Week 1

Question 1

abate

Answer 1

v. subside or moderate.

“Rather than leaving immediately, they waited for the storm to abate.”

Question 2

aberrant

Answer 2

adj. abnormal or deviant

“Given the aberrant nature of the data, we came to doubt the validity of the entire experiment.”

Question 3

abeyance

Answer 3

n. suspended in action

“The deal was held in abeyance until her arrival.”

Question 4

abscond

Answer 4

v. depart secretly and hide

“The teller who absconded with the bonds went uncaptured until someone recognized him from America’s Most Wanted.”

Question 5

abstemious

Answer 5

adj. sparing in eating or drinking; temperate
“Concerned whether her vegetarian son’s abstemious diet provided him with sufficient protein, the worried mother pressed food on him.”

Question 6

admonish

Answer 6

v. warn, reprove
“When her courtiers questioned her religious beliefs, Mary Stuart admonished them, declaring that she would worship as she pleased.”

Question 7

adulterate

Answer 7

v. to make impure by adding inferior or tainted substances; n. adulteration
“It is a crime to adulterate foods without informing the buyer; when consumers learned that Beechnut had adulterated its apple juice by mixing the juice with water, they protested vigorously.”

Question 8

aesthetic

Answer 8

adj. artistic, dealing with or capable of appreciating the beautiful; n. aesthete
“The beauty of Tiffany’s stained glass appealed to Alice’s aesthetic sense.

Question 9

aggregate

Answer 9

v. gather, accumulate; n. aggregation
“Before the Wall Street scandals, dealers in so-called junk bonds managed to aggregate great wealth in short periods of time.”

Question 10

alacrity

Answer 10

n. cheerful promptness, eagerness
“Phil and Dave were raring to get off to the mountains; they packed up their ski gear and climbed into the van with alacrity.”

Question 11

alleviate

Answer 11

v. relieve

“This should alleviate the pain; if it does not we shall have to use stronger drugs.”

Question 12

amalgamate

Answer 12

v. combine; unite in one body

“The unions will attempt to amalgamate their groups into one national body.”

Question 13

ambiguous

Answer 13

adj. unclear or doubtful in meaning; n. ambiguity

“His ambiguous instructions misled us; we did not know which road to take”

Question 14

ambivalence

Answer 14

n. the state of having contradictory or conflicting emotional attitudes; adj. ambivalence
“Torn between loving her parents one minute and hating them the next, she was confused by the ambivalence of her feelings.”

Question 15

ameliorate

Answer 15

v. improve

“Many social workers have attempted to ameliorate the living conditions of people living in the slums.”

Question 16

anachronism

Answer 16

n. something or someone misplaced in time; adj. anachronistic
“Shakespeare’s reference to clocks in Julias Caesar is an anachronism; no clocks existed in Caesar’s time.”

Question 17

analogous

Answer 17

adj. comparable
“She called our attention to the things that had been done in an analogous situation and recommended that we do the same.”

Question 18

anarchy

Answer 18

n. absence of governing body; state of disorder

“The assassination of the leaders led to a period of anarchy.”

Question 19

anomalous

Answer 19

adj. abnormal or irregular

“Researchers could not explain the anomalous test results”

Question 20

antipathy

Answer 20

n. aversion; dislike

“Tom’s extreme antipathy for disputes keeps him from getting into arguments with his temperamental wife.”

Question 21

apathy

Answer 21

n. lack of caring; adj. apathetic

“A firm believer in democratic goverment

Question 22

appease

Answer 22

v. pacify or soothe, relieve; n. appeasement

“Tom and Jody tried to appease the crying baby by offering him one toy after another.”

Question 23

apprise

Answer 23

v. to inform
“When NASA was apprised of the dangerous weather conditions, the head of the space agency decided to postpone the shuttle launch.”

Question 24

approbation

Answer 24

n. approval
“Benjamin Franklin, that shrewd observer of mankind, once wrote, ‘We must not in the course of public life expect immediate approbation and immediate grateful acknowledgement of our services.’”

Question 25

appropriate

Answer 25

v. acquire; take possession for one’s own use

“The ranch owners appropriated the lands that had originally been set aside for the Indian’s use.”

Question 26

arduous

Answer 26

adj. hard, strenuous

“Her arduous efforts had sapped her energy.”

Question 27

artless

Answer 27

adj. without guile, open and honest
“Red Riding Hood’s artless comment, ‘Grandma, what big eyes you have!’ indicates the child’s innocent surprise at her ‘grandmother’s’ changed appearance.”

Question 28

ascetic

Answer 28

adj. practicing self-denial, austere; n. asceticism

“The wealthy, self-indulgent young man felt oddly drawn to the strict, ascetic life led by some monastic orders.”

Question 29

assiduous

Answer 29

adj. diligent

“It took Rembrandt weeks of assiduous labor before he was satisfied with his portrait of his son.”

Question 30

assuage

Answer 30

v. ease or lessen (pain), satisfy (hunger), soothe (anger); n. assuagement
“Jilted by Jane, Dick tried to assuage his heartache by indulging in icecream.”

Question 31

attenuate

Answer 31

v. make thinner, weaken or lessen (in density, force, degree)
“The long, dry spell attenuated the creek to the merest trickle.”

Question 32

audacious

Answer 32

adj. daring, bold; n. audacity
“Audiences cheered as Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia made their audacious, death-defying leap to freedom and escaped Darth Vader’s troops.”