Key Science-Related Terms

Key Science-Related Terms

• Advantageous means providing an advantage.
• Charge refers to positive or negative electricity.
• Control group is the group in an experiment where the variable being tested is not changed.
• Empirical means relying on hard data.
• Hierarchy is a system of rank, the opposite of egalitarian.
• Isotope is an alternate form of an element.
• Indigenous means native.
• Inhibit means to prevent or impede something, such as a response.
• Innovative means new and revolutionary.
• Metabolism is the process of converting food to energy.
• Microbial relates to microscopic organisms.
• Pigment is color.
• Predisposed means having a tendency toward something.
• Regenerate means to regrow.
• Replicate means to repeat an experiment and obtain the same results.
• Saturate means to become completely soaked.
• Stimulus is something that provokes a specific response.
• Symbiosis is an interaction between two organisms living close together, which benefits both.
• Taxonomy is a classification system.
• Trait is a characteristic.
• Velocity is speed.

Important General Terms

• Make a Claim involves advancing, positing, proffering, speculating, or hypothesizing.
• Draw a Conclusion involves inferring or surmising.
• Support a Claim involves bolstering, buttressing, or substantiating it.
• Provide Sources involves attributing or citing them.
• Questioning a Claim involves ambivalence, skepticism, rebutting, or refuting.
• Large Amount refers to multitude, plethora, or profusion.
• Small Amount refers to dearth or paucity.
• Think about involves grappling with, mulling over, or ruminating about.
• Coming Together involves converging, integrating, or intersecting.
• Different/Diverse means disparate, heterogeneous, or eclectic.
• Moving Apart means to diverge.
• Inborn means inherent, innate, or intrinsic.
• Noticeable/Striking means conspicuous, distinctive, or salient.
• Harmless means benign or innocuous.

Additional General Vocabulary

• Adept means skilled.
• Adversary is an opponent.
• Align (oneself with) means support or adopt the position of.
• Authentic means genuine.
• Benevolent means kind.
• Buttress means provide support.
• Centrality is the state of being central or essential.
• Complement means to complete or perfect.
• Comprehensive means thorough or complete, and distinguishable from comprehensible, which means understandable.
• Conspicuous means clearly visible.
• Contingent means dependent upon.
• Confer means give or grant.
• Corollary is a statement/condition logically resulting from a proven argument.
• Contemporary means current.
• Cultivate means to grow or raise something, like crops.
• Displace means to force someone/something from its home or habitat.
• Disposition means personality.
• Engendering means to cause to exist or produce.
• Ideology is a belief system.
• Impede/Inhibit means to prevent or get in the way of.
• Indigenous means native.
• Ineluctable means unable to be avoided or inescapable.
• Insuperable means impossible to overcome.
• Irreproachable means blameless.
• Judicial is related to the law.
• Marginal means unimportant.
• Mitigate means to make less severe.
• Preliminary means occurring before the main event.
• Prevail means to win.
• Prevalent/Prevailing means widespread, or generally accepted.
• Reciprocate means to respond to an action/behavior with the same action/behavior.
• Repudiate means to refuse to accept.
• Rudimentary means very basic.
• Shrewd means smart.
• Successor is a person inheriting another's position.
• Unequivocal means leaving no doubt or being unambiguous.
• Vindicate means to free from blame.

Common Second Meanings

• Afford means to grant, like an opportunity.
• Appreciate means to take into account or recognize the merits of, OR to increase in value.
• Arrest means to stop, not just to put handcuffs on a criminal.
• Assume means to take on responsibility for, or acquire, such as assuming a new position.
• Austerity is a financial policy to reduce excess spending on luxury/non-essential items.
• Badger means to pester or annoy.
• Bent means a liking for, synonymous with penchant, predilection, or proclivity.
• Capacity refers to ability.
• Chance means to attempt.
• Channel means to direct something (e.g., energy/money) toward a specific purpose.
• Check means to restrain, control, or reduce something.
• Coin means to invent (e.g., coin a phrase).
• Compromise means to endanger/make vulnerable.
• Constitution refers to build.
• Conviction means certainty/determination, and is a noun form of convinced.
• Couch can mean to hide.
• Discriminating means able to make fine distinctions.
• Doctor means to tamper with.
• Economy refers to thrift, as in using few words.
• Embroider means to falsify/make up stories about.
• Execute means to carry out.
• Exploit means to make use of, without negative connotation.
• Facility refers to ability to do something easily.
• Foil means to put a stop to something.
• Grave/Gravity means serious(ness).
• Grill means to question intensely and repeatedly.
• Hamper means to get in the way of or hinder.
• Harbor means to possess or hold.
• Hobble means to prevent/impede.
• Plastic means able to be changed or malleable.
• Provoke means to elicit.
• Realize means to achieve.
• Reconcile means to bring together opposing/contradictory ideas.
• Relay means to pass on to someone else.
• Relate means to tell/give an account of.
• Reservations refers to misgivings.
• Reserve means to hold off on.
• Ruffled means flustered/nonplussed.
• Sap means to drain, often of energy.
• Scrap means to eliminate.
• Shelve/Table means to reject/discard.
• Solvent means able to pay all debts.
• Sound means firm, stable, reliable, or valid.
• Spare/Severe means unadorned or very plain.
• Static means unchanging or in a state of stasis.
• Sustain means to withstand.
• Uniform means constant/unvarying.
• Unqualified means absolute.
• Upset means to interfere with an expected outcome.

Words that Look Negative But Aren't

• Critic/Criticism is a person who writes commentary, either positive or negative.
• Discern/Discerning means to recognize/distinguish or being perceptive.
• Ineffable means indescribable, sublime, or beyond words.
• Infallible means unable to be wrong.
• Ingenious means clever or brilliant.
• Ingenuous means native.
• Inimitable means unique or one-of-a-kind.
• Innate means inborn or natural.
• Innocuous means harmless.
• Intrinsic/Innate means inborn/a natural part of.
• Invaluable means having immense value/being priceless.
• Unassuming means modest.
• Unqualified means absolute.

SAT Vocab List

• Momentous: Of great importance or significance, especially in its bearing on the future.
• Inconsequential: Not important or significant.
• Benevolent: Well-meaning and kindly.
• Extrapolate: Extend the application of a method or conclusion, especially one based on statistics, to an unknown situation by assuming that existing trends will continue or similar methods will be applicable.
• Evocating: Bringing strong images and memories to mind.
• Pertinent: Relevant or applicable to a particular matter; apposite.
• Inconspicuous: Hidden.
• Conspicuous: Visible.
• Repudiates: To deny the truth.
• Innocuous: Harmless.
• Ubiquitous: Present/Everywhere.
• Assertion: Confident/Forceful statement.
• Nebulous: Unclear.
• Enigma: Person/Thing that is mysterious.
• Impertinent: Rude/Irrelevant.
• Obviating: Avoid/Remove.
• Implications: Drawing conclusions when the facts aren't explicitly stated (implied).
• Prudently: Showing care.
• Cordially: Friendly/warm manner.
• Tenuous: Weak.
• Contentious: Causing or likely to cause an argument; controversial
• Candor: Frank/open.
• Prudence: Caution.
• Haphazard: Lacking organization/Random.
• Fruitless: Useless or Unproductive.
• Premeditated: Thought out/ Planned beforehand.
• Preclude: Make impossible.
• Insuperable: Can't overcome.
• Ineluctable: Inescapable.
• Vindicate: Clear the blame/ Prove to be true.
• Induce: Make something happen.
• Surmised: Suppose that something is true without having evidence to confirm it.
• Paucity: Little amount.
• Verisimilitude: The idea that something is believable.
• Profusion: An abundance of a large quantity of something.
• Evinced: Reveal the presence of (a quality or feeling).
• Waive: To refrain from insisting on using something
• Concede: To admit that something is true after first resisting it.
• Proponent: Supporter.