Barron 800 Essential Words for GRE Terms Definitions abate to decrease; reduce abdicate to give up a position, right, or power aberrant deviating from what is normal abeyance temporary suppression or suspension abject miserable; pitiful abjure to reject; abandon formally abscission the act of cutting; the natural separation of a leaf or other part of a plant abscond to depart secretly abstemious moderate in appetite abstinence the giving up of certain pleasures abysmal very bad accretion growth in size or increase in amount accrue to accumulate; grow by additions adamant uncompromising; unyielding adjunct something added, attached, or joined admonish to caution or reprimand adulterate to corrupt or make impure aesthetic relating to beauty or the arts affected pretentious; phony affinity fondness; liking; similarity aggrandize to make larger or greater aggregate amounting to a whole; total alacrity cheerful willingness; eagerness; speed alchemy medieval chemical philosophy based on changing metal into gold; a seemingly magical power or process of transmutation allay to lessen; ease; soothe alleviate to relieve; improve partially alloy a combination; a mixture of two or more metals allure the power to entice by charm amalgamate to combine into a unified whole ambiguous unclear or doubtful in meaning ambivalence the state of having conflicting emotional attitudes ambrosia something delicious; the food of the gods ameliorate to improve amenable agreeable; cooperative; suited amenity something that increases comfort amulet ornament worn as a charm against evil spirits anachronism something out of the proper time analgesic medication that reduces or eliminates pain analogous comparable anarchy absence of government; state of disorder anodyne something that calms or soothes pain anomalous irregular; deviating from the norm antecedent something that comes before antediluvian prehistoric antipathy dislike; hostility apathy indifference apex the highest point apogee the point in an orbit most distant from the body being orbited; the highest point apothegm a terse, witty saying appease to calm, pacify, placate appellation name apposite strikingly appropriate and relevant apprise to inform approbation praise, approval appropriate to take possession of for one's own use; confiscate apropos relevant arabesque ornate design featuring intertwined curves; a ballet position in which one leg is extended in back while the other supports the weight of the body archeology the study of material evidence of past human life ardor great emotion or passion arduous extremely difficult; laborious argot a specialized vocabulary used by a group arrest to stop; to seize artifact item made by human craft artless guileless; natural ascetic one who practices self-denial asperity severity; harshness; irritability aspersion slander; false rumor assiduous diligent; hard-working assuage to make less severe astringent harsh; severe asylum place of refuge or shelter atavism in biology, the reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence; individual or a part that exhibits atavism; return of a trait after a period of absence attenuate to weaken audacious bold; daring austere stern; unadorned; simple autonomous self-governing; independent avarice greed aver to affirm; declare to be true avocation secondary occupation avuncular like an uncle, benevolent and tolerant axiomatic taken for granted; self-evident truth bacchanalian pertaining to riotous or drunken festivity; pertaining to revelry banal commonplace; trite banter playful conversation bard poet bawdy obscene beatify to sanctify; to bless; to ascribe a virtue to bedizen to dress in a vulgar, showy manner behemoth huge creature; anything very large and powerful belie to contradict; misrepresent; give a false impression beneficent kindly; doing good bifurcate to divide into two parts blandishment flattery blasé bored because of frequent indulgence; unconcerned bolster to give a boost to; prop up; support bombastic pompous; using inflated language boorish rude; insensitive bovine cow like brazen bold; shameless broach to mention for the first time bucolic characteristic of the countryside; rustic; pastoral burgeon to grow and flourish burnish to polish buttress to reinforce; support cacophonous unpleasant or harsh-sounding cadge to beg; sponge callous thick-skinned; insensitive calumny false and malicious accusation; slander canard false; deliberately misleading story canon an established set of principles; a basis or standard for judgment; a group of literary works cant insincere talk; language of a particular group cantankerous irritable; ill-humored capricious fickle captious faultfinding; intended to entrap, as in an argument cardinal of foremost importance carnal of the flesh or body; related to physical appetites carping to find fault; complain cartography science of making maps caste any of the hereditary social classes in Hindu society; social stratification castigation punishment; chastisement; criticism cataclysm a violent upheaval that causes great destruction and change catalyst something that causes change categorical absolute; without exception caucus smaller group within an organization causal involving a cause caustic burning; stinging; causing corrosion celestial concerned with sky or heavens; sublime centrifugal moving away from a center centripetal moving or directed toward a center champion to defend or support chasten to correct by punishment or reproof; to restrain or subdue chicanery trickery; fraud chivalry the qualities idealized by knighthood such as bravery and gallantry toward women churlish rude; boorish circuitous roundabout clairvoyant one who can predict the future; psychic clamor noisy outcry clique a small, exclusive group cloister to confine; seclude coagulate thicken; congeal coalesce to cause to become one coda concluding part of a literary or musical composition; something that summarizes or concludes codify to systematize cognizant informed; conscious; aware collage artistic composition of materials pasted over a surface; an assemblage of diverse elements commensurate proportional compendium brief, comprehensive summary complacent self-satisfied complaisant overly polite; willingness to comply with the wishes of others complement something that completes or makes up a whole compliant yielding compunction uneasiness caused by guilt concave curving inward conciliatory overcoming distrust or hostility concoct to invent concomitant existing concurrently condone to overlook voluntarily; forgive confound to baffle; perplex; mix up congenial similar in tastes and habits; friendly; suited to conjugal pertaining to marriage agreement connoisseur expert in matters of taste; expert knowledge or training conscript a person compulsorily enrolled for military service consecrate to declare sacred contend to assert contentious quarrelsome; causing quarrels contiguous touching; neighboring; connecting without a break continence self-control; abstention from sexual activity contrite very sorrowful for a wrong; seeking forgiveness contumacious disobedient; rebellious conundrum riddle; puzzle with no solution convention practice widely observed in a group; custom; accepted technique or device converge to approach; come together; tend to meet convex curved outward convivial sociable convoluted twisted; complicated copious abundant; plentiful coquette woman who flirts cornucopia horn overflowing with fruit and grain; state of abundance cosmology study of the universe as a totality; theory of the origin and structure of the universe covert hidden; secret covetous desiring something owned by another cozen to mislead by trick or fraud; deceive craven cowardly credence acceptance of something as true credo statement of belief or principle; creed daunt to discourage; intimidate; dishearten dearth scarcity debauchery corruption decorum proper behavior defame to malign; harm someone's reputation default to fail to act deference respect; regard for another's wish defunct no longer existing delineate to represent or depict demographic related to population balance demotic pertaining to people demur to express doubt; question or oppose denigrate to slur someone's reputation denizen an inhabitant; a regular visitor denouement outcome; unraveling of the plot of a play or work of literature deride to mock derivative something derived; unoriginal desiccate to dry completely desuetude state of disuse desultory random; disconnected; rambling deterrent something that discourages or hinders detraction the act of taking away diaphanous transparent; vague; insubstantial diatribe bitter verbal attack dichotomy division into two usually contradictory parts diffidence shyness; lack of confidence diffuse to spread out digression act of straying from the main point dirge funeral hymn disabuse free from a misconception discerning perceptive; exhibiting keen insight and good judgment discomfit to make uneasy; disconcert discordant not in tune discredit to dishonor; disgrace discrepancy difference between discrete constituting a separate thing; distinct discretion quality of showing self-restraint in speech or actions disingenuous not candid, crafty disinterested unprejudiced; objective disjointed lacking order or coherence; dislocated dismiss put away from consideration; reject disparage to belittle disparate dissimilar dissemble to pretend; disguise one's motives disseminate to spread; scatter; disperse dissident person who disagrees about beliefs dissolution disintegration; debauchery dissonance discord; lack of harmony distend to expand; swell out distill extract the essential elements distrait inattentive; preoccupied diverge to vary; go in different directions from the same point divest to strip; deprive; rid divulge to make known something that is secret doctrinaire dogmatic; unyielding document to provide with written evidence to support doggerel poor verse dogmatic stating opinions without proof dormant inactive dross waste; worthless matter dupe to deceive; trick ebullient exhilarated; overly enthusiastic eclectic selecting from various sources effervescence state of high spirits or liveliness; process of bubling as gas escapes effete depleted of vitality; over refined; decadent efficacy effectiveness; efficiency effrontery shameless boldness; presumptuousness egoism the tendency to see things in relation to oneself; self-centeredness egotistical excessively self-centered; conceited elegy poem or song expressing lamentation elicit to provoke; draw out elixir a sustance believed to have the power to cure ills Elysian delightful; blissful emaciated thin and wasted embellish to adorn; enhance emollient soothing; mollifying empirical derived from observation or experiment emulate to imitate; copy encomium a formal expression of praise endemic inherent; belonging to an area enervate to weaken engender to cause; produce enhance to increase; improve entomology the scientific study of insects enunciate to pronounce clearly ephemeral short-lived; fleeting epistemology branch of philosophy that examines the nature of knowledge equable steady; unvarying; serene equanimity composure; calmness equivocate intentionally use vague language errant mistaken; straying from the proper course erudite learned; scholarly esoteric hard to understand; known only to a few essay to make an attempt; subject to a test estimable admirable; possible to estimate ethnocentric based on the attitude that one's group is superior etiology causes or origins etymology origin an history of a word eugenics study of factors that influence the hereditary qualities of the human race and ways to improve those qualities eulogy high praise to a death person euphemism use of agreeable or inoffensive language in place of offensive language euphoria feeling of extreme happiness euthanasia mercy killing evince to show plainly; be an indication of evocative tending to call to mind or produce a reaction exacerbate to aggravate; make worse exact to force the payment of; demand and obtain by authority exculpate to clear of blame; vindicate execrable detestable; abhorrent exhort to urge by strong appeals exigency crisis; urgent requirements existential having to do with existence exorcise to expel evil spirits; free from bad influences expatiate to speak or write at length expatriate to send into exile expiate to atone for explicate to explain; interpret; clarify expository explanatory extant in existence; not lost extemporaneous unrehearsed extirpate to root up; to destroy extraneous not essential extrapolation the act of estimation by projecting known information extrinsic not inherent of essential facetious humorous facilitate to make less difficult factotum a person who does all sorts of work; a handyman fallacious based on a false idea or fact; misleading fallow plowed but not sowed; uncultivated fatuous foolishly self-satisfied fauna animals of a period o region fawning seeking flavor by flattering felicitous suitable expressed; wee-chose; appropriate feral existing in a wild or untamed state fervor warmth and intensity of emotion fetid having a bad smell fetter to bind; confine fiat arbitrary order; authorization fidelity loyalty; exact correspondence filibuster use of obstructive tactics in a legislature to block passage of a law finesse to handle with a deceptive or evasive strategy; refined in performance fissure crevice flag to droop; grow weak fledging beginner; novice flora plants of a region or era florid ruddy; reddish; flowery flourish en embellishment or ornamentation flout to treat scornfully flux flowing; a continuous moving foment to incite; arouse forbearance patience forestall to prevent; delay formidable menacing; threatening forswear renounce; repudiate founder to sink; fail; collapse fracas a loud quarrel; brawl fractious quarrelsome; unruly; rebellious fresco a painting done on plaster frieze ornamental band on a wall froward stubbornly contrary; obstinately disobedient frugality thrift fulminate to attack loudly; denounce fulsome so excessive as to be disgusting