Study GRE Vocab: Beyond the Hit Parade Group 2 Flash Cards

 
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GRE Vocab: Beyond the Hit Parade Group 2

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voluble (adj.)
fluent, verbal, having easy use of spoken language
vitiate (v.)
to corrupt, debase, spoil, make ineffective
tyro (n.)
novice, greenhorn, rank amateur
timorous (adj.)
timid, fearful, diffident
tendentious (adj.)
biased; showing marked tendencies
sycophant (n.)
toady, servile, self-seeking flatterer; parasite
stygian (adj.)
gloomy, dark
stentorian (adj.)
extremely loud and powerful
sententious (adj.)
aphoristic or moralistic; epigrammatic; tending to moralize excessively
saturnine (adj.)
gloomy, dark, sullen, morose
sanguine (adj.)
cheerful, confident, optimistic
salutary (adj.)
remedial, wholesome, causing improvement
salacious (adj.)
lustful, lascivious, bawdy
sagacious (adj.)
having sound judgment; perceptive, wise; like a sage
remonstrate (v.)
to protest, object
pusillanimous (adj.)
cowardly, craven
puissance (n.)
power, strength; puissant means powerful, strong: The senator delivered a puissant speech to the convention.
puerile (adj.)
childish, immature, jejune, nugatory
propitiate (v.)
to appease; to conciliate; propitious means auspicious, favorable
prolix (adj.)
long-winded, verbose; prolixity means vebosity: Mikhail Gorbachev is famous for his prolixity.
plangent (adj.)
pounding, thundering, resounding
peroration (n.)
the concluding part of a speech; flowery, rhetorical speech
pellucid (adj.)
transparent, easy to understand, limpid
parsimonious (adj.)
cheap, miserly: A parsimonious person parses out his money with great difficulty.
panegyric (n.)
formal praise, eulogy, encomium; panegyrical means expressing elaborate praise
palliate (v.)
to make something seem less serious, to gloss over, to make less severe or intense
ossified (adj.)
tending to become more rigid, conventional, sterile, and reactionary with age; literally, turned into bone
obstreperous (adj.)
noisily and stubbornly defiant, aggressively boisterous
nonplussed (adj.)
baffled, bewildered, at a loss for what to do or think
nadir (n.)
low point, perigee
minatory (adj.)
menacing, threatening (reminds you of the Minotaur, a threatening creature indeed)
meretricious (adj.)
cheap, gaudy, tawdry, flashy, showy; attracting by false show
mendicant (n.)
a beggar, supplicant
lubricious (adj.)
lewd, wanton, greasy, slippery
jejune (adj.)
vapid, uninteresting, nugatory; childish, immature, puerile
inveterate (adj.)
deep rooted, ingrained, habitual
insouciant (adj.)
unconcerned, carefree, heedless
inimitable (adj.)
one of a kind, peerless
ineluctable (adj.)
certain, inevitable
indefatigable (adj.)
not easily exhaustible; tireless, dogged
imbroglio (n.)
difficult or embarrassing situation
heterodox (adj.)
unorthodox, heretical, iconoclastic
gainsay (v.)
to deny, dispute, contradict, oppose
fractious (adj.)
quarrelsome, rebellious, unruly, refractory, irritable
fatuous (adj.)
silly, inanely foolish: I would ignore such a fatuous comment.
extirpate (v.)
to destroy, exterminate, cut out, exscind
expiate (v.)
to atone or make amends for: Pia Zadora has expiated her movie career by good works and charity.
exegesis (n.)
critical examination, explication
execrate (v.)
denounce, feel loathing for, curse, declare to be evil
excoriate (v.)
to censure scathingly, to upbraid
eschew (v.)
to shun or avoid: She chose to eschew the movie theater, preferring to watch DVDs at home.
encomium (n.)
glowing and enthusiastic praise; panegyric, tribute, eulogy
dirge (n.)
a song of grief or lamentation: We listened to the slow, funereal dirge.
diffident (adj.)
reserved, shy, unassuming; lacking in self-confidence: Surprisingly, the CEO of the corporation had been a diffident youth.
diaphanous (adj.)
transparent, gauzy
desultory (adj.)
random; aimless; marked by a lack of plan or purpose: Her desultory performance impressed no one.
desuetude (n.)
disuse: After years of desuetude, my French skills were finally put to use.
descry (v.)
to discriminate or discern
denouement (n.)
an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot.
debacle (n.)
rout, fiasco, complete failure: My first attempt at a souffle was a total debacle.
contumacious (adj.)
insubordinate, rebellious; contumely means insult, scorn, aspersion
chimera (n.)
an illusion; originally, an imaginary fire-breathing she-monster
celerity (n.)
speed, alacrity; think accelerate
cavil (v.)
to find fault without good reason
captious (adj.)
disposed to point out trivial faults, calculated to confuse or entrap in argument
calumniate (v.)
to slander, make a false accusation; calumny means slander, aspersion
bellicose (adj.)
belligerent, pugnacious, warlike
augury (n.)
omen, portent
assiduous (adj.)
diligent, hard-working, sedulous
asseverate (v.)
to aver, allege, assert
asperity (n.)
severity, rigor; roughness, harshness; acrimony, irritability
apotheosis (n.)
deification, glorification to godliness, an exalted example, a model of excellence or perfection
apostate (n.)
one who abandons long-held religious or political convictions
apogee (n.)
farthest or highest point; culmination; zenith
anodyne (adj./n.)
soothing, something that assuages or allays pain or comforts
anathema (n.)
a solemn or ecclesiastical (religious) curse; accursed or thoroughly loathed person or thing
adumbrate (v.)
to foreshadow vaguely or intimate, to suggest or outline sketchily, to obscure or overshadow
abjure (v.)
to renounce or reject solemnly; to recant; to avoid
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