PCAT Vocab
Terms
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- aberrant
- Markedly different from an accepted norm.
- aberration
- Deviation from a right, customary, or prescribed course.
- abet
- To aid, promote, or encourage the commission of (an offense).
- abeyance
- A state of suspension or temporary inaction.
- abjure
- To recant, renounce, repudiate under oath.
- ablution
- A washing or cleansing, especially of the body.
- abrogate
- To abolish, repeal.
- abscond
- To depart suddenly and secretly, as for the purpose of escaping arrest.
- abstemious
- Characterized by self denial or abstinence, as in the use of drink, food.
- abstruse
- Dealing with matters difficult to be understood.
- abut
- To touch at the end or boundary line.
- accede
- To agree.
- acquiesce
- To comply
- acrid
- Harshly pungent or bitter.
- acumen
- Quickness of intellectual insight, or discernment
- adage
- An old saying.
- adamant
- Any substance of exceeding hardness or impenetrability.
- admonition
- Gentle reproof.
- adumbrate
- To represent beforehand in outline or by emblem.
- affable
- Easy to approach.
- aggrandize
- To cause to appear greatly.
- aggravate
- To make heavier, worse, or more burdensome.
- agile
- Able to move or act quickly, physically, or mentally.
- agog
- In eager desire.
- alacrity
- Cheerful willingness.
- alcove
- A covered recess connected with or at the side of a larger room.
- alleviate
- To make less burdensome or less hard to bear.
- aloof
- Not in sympathy with or desiring to associate with others.
- amalgamate
- To mix or blend together in a homogeneous body.
- ambidextrous
- Having the ability of using both hands with equal skill or ease.
- ambiguous
- Having a double meaning.
- ameliorate
- To relieve, as from pain or hardship
- anathema
- Anything forbidden, as by social usage.
- animadversion
- The utterance of criticism or censure.
- animosity
- Hatred.
- antediluvian
- Of or pertaining to the times, things, events before the great flood in the days of Noah.
- antidote
- Anything that will counteract or remove the effects of poison, disease, or the like.
- aplomb
- Confidence
- apocryphal
- Of doubtful authority or authenticity.
- apogee
- The climax.
- apostate
- False.
- apotheosis
- Deification.
- apparition
- Ghost.
- appease
- To soothe by quieting anger or indignation.
- apposite
- Appropriate.
- apprise
- To give notice to
- approbation
- Sanction.
- arboreal
- Of or pertaining to a tree or trees.
- ardor
- Intensity of passion or affection.
- argot
- A specialized vocabulary peculiar to a particular group.
- arrant
- Notoriously bad.
- ascetic
- Given to severe self-denial and practicing excessive abstinence and devotion.
- ascribe
- To assign as a quality or attribute.
- asperity
- Harshness or roughness of temper.
- assiduous
- Unceasing
- assuage
- To cause to be less harsh, violent, or severe, as excitement, appetite, pain, or disease.
- astringent
- Harsh in disposition or character.
- astute
- Keen in discernment.
- atonement
- Amends, reparation, or expiation made from wrong or injury.
- audacious
- Fearless.
- augury
- Omen
- auspicious
- Favorable omen
- austere
- Severely simple
- autocrat
- Any one who claims or wields unrestricted or undisputed authority or influence.
- auxiliary
- One who or that which aids or helps, especially when regarded as subsidiary or accessory.
- avarice
- Passion for getting and keeping riches.
- aver
- To avouch, justify or prove
- aversion
- A mental condition of fixed opposition to or dislike of some particular thing.
- avow
- To declare openly.
- baleful
- Malignant.
- banal
- Commonplace.
- bask
- To make warm by genial heat.
- beatify
- To make supremely happy.
- bedaub
- To smear over, as with something oily or sticky.
- bellicose
- Warlike.
- belligerent
- Manifesting a warlike spirit.
- benefactor
- A doer of kindly and charitable acts.
- benevolence
- Any act of kindness or well-doing.
- benign
- Good and kind of heart.
- berate
- To scold severely.
- bewilder
- To confuse the perceptions or judgment of.
- blandishment
- Flattery intended to persuade.
- blatant
- Noisily or offensively loud or clamorous.
- blithe
- Joyous.
- boisterous
- Unchecked merriment or animal spirits.
- bolster
- To support, as something wrong.
- bombast
- Inflated or extravagant language, especially on unimportant subjects.
- boorish
- Rude.
- breach
- The violation of official duty, lawful right, or a legal obligation.
- brittle
- Fragile.
- broach
- To mention, for the first time.
- bumptious
- Full of offensive and aggressive self-conceit.
- buoyant
- Having the power or tendency to float or keep afloat.
- burnish
- To make brilliant or shining.
- cabal
- A number of persons secretly united for effecting by intrigue some private purpose.
- cacophony
- A disagreeable, harsh, or discordant sound or combination of sounds or tones.
- cajole
- To impose on or dupe by flattering speech.
- callow
- Without experience of the world.
- calumny
- Slander.
- candid
- Straightforward.
- cant
- To talk in a singsong, preaching tone with affected solemnity.
- capacious
- Roomy.
- capitulate
- To surrender or stipulate terms.
- captious
- Hypercritical.
- castigate
- To punish.
- cataract
- Opacity of the lens of the eye resulting in complete or partial blindness.
- caustic
- Sarcastic and severe.
- censure
- To criticize severely
- centurion
- A captain of a company of one hundred infantry in the ancient Roman army.
- chagrin
- Keen vexation, annoyance, or mortification, as at one's failures or errors.
- chary
- Careful
- chicanery
- The use of trickery to deceive.
- circumlocution
- Indirect or roundabout expression.
- coddle
- To treat as a baby or an invalid.
- coerce
- To force.
- coeval
- Existing during the same period of time
- cogent
- Appealing strongly to the reason or conscience.
- cogitate
- Consider carefully and deeply
- cognizant
- Taking notice.
- colloquial
- Pertaining or peculiar to common speech as distinguished from literary.
- collusion
- A secret agreement for a wrongful purpose.
- comestible
- Fit to be eaten.
- commemorate
- To serve as a remembrance of.
- complaisance
- Politeness.
- complement
- To make complete.
- comport
- To conduct or behave (oneself).
- compunction
- Remorseful feeling.
- conceit
- Self-flattering opinion.
- conciliatory
- Tending to reconcile.
- concord
- Harmony.
- concur
- To agree.
- condense
- To abridge.
- conflagration
- A great fire, as of many buildings, a forest, or the like.
- confluence
- The place where streams meet.
- congeal
- To coagulate.
- conjoin
- To unite.
- connoisseur
- A critical judge of art, especially one with thorough knowledge and sound judgment of art.
- console
- To comfort.
- conspicuous
- Clearly visible.
- consternation
- Panic.
- constrict
- To bind.
- consummate
- To bring to completion.
- contiguous
- Touching or joining at the edge or boundary.
- contrite
- Broken in spirit because of a sense of sin.
- contumacious
- Rebellious.
- copious
- Plenteous.
- cornucopia
- The horn of plenty, symbolizing peace and prosperity.
- corporeal
- Of a material nature
- correlate
- To put in some relation of connection or correspondence.
- corroboration
- Confirmation.
- counterfeit
- Made to resemble something else.
- countervail
- To offset.
- covert
- Concealed, especially for an evil purpose.
- cower
- To crouch down tremblingly, as through fear or shame.
- crass
- Coarse or thick in nature or structure, as opposed to thin or fine.
- credulous
- Easily deceived.
- cupidity
- Avarice.
- cursory
- Rapid and superficial.
- curtail
- To cut off or cut short.
- cynosure
- That to which general interest or attention is directed.
- dearth
- Scarcity, as of something customary, essential ,or desirable.
- defer
- To delay or put off to some other time.
- deign
- To deem worthy of notice or account.
- deleterious
- Hurtful, morally or physically.
- delineate
- To represent by sketch or diagram.
- deluge
- To overwhelm with a flood of water.
- demagogue
- An unprincipled politician.
- denizen
- Inhabitant.
- denouement
- That part of a play or story in which the mystery is cleared up.
- deplete
- To reduce or lessen, as by use, exhaustion, or waste.
- deposition
- Testimony legally taken on interrogatories and reduced to writing, for use as evidence in court.
- deprave
- To render bad, especially morally bad.
- deprecate
- To express disapproval or regret for, with hope for the opposite.
- deride
- To ridicule.
- derision
- Ridicule.
- derivative
- Coming or acquired from some origin.
- descry
- To discern.
- desiccant
- Any remedy which, when applied externally, dries up or absorbs moisture, as that of wounds.
- desuetude
- A state of disuse or inactivity.
- desultory
- Not connected with what precedes.
- deter
- To frighten away.
- dexterity
- Readiness, precision, efficiency, and ease in any physical activity or in any mechanical work.
- diaphanous
- Transparent.
- diatribe
- A bitter or malicious criticism.
- didactic
- Pertaining to teaching.
- diffidence
- Self-distrust.
- diffident
- Affected or possessed with self-distrust.
- dilate
- To enlarge in all directions.
- dilatory
- Tending to cause delay.
- disallow
- To withhold permission or sanction.
- discomfit
- To put to confusion.
- disconcert
- To disturb the composure of.
- disconsolate
- Hopelessly sad
- discountenance
- To look upon with disfavor.
- discredit
- To injure the reputation of.
- discreet
- Judicious.
- disheveled
- Disordered
- dissemble
- To hide by pretending something different.
- disseminate
- To sow or scatter abroad, as seed is sown.
- dissent
- Disagreement.
- dissolution
- A breaking up of a union of persons.
- distraught
- Bewildered.
- divulge
- To tell or make known, as something previously private or secret.
- dogmatic
- Making statements without argument or evidence.
- dormant
- Being in a state of or resembling sleep.
- dubious
- Doubtful.
- duplicity
- Double-dealing.
- earthenware
- Anything made of clay and baked in a kiln or dried in the sun.
- ebullient
- Showing enthusiasm or exhilaration of feeling.
- edacious
- Given to eating.
- edible
- Suitable to be eaten.
- educe
- To draw out.
- effete
- Exhausted, as having performed its functions.
- efficacy
- The power to produce an intended effect as shown in the production of it.
- effrontery
- Unblushing impudence.
- effulgence
- Splendor.
- egregious
- Extreme.
- egress
- Any place of exit.
- elegy
- A lyric poem lamenting the dead.
- elicit
- To educe or extract gradually or without violence.
- elucidate
- To bring out more clearly the facts concerning.
- emaciate
- To waste away in flesh.
- embellish
- To make beautiful or elegant by adding attractive or ornamental features.
- embezzle
- To misappropriate secretly.
- emblazon
- To set forth publicly or in glowing terms.
- encomium
- A formal or discriminating expression of praise.
- encumbrance
- A burdensome and troublesome load.
- endemic
- Peculiar to some specified country or people.
- enervate
- To render ineffective or inoperative.
- engender
- To produce.
- engrave
- To cut or carve in or upon some surface.
- enigma
- A riddle.
- enmity
- Hatred.
- entangle
- To involve in difficulties, confusion, or complications.
- entreat
- To ask for or request earnestly.
- Epicurean
- Indulging, ministering, or pertaining to daintiness of appetite.
- epithet
- Word used adjectivally to describe some quality or attribute of is objects, as in "Father Aeneas".
- epitome
- A simplified representation.
- equable
- Equal and uniform
- equanimity
- Calmness
- equilibrium
- A state of balance.
- equivocal
- Ambiguous.
- equivocate
- To use words of double meaning.
- eradicate
- To destroy thoroughly.
- errant
- Roving or wandering, as in search of adventure or opportunity for gallant deeds.
- erratic
- Irregular.
- erroneous
- Incorrect.
- erudite
- Very-learned.
- eschew
- To keep clear of.