English Vocabulary - SAT, GRE, GMAT, TOEFL

Learn how aphorisms are short phrases that express deep, wise ideas, with origins in Latin, Greek, and French, reflecting a horizon beyond. Holmes contrasts accident and force as an aphorism.

Define maxims as brief phrases expressing general principles and compare aphorisms and proverbs. Explain how necessity spurs invention and how maxims guide conduct, such as 'live and let live.'

Understand euphemism substitutes a harsher truth with milder words. See examples like 'passed away' for died, 'letting go' for firing, and 'I did not do very well' to soften news.

Arcane means knowledge known by very few, often kept close to the chest to maintain an edge, with Latin origins; apply to law, tax, and other specialized knowledge.

Explore esoteric knowledge and specialized know-how held by a small group, from the Constitution to obscure knowledge like playing an old musical instrument.

Explore the convoluted bureaucratic process that forces back-and-forth approvals across municipal, environment, and police offices, creating a maze with blocking points.

Define ascetic and aesthetic, contrasting a laborious, simple life of monks and hermits with extravagance. Learn how these terms describe a basic, needs-focused lifestyle centered on shelter and food.

Learn the meaning of austere as very simple and basic, with examples of ascetic life and austere furnishings, and explore related terms like austerity measures and harsh.

Learn that atypical means not typical, not conforming to a particular type, contrasting with typical usage. The example 'very atypical of him' suggests he may be unwell or injured.

explore incongruous and its relation to congruous and harmonious; learn how something out of sync, not in harmony, appears incongruous, from congress to ryan's outburst.

Explore the word anomaly, its Latin and Greek roots, and its meaning as a deviation from the ordinary—an unusual observed irregularity that stands out, like Sara in a poor-scoring class.

Learn how burgeon means to sprout or spread rapidly, trace its Anglo-French roots, and see how the term evolves to describe the burgeoning use of mobile phones.

Define ubiquitous as present everywhere, tracing its usage from the 1995 era when mobile phones were rare to their current ubiquity in daily life.

Define inexorable as unstoppable or inflexible, using the unstoppable advances of computer technology and Ryan’s inflexible ways to illustrate the need for a middle ground and team harmony.

Learn the adjective copious, which expresses abundance or extensive quantity, illustrated by copious amounts of coke and notes, and applied to describe large quantities in context.

Explain how the word chasm denotes a large gap, from the earth's surface to differences of opinion, and how Don't Memorize has closed this chasm by providing affordable quality education.

Examine political vocabulary about government splits and power struggles, comparing CISM and the Kasan gap system, with notes on Sudan languages and the ruling African National Congress Party.

Explore cognitive skills and processes, thinking, analyzing, remembering, and reasoning, and see how high blood pressure can impair brain activity in kids, as reported by The New York Times.

Learn the adjective cognizant, meaning aware and mindful of risks or prior knowledge, with examples like being cognizant of skydiving risks and the need to recognize potential issues.

Explain the word infallible as capable of falling or making mistakes, and show that all humans are fallible and prone to errors.

Discover how connotation conveys a negative, extra meaning beyond the explicit sense, as in remarks like 'behaving like children.' Learn how context links what is said to what is meant.

Explore how empathy differs from sympathy by understanding others' feelings and visualizing their situation, not just feeling sorry. See how walking in Blake's shoes invites leniency and genuine connection.

Explain apathy as total indifference and contrast it with sympathy, which expresses compassion. Use examples of Zahra's long hours and air pollution to show how apathy affects concern.

Explore antipathy as a strong, hostile opposition, contrasted with sympathy and apathy, and recognize its use in expressing opposition between political parties.

Define contagion by comparing contagious diseases spread by contact with noncontagious ideas that spread rapidly, and show how the 2008 financial crisis bank bankruptcy caused global contagion and job losses.

Explore geography by showing how Switzerland borders Germany, France, and Italy and how contiguous means touching or adjoining, with a village map illustrating plots that are not contiguous.

Explore the word contingent as an adjective meaning dependent or conditional on weather, and as a noun meaning a group of people or delegation, with examples like the Olympics contingent.

Learn how contrived means to devise something skillfully, with examples of Zahra crafting a quick meal and prisoners devising a spectacular escape plan.

Define contrite as true remorse for wrongdoing and contrast it with lip service, illustrating how guilt accompanies genuine regret.

Recognize trite expressions as overused phrases that lose charm from overuse; learn that trite means worn out from Latin origin, and how to identify trite usage in speech.

Explore the concept of efficacy—the power to produce the desired result efficiently—and its relation to effectiveness and efficiency, illustrated by fruit, land, and medicine examples.

Understand that espouse means to embrace or take something as your own, and see how it signals commitment to an idea or course, as teachers espousing a new method.

Explore the dual meaning of forthcoming as coming soon and as honest, open information; learn how coming forward signals honesty with examples like witness statements.

Learn the meaning of forthright as a direct, straightforward adjective denoting clarity and no ambiguity, shown by Zahra's description of Zen's new jeans.

Learn how herald functions as messenger, with newspapers delivering news and truth. The verb herald means ushering in or bringing in, signaling upcoming events.

Explore how procedure relates to forecast and foresight, recognizing that the absence of mall visitors signals potential tougher times for the economy.

Learn how heresy means beliefs that diverge from orthodox or majority views, with examples of heretical views and non practice such as abandoning homework.

Learn the word ideology and the term ideologue, defined as a person who strongly supports a belief set in political, religious, or philosophical contexts, often without listening to opposing views.

Identify idiosyncrasy as identifiable, consistent, peculiar behavior; observe Jake's sentences and other idiosyncratic patterns, harmless quirks, and note common misspellings.

Explore how heuristic methods use trial-and-error to discover the best solution, derived from Latin meaning discover, and applied in app updates, feedback, and adjusting performance.

Explain iteration as repeating a process to reach a satisfactory result, noting how earlier attempts can fail yet later ones become stable.

Incumbent refers to a person holding office, such as the current president, and derives from Latin, roughly meaning to lie down, often described when facing fraud allegations or dethroning.

Master the usage of abate and unabated through examples of heavy rain, floods unabated, and temperatures remaining elevated despite the official change of season.

Learn how aiding and abetting means providing direct or indirect help to a criminal, even without personal involvement.

Two shop owners engage in collusion to fix prices, a secret agreement that harms customers. Collaboration, by contrast, brings together expertise to benefit the public, while collusion remains fraudulent.

Abstain means to hold yourself back from something you enjoy but is bad, such as junk food or alcohol during pregnancy; it is closely related to refrain.

Show how acrimonious debate unfolds in a water sharing pact, with vociferous and insistent sides dividing communities and the dispute growing more acrimonious over years.

Belligerent describes someone hostile and aggressive, as neighbors quarrel constantly. The term comes from Latin meaning to wage war and is used for nations eager to pick fights.

Define polemic as a fierce, strong attack on opposing views, spoken or written, and compare it to tirade; understand its use in a fierce polemic against racism in communities.

Define pugnacious as an aggressive, quarrelsome attitude, compare it to belligerent, and explain its Latin origin meaning to fight against, with examples like protesters refusing to back off.

Explore aggrandise, meaning to increase or enhance, or to make something appear greater, i.e., grand, than it is, Bloomberg report on Zimbabwe's president gaining power at expense of citizens.

Learn the word admonish, a gentle but serious warning that scolds and advises about punctuality, rooted in Latin meaning to warn, with examples of late arrivals and mess.

Explore vocabulary for severe criticism, including chastised, admonished, and chastise, illustrated by a coach and doctor who severely criticize players for not following advice.

Castigate means to reprimand severely, especially in public, and stems from Latin; teachers who castigate students gain a unique reputation by critiquing poor work.

Learn the word tirade, a long and angry speech full of criticism and anger, with Italian roots meaning to draw, or to stretch and prolong.

Define umbrage as offense or displeasure when confronted with nasty remarks, and contrast claiming money as motive with doing work out of love.

Explore the word vilify and how the press defames coaching skills, embarrasses the subject, and ruins reputation, with examples from tabloids and opposition over failed policies.

Learn the concept of affectation, the act of pretended politeness and insincerity used to impress others, and how true manners emerge as second nature despite fatigue.

Explore sanctimonious, the hypocritical pretense of moral superiority. Discover how the term, as an adjective, describes pretending to be morally better than others with a holier-than-thou attitude.

Explore the word unctuous, meaning insincere, as a salesman buttering up a customer; note its oily origin from Latin and Middle English.

Explore decorous, decorum, and decorate, showing how decorous describes polite, appropriate behavior and how decorum governs conduct at all times, with decorate relating to beautifying spaces.

Define alacrity as being very willing and ready to act cheerfully and promptly; as a noun, it describes quick, cheerful willingness to engage in tasks, such as solving problems.

Discover how epiphany sparks new ideas, illustrated by the wheel's invention, and learn that the word derives from Greek and a Christian festival on January 6.

Discover serendipity as being in the right place at the right time, where chance yields opportunities you weren't seeking. See how it differs from epiphany and arises from lucky accidents.

Explore litany, tracing its Latin Anglo-French and Greek origins, and its shift to a long list of complaints or concerns, such as a litany of questions.

Understand how the solar system, though seemingly vast, is a microcosm of the universe, and how a small poll can represent a much larger population.

Explore how a moniker functions as a nickname, illustrated by Martin Del Potro, the gentle giant, and learn that the origin of the moniker comes from Irish, per Bloomberg.

Define parsimonious as extremely stingy, illustrated by Mr. Sparks who never spends money. Note the noun parsimony and how parsimonious describes miserly behavior.

Explore the term spendthrift as a person who spends lavishly and wastes wealth, illustrated by Mr. Extravagant, who inherited vast funds and rapidly depletes them, in contrast to thrift.

Explore thrift, meaning prudent behavior and thrifty spending; follow Warren as he seeks value at thrift shops, saves at a thrift institution, and thrives on careful resource use.

Define peroration as the concluding part of a long oration, the final segment of a speech, with the Obama 2012 State of the Union speech example illustrating its emphasis.

Explore the verb truncate and its use to shorten or reduce, illustrated by trimming a waterpipe, a decimal number to one point four four, and a truncated speech.

Prescribe means to prohibit or outlaw, as airlines ban the Samsung No7 on planes due to battery risk; doctors prescribe medication, illustrating prescribing as a directive.

Explore how rapprochement signals two warring groups coming together and reconciling after conflict, with its French origin meaning to bring together.

Learn how to use refute to disprove with evidence, distinguish it from deny, and apply point-by-point argument to correct false allegations.

Learn that repugnant describes something distasteful, unacceptable, or offensive. Explore its Latin origin to go against and how a document's fine print can oppose the law.

Explore the word respite as a brief interval between unpleasant or difficult activities, illustrated by a string of unhappy customers and a small break.

Restitution means to set up again, from a Latin root; the re prefix signals again. The Volkswagen emissions scandal pays owners 20% of value plus $2,987.

Explore the word retribution, its Latin root meaning pay, and how the payback idea—reap as we sow—connects to consequences such as doping bans in the Rio Olympics.

Learn the meaning of restive—impatient, fidgety, and restless—through examples of restless children, sleepless nights, and citizens facing poor governance; note its Anglo-French origin linked to horses refusing to follow instructions.

Explore salient features as the most noticeable elements highlighted in a product or speech. Salient derives from Latin meaning leap out, signaling the main points to audiences.

Circumscribe defines drawing a boundary or limit, as in geometry when a circle's circumference bounds a polygon; the term also means laying down restrictions in other contexts.

Define reticence and reticent, derived from Latin, as staying silent and reluctant to reveal thoughts. Show how objective reticence applies when discussing a company’s finances.

Define taciturn as the tendency to stay quiet and rarely speak. Show contrasts with characters like Dave, Zara, and Zaara who are either silent, reserved, or talkative in different contexts.

Explore tacit and silent approvals in professional and political contexts, showing how unspoken permission signals acceptance of actions without written authorization.

Define stolid as calm and unemotional under pressure, explain its Latin root meaning inert or dull, and relate it to inert or noble gases like helium.

Travesty refers to a cheap mockery, such as a parody used for humor by imitating famous stars. coaching classes can be a travesty of teaching.

Explore the concept of utopia as the ideal, imaginary place, its Latin origin meaning no place, and why Basel isn’t a utopia.

Define utopia and dystopia, contrasting a perfect imaginary place with a chaotic, unhappy, crime-ridden world. Examine how oppressive government policies can push citizens to seek change.

Explore the concept of anarchy, where no rule or law exists, leading to lawlessness and free-for-all chaos from nations to classrooms.

Explore how visceral traces its medical roots in the viscera to describe instinctive, gut-level emotions, and use visceral as an adjective signaling strong feelings over logic.

Learn the word appease, meaning to pacify or satisfy someone by giving them what they want, used to avoid conflicts or war.