gre tough words
Terms
undefined, object
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- penury
- extreme poverty
- perfidy
- treachery; falsehood (perfidious is the adjective)
- manque
- unfulfilled; frustrated (literally: maimed)}"He was an artist manque."
- bereft
- to be deprived of something valuable}"He was bereft of reason."
- heuristic
- an idea or speculation acting as a guide to an investigation
- solecism
- an ungrammatical combination of words
- meretricious
- deceitful; tawdry(Note that the two words above are pejorative, but if the}meaning is not known, they "sound" meritorious.)
- cynosure
- {(from the Greek: "dog's tail")}center of attention; point to which all eyes are drawn.(Really? From "dog's tail"? Yes. The "dog's tail" appears in a constellation, } locating the North star, which rivets the attention of sailors at sea. Thus: } center of attention.)} } (see also: sinecure)
- punctilio
- (noun)}a fine point of etiquette; precise observance of formalities}or ceremony; precise to the letter
- gratuitous
- given freely
- venal
- a sacrifice of honor for profit
- inimical
- unfriendly; hostile
- turpitude
- depravity
- lagniappe
- {(noun) (a Creole word)}something given away as a gift for buying something else;} (such as an ashtray given for buying a full tank of gas)
- hubris
- arrogance from excessive pride or passion (hubristic)
- cosseted
- pampered
- calumny
- a slander or false accusation
- poignant
- An adjective with multiple flavors:}1: appealing to emotion 2: physically painful 3: sharp, pungent}4: piercing, incisive 5: astute, pertinent 6: neat, skillful
- dilettante
- 1. having superficial/amateurish interest in a branch of knowledge;}2. a connoisseur or lover of the fine arts
- arrogate
- to make an unreasonable claim
- cant
- insincerity
- peripatetic
- walking about; itinerant (Often used to describe Aristotle)
- nugatory
- trifling; worthless; ineffective
- misanthrope
- a person who dislikes the human race
- insuperable
- not able to be overcome
- luddite
- a person who tries to halt progress by smashing machines
- concatenation
- things linked together or joined in a chain
- atavistic
- reverting to a primitive type
- leitmotif
- a dominant or recurring theme or pattern
- saturnine
- morose; gloomy
- spurious
- alse
- perdition
- future misery, such as in going to Hell
- sanguine
- cheerful, confident
- recondite
- hard to understand; profound; obscure; concealed
- poltroon
- a thouroughly cowardly person
- egregious
- conspiculously bad; flagrant; shocking
- rapacity
- act of seizing that which is coveted; greed
- pejorative
- tending to be worse; downgrading; disparaging
- sobriquet
- a nickname or an assumed name ("Minnesota Fats")
- mendacious
- {(adj.)}untruthful. {(the noun is mendacity)
- specious
- appearing to be right; deceptively good looking
- haik
- a large piece of cloth worn as an outer garment by Arabs.
- polymath
- a person of great or (more usually) varied learning.}(poly=much {math=learning)
- canard
- a fabricated story (French="duck"; morte canard=dead duck)
- epigone
- a second rate imitator or follower
- aphorism
- a short, witty saying or concise principle
- puerile
- (Fr.: "puer" - child)}juvenile, immature, childish
- discursive
- covering a wide field of subjects
- propitiate
- pacify
- peremptory
- a command which may not be refused
- parvenue
- an upstart; someone trying to rise above their proper place
- unctous
- oily and persuasive
- jeremiad
- a series of doleful, dismal complaints
- sinecure
- a job (usually politically appointed) requiring little or no}work.}(See also: cynosure)
- seriatim
- occuring one after another; in serial fashion
- regnant
- reigning; predominant; widespread
- samizdat
- an underground newspaper
- perfunctory
- done routinely, with little interest or care
- comitatus
- loyalty to one's band or group
- presentiment
- a foreboding of misfortune
- anodyne
- anything that sooths or comforts
- paradigm
- "side by side"; a pattern or example. A "paradigm shift" is}usually used to signify a major change in thinking or acting,}in the sense of employing new examples.
- avuncular
- "like an uncle"; benevolent
- docent
- a teacher, but not regular faculty; a museum tour guide
- opprobrium
- disgrace arising from shameful conduct;}a reproach mingled with contempt}"That word - a term of opprobrium - cut him like a knife."
- fatuous
- foolish; stupid; silly
- apostate
- person who has left the fold or deserted the faith.
- inveigh
- attack verbally
- verisimilitude
- the quality of appearing to be true or real
- felicity
- bliss; a pleasing aptness in speech and deportment; grace
- voracity
- greed(very close to veracity in spelling and pronunciation, but mean quite different things.)
- incisive
- displaying sharp mental perception; direct and effective
- sanguinary
- bloody(note the huge difference in meaning between the above two}similarly sounding words)