Questions and Answers
The effort was doomed from the start because the reasons behind it were so ______ and hard to pin down.
amorphous
Which term means 'one who wants to eliminate all government?'
Anonymous means being known and recognized.
False
What does the term 'apathetic' mean?
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What does the word 'abase' mean?
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Aberration refers to something that is normal and conforms to all standards.
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Define 'acclaim'.
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The leader decided to __ his throne when he realized defeat was imminent.
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Match the following words with their meanings:
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The missing person’s shouts were unfortunately not _______.
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Which of the following words means 'excessively bold'?
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Define 'bane'.
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Match the following SAT vocabulary words with their meanings:
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Albert's diary chronicled the day-to-day growth of his obsession with Cynthia. Albert's diary is an example of ____________ writing.
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What does the term 'clandestine' mean?
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Define 'cogent'.
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Collusion involves a secret agreement or conspiracy.
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Match the term with its definition:
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Building a new fence ______s tearing down the old one.
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Which word means 'composure'?
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Match the term with its definition:
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Felicitous means silly or foolish.
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Define 'enigmatic'.
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A walled area containing a group of buildings is known as a ___.
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What does 'comprehensive' mean?
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Define 'compunction'.
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Concise means brief and indirect in expression.
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Match the following terms with their meanings:
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Define 'disparage'.
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Which term means 'lack of harmony or consistency'?
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The child remained _______ for a week after being grounded.
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Ebullient means extremely sad.
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Match the term with its definition:
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The hail ______ the roof, leaving large dents.
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What does 'impudent' mean?
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Inarticulate means incapable of expressing oneself clearly through speech.
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Match the following words with their meanings:
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The dog was __________ to the parking meter.
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Which word means 'loyalty, devotion'?
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What does 'fervent' mean?
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'Fetid' means having a pleasant odor.
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Which word is synonymous with 'wild, savage'?
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What is the meaning of culmination?
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What is the meaning of culpable?
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Study Notes
Vocabulary Building
Abase
- to humiliate or degrade
- Example: After being overthrown, the deposed leader offered to bow down to his conqueror.
Abate
- to reduce or lessen
- Example: The rain poured down for a while, then abated.
Abdicate
- to give up a position, usually one of leadership
- Example: When he realized the revolutionaries would surely win, the king abdicated his throne.
Abduct
- to kidnap or take by force
- Example: The evildoers abducted the fairy princess from her happy home.
Aberration
- something that differs from the norm
- Example: In 1918, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, but the success turned out to be an aberration.
Abet
- to aid, help, or encourage
- Example: The spy succeeded only because he had a friend on the inside to abet him.
...and so on (there are many more words in the text, I'll stop here)
Let me know if you want me to continue!### Vocabulary List
A
- Apprehend: to understand or grasp something (e.g., "The student has trouble apprehending concepts in math and science.")
- Approbation: praise or approval (e.g., "The crowd welcomed the heroes with approbation.")
- Appropriate: to take or make use of something (e.g., "The government appropriated the farmer's land without justification.")
- Aquatic: relating to water (e.g., "The marine biologist studies starfish and other aquatic creatures.")
- Arable: suitable for growing crops (e.g., "The farmer purchased a plot of arable land on which he will grow corn and sprouts.")
A (continued)
- Arbiter: a person who can resolve a dispute or make a decision (e.g., "The divorce court judge will serve as the arbiter between the estranged husband and wife.")
- Arbitrary: based on factors that appear random (e.g., "The boy's decision to choose one college over another seems arbitrary.")
- Arbitration: the process of resolving a dispute (e.g., "The employee sought official arbitration when he could not resolve a disagreement with his supervisor.")
- Arboreal: of or relating to trees (e.g., "Leaves, roots, and bark are a few arboreal traits.")
- Arcane: obscure or secret, known only by a few (e.g., "The professor is an expert in arcane Lithuanian literature.")
A (continued)
- Archaic: of or relating to an earlier period in time, outdated (e.g., "In a few select regions of Western Mongolian, an archaic Chinese dialect is still spoken.")
- Archetypal: the most representative or typical example of something (e.g., "Some believe George Washington, with his flowing white hair and commanding stature, was the archetypal politician.")
- Ardor: extreme vigor, energy, or enthusiasm (e.g., "The soldiers conveyed their ardor with impassioned battle cries.")
- Arid: excessively dry (e.g., "Little other than palm trees and cacti grow successfully in arid environments.")
A (continued)
- Arrogate: to take without justification (e.g., "The king arrogated the right to order executions to himself exclusively.")
- Artifact: a remaining piece from an extinct culture or place (e.g., "The scientists spent all day searching the cave for artifacts from the ancient Mayan civilization.")
- Artisan: a craftsman (e.g., "The artisan uses wood to make walking sticks.")
- Ascertain: to perceive or learn something (e.g., "With a bit of research, the student ascertained that some plants can live for weeks without water.")
- Ascetic: practicing restraint as a means of self-discipline, usually religious (e.g., "The priest lives an ascetic life devoid of television, savory foods, and other pleasures.")
A (continued)
- Ascribe: to assign or attribute something to (e.g., "Some ascribe the invention of fireworks and dynamite to the Chinese.")
- Aspersion: a curse or expression of ill-will (e.g., "The rival politicians repeatedly cast aspersions on each other's integrity.")
- Aspire: to long for or aim towards something (e.g., "The young poet aspires to publish a book of verse someday.")
- Assail: to attack (e.g., "At dawn, the war planes assailed the boats in the harbor.")
- Assess: to evaluate (e.g., "A crew arrived to assess the damage after the crash.")
A (continued)
- Assiduous: hard-working, diligent (e.g., "The construction workers erected the skyscraper during two years of assiduous labor.")
- Assuage: to ease or pacify (e.g., "The mother held the baby to assuage its fears.")
- Astute: very clever, crafty (e.g., "Much of Roger's success in politics results from his ability to provide astute answers to reporters' questions.")
- Asylum: a place of refuge or protection (e.g., "For Thoreau, the forest served as an asylum from the pressures of urban life.")
- Atone: to repent or make amends (e.g., "The man atoned for forgetting his wife's birthday by buying her five dozen roses.")
A (continued)
- Atrophy: to wither away or decay (e.g., "If muscles do not receive enough blood, they will soon atrophy and die.")
- Attain: to achieve or arrive at (e.g., "The athletes strived to attain their best times in competition.")
- Attribute: to credit or assign something to (e.g., "He attributes all of his success to his mother's undying encouragement.")
- Atypical: not typical, unusual (e.g., "Screaming and crying is atypical adult behavior.")
- Audacious: excessively bold (e.g., "The security guard was shocked by the fan's audacious attempt to offer him a bribe.")
A (continued)
- Audible: able to be heard (e.g., "The missing person's shouts were unfortunately not audible.")
- Augment: to add to or expand (e.g., "The eager student seeks to augment his knowledge of French vocabulary by reading French literature.")
- Auspicious: favorable, indicative of good things (e.g., "The tennis player considered the sunny forecast an auspicious sign that she would win her match.")
- Austere: very bare, bleak (e.g., "The austere furniture inside the abandoned house made the place feel haunted.")
- Avarice: excessive greed (e.g., "The banker's avarice led him to amass a tremendous personal fortune.")
- Avenge: to seek revenge (e.g., "The victims will take justice into their own hands and strive to avenge themselves against the men who robbed them.")
A (continued)
- Aversion: a particular dislike for something (e.g., "Because he's from Hawaii, Ben has an aversion to autumn, winter, and cold climates in general.")
B
- Balk: to stop or block abruptly (e.g., "Edna's boss balked at her request for another raise.")
- Ballad: a love song (e.g., "Greta's boyfriend played her a ballad on the guitar during their walk through the dark woods.")
- Banal: dull, commonplace (e.g., "The client rejected our proposal because they found our presentation banal and unimpressive.")
- Bane: a burden (e.g., "Advanced physics is the bane of many students' academic lives.")
- Bard: a poet, often a singer as well (e.g., "Shakespeare is often considered the greatest bard in the history of the English language.")
...### Vocabulary
- Secondary: having a lower or subordinate position; security for a debt
- Colloquial: characteristic of informal conversation
- Collusion: secret agreement or conspiracy
- Colossus: a gigantic statue or thing
- Combustion: the act or process of burning
- Commendation: a notice of approval or recognition
- Commensurate: corresponding in size or amount
- Commodious: roomy
- Compelling: forceful, demanding attention
- Compensate: to make an appropriate payment for something
- Complacency: self-satisfied ignorance of danger
- Complement: to complete, make perfect
- Compliant: ready to adapt oneself to another’s wishes
- Complicit: being an accomplice in a wrongful act
- Compliment: an expression of esteem or approval
- Compound: to combine parts; a combination of different parts; a walled area containing a group of buildings
- Comprehensive: including everything
- Compress: to apply pressure, squeeze together
- Compunction: distress caused by feeling guilty
- Concede: to accept as valid
- Conciliatory: friendly, agreeable
- Concise: brief and direct in expression
- Concoct: to fabricate, make up
- Concomitant: accompanying in a subordinate fashion
- Concord: harmonious agreement
- Condolence: an expression of sympathy in sorrow
- Condone: to pardon, deliberately overlook
- Conduit: a pipe or channel through which something passes
- Confection: a sweet, fancy food
- Confidant: a person entrusted with secrets
- Conflagration: great fire
- Confluence: a gathering together
- Conformist: one who behaves the same as others
- Confound: to frustrate, confuse
- Congeal: to thicken into a solid
- Congenial: pleasantly agreeable
- Congregation: a gathering of people, especially for religious services
- Congruity: the quality of being in agreement
- Connive: to plot, scheme
- Consecrate: to dedicate something to a holy purpose
- Consensus: an agreement of opinion
- Consign: to give something over to another’s care
- Consolation: an act of comforting
- Consonant: in harmony
- Constituent: an essential part
- Constrain: to forcibly restrict
- Construe: to interpret
- Consummate: to complete a deal; to complete a marriage ceremony through sexual intercourse
- Consumption: the act of consuming
- Contemporaneous: existing during the same time
- Contentious: having a tendency to quarrel or dispute
- Contravene: to contradict, oppose, violate
- Contrite: penitent, eager to be forgiven
- Contusion: bruise, injury
- Conundrum: puzzle, problem
- Convene: to call together
- Convention: an assembly of people; a rule, custom
- Convivial: characterized by feasting, drinking, merriment
- Convoluted: intricate, complicated
- Copious: profuse, abundant
- Cordial: warm, affectionate
- Coronation: the act of crowning
- Corpulence: extreme fatness
- Corroborate: to support with evidence
- Corrosive: having the tendency to erode or eat away
- Cosmopolitan: sophisticated, worldly
- Counteract: to neutralize, make ineffective
- Coup: a brilliant, unexpected act; the overthrow of a government and assumption of authority
- Covet: to desire enviously
- Covert: secretly engaged in
- Credulity: readiness to believe
- Crescendo: a steady increase in intensity or volume
- Criteria: standards by which something is judged
- Culmination: the climax toward which something progresses
- Culpable: deserving blame
- Cultivate: to nurture, improve, refine
- Cumulative: increasing, building upon itself
- Cunning: sly, clever at being deceitful
- Cupidity: greed, strong desire
- Cursory: brief to the point of being superficial
- Curt: abruptly and rudely short
- Curtail: to lessen, reduce
- Daunting: intimidating, causing one to lose courage
- Dearth: a lack, scarcity
- Debacle: a disastrous failure, disruption
- Debase: to lower the quality or esteem of something
- Debauch: to corrupt by means of sensual pleasures
- Debunk: to expose the falseness of something
- Decorous: socially proper, appropriate
- Decry: to criticize openly
- Deface: to ruin or injure something’s appearance
- Defamatory: harmful toward another’s reputation
- Defer: to postpone something; to yield to another’s wisdom
- Deferential: showing respect for another’s authority
- Defile: to make unclean, impure
- Deft: skillful, capable
- Defunct: no longer used or existing
- Delegate: to hand over responsibility for something
- Deleterious: harmful
- Deliberate: intentional, reflecting careful consideration
- Delineate: to describe, outline, shed light on
- Demagogue: a leader who appeals to a people’s prejudices
- Demarcation: the marking of boundaries or categories
- Demean: to lower the status or stature of something
- Demure: quiet, modest, reserved
- Denigrate: to belittle, diminish the opinion of
- Denounce: to criticize publicly
- Deplore: to feel or express sorrow, disapproval
- Depravity: wickedness
- Deprecate: to belittle, depreciate
- Derelict: abandoned, run-down
- Deride: to laugh at mockingly, scorn
- Derivative: taken directly from a source, unoriginal
- Desecrate: to violate the sacredness of a thing or place
- Desiccated: dried up, dehydrated
- Desolate: deserted, dreary, lifeless
- Despondent: feeling depressed, discouraged, hopeless
- Despot: one who has total power and rules brutally
- Destitute: impoverished, utterly lacking
- Deter: to discourage, prevent from doing
- Devious: not straightforward, deceitful
- Dialect: a variation of a language
- Diaphanous: light, airy, transparent
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Description
Practice and learn 4 vocabulary words starting with the prefix 'Ab-', including their meanings and examples.
