All GRE Words

Suspended action

Ex. Matters were held in abeyance pending further inquiries

Utterly hopeless, humiliating or wretched.

Ex. Abject poverety

To renounce an oath.

Ex. His refusal to abjure the Catholic faith

Act of cleansing

Ex. The women performed their ablutions

To abolish by formal means

Ex. A proposal to abrogate temporarily the right to strike

Sparing in eating and drinking, temperate.

Ex. We only had a bottle.... very abstemious of you 

Hard to understand; secret, hidden.

Ex. An abstruse philosophical inquiry.

Border up, adjoin 

Ex. The gardens abutting Great Prescott State.

An increase by natural growth.

Ex. The accretion of sediments in coastal mangroves.

Fear of heights.

Calculating, pertaining to insurance statistics.

Ex. ... cures of SS if indeed it's in actuarial danger.

Motivate (syn. incite)

Ex. The pendulum actuates an electrical switch.

Sharpness 

Ex. Intellectual or visual acuity.

Muddle, drive crazy, become rotten

Ex. Being in love must have addled your brain.

Accessory (not essential)

Syn: consequent

Ex. Computer technology is an adjunct to learning.

Solemn urging

Abjuration of Cthulhu and references to... other names only found in Lovecraft's stories

To beg or command

Ex. I adjure you to tell me the truth.

Assistant

Ex. The adjutant general's office...

Accessory; furnishing added support, additive

Ex. Recommend certain patients receive adjuvant chemo, even for those with stage 1 diseases.

Cautionary advice about something imminent (especially of danger or unpleasantness), a warning [admonish]

Ex. The old judge's admonition to the jury on this point was particularly weighty

Skillful

Ex. He was adroit at tax avoidance.

Accidental

My adventures were always adventitious, always thrust on me.

Refer (to)

Ex. First, there was this advert from the U.S for a combination razor/bikini trimmer.

Large prey bird

An effort to appear to have a quality not really or fully possessed.

Ex. Mari's childish affectation won her more sympathy from adults than the cleverness which made her an outcast at school.

Insult, offend

Ex. He took his son's desertion as a personal affront.

Gather, accumulate

Ex. The people aggregated in dense groups.

Eagerness, cheerful promptness

Ex. She accepted the invitation with alacrity.

To combine

Ex. He amalgamated his company with another.

Of or pertaining to lovers or lovemaking

Ex. His amatory exploits.

Contradictory state or having conflicting emotional attitudes

Ex. The law's ambivalence about the importance of a victim's identity

Able to walk, not bedridden

Ex. Ambulatory patients

Kind, friendly

Ex. An amiable fellow

Kind, lovable, friendly, not quarrelsome

Ex. There will be an amicable settlement of the dispute.

Friendship, peaceful harmony

Ex. International harmony

Having no definite form/shape

Ex. Amorphous blue forms and straight black lines

Causing insensitivity to pain

Ex. ... Repeated social conflict... brings subject into an adaptive learnt response of a potent, protective, analgesic state.

Any substance that promotes masculine characteristics

A usually short narrative of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident. 

Ex. He told anecdotes about his job

Critical remark

Ex. Her animadversion against science.

Hostile feeling or intent (related to animosity)

Ex. The author's animus toward her.

Yearly allowance 

Ex. ... left her with an annuity of 1,000 in his will

Opiate, drug that relieves pain

Ex. An anodyne to the misery she had put him through.

Consecrate (To make or declare sacred)


Ex. Bodies were anointed after death for burial.

3rd last

Ex. The antepenultimate item on the agenda

Book of literary selections by various authors

The holistic, global, comparative study of humans

Like a human, having human-like characteristics

Any system or caste that separates people according to race

Ex. Sexual apartheid

Loss of speech due to injury or illness

Poise, assurance 

Ex. Diana passed the test with aplomb.

Spurious, not authentic, invented rather than true.

Ex. An apocryphal story about a former president.

The highest or most distant point

Ex. The white house is considered the apogee of American Government.

Renunciation of one's previous loyalty; a total desertion of one's religion, principles, cause, etc.

Glorification, glorified ideal

Ex. His appearance as Hamlet was the apotheosis of his career.

Ghost, phantom

Inform

Ex. I thought it was right to apprise Chris of what had happened.

Acquire, to take exclusive possession of; allow, give or assign a resource to a particular cause

Ex. Appropriate funds for the research program.

Ex. No one should appropriate a common benefit.

An incidental right, something that belongs to and goes with something else

Ex. All the appurtenances of luxurious travel.

Regarding, with regards to, "by the way"

Ex. Apropos of the previous statement.

Fervor, zeal

Hard, strenuous

Slang

Ex. Teenage argot.

Charge in court

An unpaid overdue debt

Ex. He was in arrears on paying for his Cadillac.

To claim unwarrantably or presumptuously 

Ex. They arrogate to themselves the ability to divine the nation's true interests.

Gully, Spanish word for "Dry creek" or one that seasonally fills.

Ex. The people living along the main arroyo have lost everything.

Without guile, open and honest 

Controlling influence; governing, dominance 

• Ex. The ascendancy of his enforcement program is in no small part due to his effort.
• Ex. It is a law of life that when 2 civilizations meet they fight for ascendancy. 

Austere, practicing self-denial

Ex. An ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and manual labor.

Sharpness (of temper), rigor, roughness of surface

Ex. He pointed this out with some asperity.

Slanderous remark (detraction) 

Ex. I don't think anyone is casting aspersions on you.

Diligent, hard working

Lessen, soothe, relieve

Ex. The letter assuaged the fears of most members. 

To weaken or lessen

Ex. Her intolerance was attenuated by a rather unexpected liberalism

Omen, prophecy

Ex. They heard the sound as an augury of death.

• Sun's corona (noun) 
• Syn. Halo

Stern and cold in appearance or manner

Ex. An austere man with a rigidly puritanical outlook.

Self-governing

Ex. ... contains 16 autonomous republics

Having avarice (Greed)

Ex. Corrupt and avaricious government.

Declare, assert confidently, as used in law_state formally as a fact

Ex. He averred that he was innocent.

Something one does in addition to a principle occupation

Declare openly 

Ex. He avowed he had voted Republican in every election.

Drunken

Ex. Daytona Beach's bacchanalian atmosphere.

Teasing conversation

Ex. Cultured badinage about art and life.

Threatening, menacing, foreshadowing evil, sinister

Ex. A baleful glance in her direction.

Discuss lightly or glibly, exchange words heatedly

Ex. 40,000 is the amount that has been bandied about.

Good-naturedly ridiculing 

Ex. The men bantered with the waitress.

Poet

Shameless 

Ex. A barefaced lie.

• Highly ornate 
• Syn. Extravagant 

Ex. The candles were positively baroque.

Trinket, trifle

Alluring; highly attractive and able to arouse hope or desire, to lead by deception

Ex. Every prominent American artist has been beguiled by Maine

Indebted, obligated

Ex. I don't like to be beholden to anybody.

Be incumbent upon, be required to do

Ex. It behooves any coach to study his predecessors.

Speak or explain excessively, assail verbally

Ex. Critics thought they belabored the obvious.

Besiege or attack, harass

Ex. The beleaguered city

Warlike, pugnacious 

Ex. Bellicose patriots.

Warlike, given to waging war

Ex. A bull-necked, belligerent old man

To express pity for

Ex. Single women bemoaning the absence of men.

Confused, lost in thought, preoccupied 

Ex. Her bemused expression.

Desiring to do good to others

Having a kindly disposition

Soil, defile

Ex. He had besmirched the good name of his family.

Indicate, signify

Ex. A lack of medicines in his cupboard betokens his good health.

A prejudiced person who is intolerant of any opinions differing from his own

Ex. Religious bigots.

Pertaining to or affecting two or both sides

Ex. Bilateral hearing is essential for sound location.

Suffering from a liver complaint, peevishly ill-humored

Swindle, cheat 

Temporary encampment 

Ex. He'd bivouacked to the north side of the town.

Coax with flattery, cajole

Ex. I was blandishing her with imprudence to get her off the subject.

Bored with pleasure or dissipation 

Destroyed, suffering from a disease

Carefree and unconcerned (possibly foolishly so) cheerful and gay

Talkative boaster, bragger

Ex. Pompous blowhards trying to get on the news.

Threaten emptily 

Middle class, selfishly materialistic, dully conventional

Placid and dull, cow like.

Expurgate, omit parts considered vulgar, abridge

Air of defiance, swagger

Tolerate, endure

Bully, intimidate 

Blunt, abrupt 

Ex. She could be brusque and impatient 

Pastoral, rustic

Grow forth, send out 

Ex. Burgeoning demand

Make shiny by rubbing, polish

Support, prop up

Panhandle, mooch, beg

Malicious misrepresentation, slander

False or unfounded story, fabricated report

Shrewd, thrifty

Rule or principle, precept, collection of authoritative books

Irritable, ill-humored, peevish

To surrender unconditionally or on stipulated terms

Unpredictable, fickle

Punish severely 

Flood, deluge, a momentous and violent event marked by overwhelming upheaval and demolition.

Casual and off hand

Ex. She was irritated by his cavalier attitude.

Harsh criticism or disapproval, reprimand: rebuke formally

Ex. A judge was censure in 1983 for a variety of types of injudicious conduct.