GRE Group 2 2
Terms
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- Abate
- To lessen in intensity or degree
- Accolade
- An expression of praise
- Adulation
- Excessive praise; intense adoration
- Aesthetic
- Dealing with, appreciative of, or responsive to art or the beautiful
- Ameliorate
- To make better or more tolerable
- Ascetic
- One who practices rigid self-denial, esp. as an acto fo religious devotion
- Avarice
- Greed, esp. for wealth
- Axiom
- A universally recognized principle
- Bucolic
- Rustic and pastoral; characteristic of rural areas and their inhabitants
- Burgeon
- To grow rapidly or flourish
- Cacophony
- Harsh, jarring, discordant sound; dissonance
- Canon
- An established set of principles or code of laws, often religious in nature
- Castigation
- Severe criticism or punishment
- Catalyst
- A substance that accelerates the rate of a chemical reaction without itself changing; a person or thing that causes change
- Caustic
- Burning or stinging; cuasing corroision
- Chary
- Wary; cautious; sparing
- Cogent
- appealing forcibly to the mind or reason
- Complaisance
- the willingness to comply with the wishes of others
- Contentious
- Argumentative; quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement
- Contrite
- Regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness
- Culpable
- Deserving blame
- Dearth
- Smallness of quanitity or number
- Demur
- To question or oppose
- Didactic
- Intended to teach or instruct
- Discretion
- Cautious reserve in speech; ability to make rsponsible decisions
- Disinterested
- Free of bias or self-interest; impartial
- Dogmatic
- Expressing a rigid opinion based on unproved or unprovable principles
- Ebullience
- The quality of lively or enthusiastic expression of thoughts and feelings
- Eclectic
- Composed of elements drawn from various sources
- Elegy
- A mournful poem, esp. one lamenting the dead
- Emollient
- Soothing, esp. to the skin; making less harsh; mollifying; an agent that softens or smoothes the skin
- Empirical
- Based on observation or experiment
- Enigmatic
- Mysterious; obscure; difficult to understand
- Ephemeral
- Brief; fleeting
- Esoteric
- Intended for or understood by a small, specific group
- Eulogy
- A speech honoring the dead
- Exonerate
- To remove blame
- Facetious
- Playful; humorous
- Fallacy
- An invalid or incorrect notion; a mistaken belief
- Furtive
- Marked by stealth; covert; surreptitious
- Gregarious
- Sociable; outgoing; enjoying the company of other people
- Harangue
- To deliver a pompous speech or tirade; a long, pompous speech
- Heretical
- Violating accpted dogma or convention
- Hyperbole
- An exaggerated statement, often used as a figure of speech
- Impecunious
- Lacking funds; without money
- Incipient
- Beginning to come into being or to become apparent
- Inert
- Unmoving; lethargic; sluggish
- Innocuous
- Harmless; causing no damage
- Intransigent
- Refusing to compromise
- Inveigle
- To obtain by deception or flattery
- Morose
- Sad; sullen; melancholy
- Odious
- Evoking intense aversion or dislike
- Opaque
- Impenetrable by light; not reflecting light
- Oscillation
- The act or state of swinging back and forth with a steady, uninterrupted rhythm
- Penurious
- Penny-pinching; excessively thrifty; ungenerous
- Pernicious
- Exdtremely harmful; potentially causing death
- Peruse
- To examine with great care
- Pious
- Extremely reverent or devout; showing strong religious devotion
- Precursor
- One that precedes and indicates or announces another
- Preen
- To dress up; to primp; to groom oneself with elaborate care
- Prodigious
- Abundant in size, force, or extent; extraordinary
- Prolific
- Producing large volumes or amounts; productive
- Putrefy
- To rot; to decay and give off a foul odor
- Quaff
- To drink deeply
- Quiescence
- Stillness; motionlessness; quality of being at rest
- Redoubtable
- Awe-inspiring; worthy of honor
- Sanction
- Authoritative permission or approval; a penalty intended to enforce compliance; to give permission or authority to
- Satire
- A literary work that ridicules or criticizes a human vice through humor or derision
- Squalid
- Sordid; wretched and dirty as from neglect
- Stoic
- Indifferent to or unaffected by pleasure or pain; steadfast
- Supplant
- To take the place of; supersede
- Torpid
- Lethargic; sluggish; dormant