q

delegate

A

(v.) to hand over responsibility for something (The dean delegated the task of
finding a new professor to a special hiring committee.)

55
Q

deleterious

A

(adj.) harmful (She experienced the deleterious effects of running a
marathon without stretching her muscles enough beforehand.)

56
Q

deliberate

A

(adj.) intentional, reflecting careful consideration (Though Mary was quite
upset, her actions to resolve the dispute were deliberate.)

57
Q

delineate

A

(v.) to describe, outline, shed light on (She neatly delineated her reasons for
canceling the project’s funding.)

58
Q

demagogue

A

(n.) a leader who appeals to a people’s prejudices (The demagogue
strengthened his hold over his people by blaming immigrants for the lack of jobs.)