GRE Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary Study Notes

• Adulterate: To corrupt or make impure by adding a foreign or inferior substance.
• Advocate: A person who supports or promotes the interests of a cause or group.
• Aggrandize: To increase in greatness or to elaborate upon details; combines the terms aggregate and grand.
• Alacrity: Characterized by liveliness and eagerness in action.
• Ambivalent: Expressing uncertainty or mixed feelings, reflecting a sense of conflict or indecision.
• Ameliorate: To improve or make something more tolerable, presenting a contrast to deteriorate.
• Amenable: Open to submission or obedient; implies compliance or readiness to be influenced.
• Anachronistic: Refers to an error in the chronological arrangement of events or objects.
• Audacious: Exhibiting reckless boldness; synonym for audacity.
• Avaricious: Exhibiting greed or extreme desire for wealth and possessions.
• Banal: Lacking originality and freshness; sometimes referred to as insipid.
• Benign: Illustrates kindness and gentleness; denotes something harmless, rooted in the Latin term meaning "well."
• Brazen: Characterized by shamelessness or disrespectful boldness; synonymous with audacious behavior.
• Calumny: A damaging misrepresentation or false statement made to harm someone's reputation.
• Candid: Emphasizes honest and sincere expression, being direct and frank in communication.
• Castigate: To impose severe punishment or criticism on an individual; to reprimand harshly.
• Caustic: Marked by incisive sarcasm; qualitatively sharp or biting in tone.
• Construe: To analyze or interpret the arrangement and connection of words in language.
• Contrite: Indicates a feeling of sorrow or remorse for a wrongdoing, representing a sense of regret.
• Convoluted: Conveys complexity or intricacy in structure or meaning.
• Covet: To strongly desire or crave something, often with an implication of envy.
• Craven: Denotes cowardliness or a lack of courage; a significant deficiency in bravery.
• Decorum: The set of conventional behaviors associated with polite society; refers to propriety.
• Deft: Skillful in physical movements, particularly involving the hands; signifies agility and expertise.
• Demur: To object or express reluctant dissent towards something.
• Derivative: Refers to something that is derived or obtained from another source.
• Desiccate: The process of preserving food by drying; denotes being dried out.
• Diatribe: A verbal attack or prolonged discourse criticizing something; embodies a harangue.
• Incredulous: Illustrates a reluctance to accept or admit the truth; embodies skepticism or doubt.
• Ingenuous: Represents innocence and a childlike simplicity; suggests honesty and straightforwardness.