gre common vocab
Terms
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- acumen
- keenness;insight; depth of perception
- alacrity
- eager and enthusiastic willingness
- abeyance
- suspension; temporary inactivity
- abjure
- to renounce upon oath; to avoid
- axiom
- universal principle, a given possessing self evident truth
- bucolic
- characteristic of rural areas
- capricious
- changing ones mind impulsively, erratic, unpredictable
- chary
- wary, cautious
- dissemble
- to disguise; mislead
- endemic
- prevalent in or native to a certain region, locality, or people
- enervate
- weaken, reduce in vitality
- ennui
- dissatisfaction and restlessness resulting from boredom
- equivocate
- to use ambiguous language intending to deceive
- exigent
- urgent; pressing
- flout
- to demonstrate contempt for
- fulminate
- loudly attack or denounce
- germane
- relevant to the subject at hand
- halcyon
- calm and peaceful
- impecunious
- lacking funds
- implacable
- not capable of being appeased or changed
- impunity
- immunity from punishment or penalty
- inchoate
- not fully formed
- incipient
- beginning to come into being or become apparent
- ingenuous
- artless, frank, lacking in sophistication
- inimical
- damaging, harmful
- exscind
- to cut out/cut away
- expiation
- ending, expiring
- irascible
- easily angered
- inveigle
- to attain by deception, flatter
- timorous
- fearful, timid
- extenuate
- to lessen the seriousness of
- expedient
- a means to an end; not necessarily a principled or ethical one
- ambrosial
- extremely pleasing to the senses, divine (as related to the gods) or delicious (n: ambrosia)
- anomalous
- peculiar; unique, contrary to the norm (n: anomaly)
- antipathy
- hostility toward, objection, or aversion to
- attenuate
- weaken (adj: attenuated)
- aver
- to declare
- cadge
- to get something by taking advantage of someone
- chicanery
- deception by trickery
- corroborate
- to strengthen or support
- craven
- cowardly, a coward
- depredation
- the act of preying upon or plundering
- descry
- to make clear, to say
- disabuse
- to free a person from falsehood or error
- efficacy
- effectiveness, capability of producing a desired effect
- effluent
- the quality of flowing out; something that flows out
- emollient
- softening; something that softens
- encomium
- a formal elegy or speak of praise
- equivocal
- ambivalent, unclear, subject to more than one interpretation
- esoteric
- intended for or only understood by a few
- fervid, fervent
- highly emotional, hot
- florid
- flushed with a rosy color, as in complexion; very ornate and flowery
- guile
- skillful deceit
- hapless
- unfortunate
- imperious
- commanding
- improvidence
- an absence of foresight; a failure to provide for future needs or events
- ineffible
- undescribable, inexpressible in words, unspeakable
- ingenious
- clever
- insensible
- numb, unconscious
- intransigent
- stubborn, unmovable, unwilling to change
- laconic
- using few words, terse
- leviathan
- something very large
- lugubrious
- excessively weighty, mournful, gloomy
- nefarious
- wicked, evil
- noisome
- harmful, offensive, destructive
- obdurate
- hardened against influence or feeling, intractable
- obviate
- to prevent by anticipatory measures; to make unnecessary
- panegyric
- a writing or speech in praise of a person or thing
- pedantic
- making an excessive display of one's own learning
- perfidious
- deliberately treacherous, dishonest
- phlegmatic
- not easily excited, cool, sluggish
- ponderous
- heavy, massive, awkward, dull
- prevaricate
- to stray away from or evade the truth
- prodigal
- rashly wasteful
- pulchritudinous
- beautiful
- propitiate
- to conciliate, to appease
- pusillanimous
- cowardly, timid, or irresolute; petty
- quiescence
- inactivity, stillness, dormancy
- rarefy
- to make or become thin, to purify or refine
- reproof
- the act of censoring, scolding, or rebuking
- sanguine
- cheerful, confident
- saturnine
- having a gloomy or morose temperment
- sedulous
- diligent, persevering, persistent
- specious
- seemingly true but really false; deceptively convincing or attractive
- tacit
- unspoken
- taciturn
- habitually untalkative or silent
- temperate
- exercising moderation and self-denial; calm or mild
- tortuous
- excessively complicated
- tractable
- ability to be easily managed or controlled
- turpitude
- depravity, baseness
- tyro
- beginner, person lacking experience
- venerate
- show great respect or reverence
- vex
- to annoy, bother, perplex, puzzle
- viscous
- slow moving; highly resistant to flow
- contumacious
- insubordinate, rebellious
- mettlesome
- courageous, high-spirited (different from "meddlesome")
- remonstrate
- to protest, to object
- truculence
- aggressiveness, ferocity
- paucity
- scarcity, a lacking of
- lassitude
- weakness, tiredness
- sycophant
- flatterer, parasite, suck up
- assiduous
- diligent, hard-working
- reprobate
- person hardened in sin; one devoid of decency
- hirsute
- hairy, shaggy
- volubility
- fluency, verbosity, easy use of spoken language
- insouciant
- unconcerned, carefree
- diaphanous
- transparent, gauzy
- raffish
- disreputable, tawdry
- vituperate
- berate, rail against, attack verbally
- sophistry
- fallacious reasoning, faulty logic
- assay
- an analysis, examination; to put to a test
- hallow
- to make holy, consecrate
- expostulate
- argue earnestly to disuade, correct, or protest
- punctilious
- precise, paying attention to trivialities, especially in regard to etiquette
- rapacious
- voracious, greedy, plundering
- coeval
- of the same period; coexisting
- sanctimony
- self-righteous, hypocritical, with false piety
- desultory
- aimless, haphazard, digressing at random
- supercilious
- disdainful; characterized by haughty scorn
- fatuous
- complacently stupid
- salubrious
- healthful
- spurious
- false, counterfeit
- recidivism
- relapse into antisocial or criminal behavior
- profligate
- wasteful, prodigal, licentious, extravagant
- recondite
- profound, abstruse, obscure
- probity
- uprightness, incorruptability
- calumny
- slander, aspersion
- penury
- extreme poverty
- fulsome
- unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech
- asperity
- roughness, harshness, hard to endure