GRE Vocab (A-C)

to humble; digrace

My intention was not to abase the comedian.

synonyms: demean; humiliate

to reduce in amount, degree, or severity

As the hurricane's force abated the winds dropped and the sea became calm.

Synonyms: ebb; lapse; let up; moderate; relent; slacken; subside; wane

to give up position, right, or power

With the angry mob clamoring outside the palace, the king abdicated his throne and fled.

Synonyms: cede; relinquish; resign; quit; yield

deviating from what is normal or expected

Since he had been a steady, cheerful worker for many years, his fellow postal workers did not expect his aberrant burst of rage.

Synonyms: abnormal; anomalous; deviant; divergent; errant; irregular

temporary suppression or suspension

The baseball game was held in abeyance while it continued to rain.

Synonyms; deferral; delay; dormancy; postponement; remission

to reject; abandon formally

The spy abjured his allegiance to the United States when he defected to Russia.

Synonyms: forswear; recall; recant; take back

to leave secretly

The patron absconded from the restaurant without paying his bill by sneaking out the back door.

Synonyms: decamp; escape; flee

to choose not to do something

Before the medical procedure you must abstain from eating.

Synonyms: forbear; refrain; withold

moderate in appetite

Because Alyce is a vegetarian, she was only able to eat an abstemious meal at the Texas steakhouse.

Synonyms: abstinent; continent; self-restraining; sober; temperate

an extremely deep hole

The submarine dove into the abyss to chart the previously unseen depths.

Synonyms: chasm; void

a growth in size; an increase in amount

The committee's strong fund-raising efforts resulted in an accretion in scholarship money.

Synonyms: accumulation; buildup

sour in taste or manner

The acidulous taste of the spoiled milk made the young boy's lips pucker.

Synonyms: acerbic; acetous; biting; piquant; pungent; tart

highest point; summit; the highest level or degree attainable

Just when he reached the acme of his power, the dictator was overthrown.

Synonyms: apex; peak; summit

to make impure

The restaurant made his ketchup last longer by adulterating it with water.

Synonyms: debase; doctor; load

to speak in favor of

The vegetarian advocated a diet containing no meat.

Synonym: back; champion; support

a nest built high in the air; an elevated, often secluded dwelling

Perched high among the trees, the eagle's aerie was filled with eggs.

Synonyms: perch; stronghold

concerning the appreciation of beauty

The aesthetic movement regarded the pursuit of beauty to be the only true purpose of art.

Synonyms: artistic; tasteful

phony; artificial

The affected hairdresser spouted French phrases, though she had never been to France.

Synonyms; insincere; pretentious; put-on

to increase in power, influence and reputation

The supervisor sought to aggrandize himself by claiming that the achievements of his staff were actually his own.

Synonyms: amplify; apotheosize; augment; dignify; elevate; enlarge; ennoble; exalt; glorify; magnify; swell; uplift; wax

to combine; to mix together

Giant Industries amalgamated with Mega Products to form Giant-Mega Products incorporated.

Synonyms: admix; blend; coalesce; combine; commingle; commix; compound; fuse; intermingle; intermix; merge; mingle; mix; unite

doubtful or uncertain; can be interpreted several ways

The directions he gave were so ambiguous the we disagreed on which way to turn.

Synonyms: cloudy; doubtful; dubious; equivocal; indeterminate; nebulous;obscure; unclear; vague

to make better; to improve

The doctor was able to ameliorate the patient's suffering using painkillers.

Synonyms: amend; better;improve; pacify; upgrade

speed or quickness

The restaurant won a reputation for fine service since the wait staff responded to their clients' requests with alacrity.

synonyms: dispatch; haste; swiftness

to diminish by installment payments

While college students are notorious for accumulating credit card debt, they are not as well known for amortizing it.

Synonyms: convivialty

To make more bearable

Taking aspirin helps to alleviate a headache.

Synonyms: allay; assuage; comfort; ease; lessen; lighten; mitigate; palliate; relieve

ornament worn as a charm against evil spirits

Though she claimed it was not because of superstition, Vivian always wore an amulet around her neck.

Synonyms: fetish; talisman

something out of place in time

• The aged hippie used anachronistic phrases like "groovy" and "far out" that had not been popular for years.
• synonyms; archaism; incongruity

a lessening of pain without loss of consciousness

After having her appendix removed, Tatiana welcomed the analgesia that the painkillers provided.

similar or alike in some way; equivalent to

His mother argued that not going to college was analogous to throwing his life away

Synonyms: alike; comparable; corresponding; equivalent; homogeneous; parallel; similar

something that calms or soothes pain

The anodyne massage helped remove the knots from the lawyer's tense shoulders.

Synonyms: narcotic; nepenthe; opiate

deviation from what is normal

Albino animals may display too great an anomaly in their coloring to attract normally colored mates.

Synonyms: aberrant; aberration; abnormality; deviance; deviation; irregularity; preternaturalness

to annoy or anger

The child discovered that he could antagonize the cat by pulling it's tail.

Synonyms: clash; conflict; incite; irritate; oppose; pester; provoke; vex

extreme dislike

The antipathy between fans of the rival soccer teams made the game even more electrifying to watch.

Synonyms: abhorrence; animosity; animus; antagonism; aversion; dislike; enmity; hatred; hostility; loathing; repellence; repugnance; repulsion; revulsion

lack of interest or emotion

The apathy of voters is so great that less than half the people who are eligible to vote actually bother to do so.

Synonyms; coolness; disinterest; disregard; impassivity; indifference; insensibility; lassitude; lethargy; listlessness; phlegm; stolidity; unconcern; unresponsiveness

of questionable authority

There is no hard or authoritative evidence to support the apocryphal tales that link the Roswell, New Mexico, incident to a downed UFO.

Synonyms: disputed; doubtful; fictitious; fraudulent

one who renounces a religious faith

So that he could divorce his wife, the king scoffed at the church docrines and declared himself an apostate.

Synonyms: defector; deserter; traitor

approval and praise

The approbation that Jerry Lewis had received in France included a medal from the ministry of culture.

Synonyms: acclaim; adulation; applause; commendation; compliments; exalt; extol; hail; kudos; praise

determined by chance or impulse

When you lack the information to judge what to do next, you will be forced to make an arbitrary decision.

Synonyms; changeable; erratic; indiscriminate; random; wayward

to judge a dispute between two opposing parties

Since the couple could not come to an agreement, a judge was forced to arbitrate their divorce proceedings.

Synonyms: adjudge; adjudicate; determine; intermediate; intervene; judge; moderate; referee; rule

ancient; old-fashioned

Her archaic Commodore computer could not run the latest software.

Synonyms: ancient; antediluvian; antique; archaic; bygone; dated; dowdy; fusty; obsolete; old-fashioned; outdated; outmoded; passé; prehistoric; stale; superannuated; superseded; vintage

intense and passionate feeling

Bishop's ardor for landscape was evident when he passionately described the beauty of the scenic Hudson Valley.

Synonyms: devotion; enthusiasm; fervency; fervidity; fervidness; fervor; fire; passion; zeal; zealousness

able to speak clearly and expressively

She is extremely articulate when it comes to expressing her pro-labor views; as a result, unions are among her strongest supporters.

Synonyms: eloquent; expressive; fluent; lucid; silver-tongued; smooth-spoken

to claim without justification; to claim for oneself without right

Gretchen watched in astonishment as he boss arrogated the credit for her brilliant work on the project.

Synonyms: appropriate; presume; take

to make something unpleasant less severe

Like many people, Philip Larkin used alcohol to assuage his sense of meaninglessness and despair.

Synonyms: allay; alleviate; appease; comfort; conciliate; ease; lighten; mitigate; mollify; pacify; palliate; placate; propitiate; relieve; soothe; sweeten

to attack; assault

The foreign army will try to assail our bases, but they will not be successful in their attack.

Synonyms: beset; strike; storm

to reduce in force or degree; weaken

The Bill of Rights attenuated the traditional power of government to change laws at will.

Synonyms: debilitate; devitalize; dilute; enervate; enfeeble; rarefy; sap; thin; undermine; undo; unnerve; water; weaken

fearless and daring

The audacious peasant dared to insult the king's mother.

Synonyms; adventuresome; aggressive; assertive; bold; brave; courageous; daring; dauntless; doughty; fearless; gallant; game; heroic; intrepid; mettlesome; plucky; stout; stouthearted; unafraid; undaunted; valiant; valorous; venturesome; venturous

prophecy; prediction of events

Troy hoped the rainbow was an augury of the good things to come.

Synonyms: auspices; harbinger; omen; portent; presage

dignified; grandiose

The august view of the Grand Teton summit took my breath away.

Synonyms: admirable; awesome; grand; majestic

severe or stern in appearance; undecorated

The lack of decoration makes Zen temples seem austere to the untrained eye.

Synonyms: bleak; dour; grim; hard; harsh; severe

premise; postulate; self-evident truth

Halle lived her life based on the axioms her grandmother had passed on to her.

Synonyms: adage; apothegm; aphorism; maxim; rule

predictable; clichéd; boring

His conversation consisted of banal phrases like "Have a nice day" or "Another day, another dollar."

Synonyms: bland; bromidic; clichéd; commonplace; fatuous; hackneyed; innocuous; insipid; jejune; musty; platitudinous; prosaic; quotidian; shopworn; stale; stereotypic; threadbare; timeworn; tired; trite; vapid; worn-out

bell tower; room in which the bell is hung

The town was shocked when a bag of money was found stashed in the old belfry of the church.

Synonyms: spire; steeple

group

As predicted, a bevy of teenagers surrounded the rock star's limousine.

Synonyms: band; bunch; gang; pack; troop

to divide into two parts

The large corporation just released a press statement announcing its plans to bifurcate.

Synonym: bisect

to cheat; defraud

When the greedy salesman realized that his customer spoke poor French, he bilked the tourist out of 20 euros.

Synonyms: beat; defraud; diddle; gyp; overreach

to afflict; destroy

The farmers feared that the night's frost would blight the potato crops entirely.

Synonyms: damage; plague

joyful, cheerful, or without appropriate thought

Summer finally came, and the blithe students spent their days at the beach.

Synonyms: carefree; lighthearted; merry

to support; prop up

The presence of giant footprints bolstered the argument that Bigfoot was in the area.

Synonyms: brace; buttress; crutch; prop; stay; support; sustain; underpinning; uphold

pompous in speech and manner

Mussolini's speeches were mostly bombastic; his boasting and outrageous claims had no basis in fact.

Synonyms: bloated; declamatory; fustian; grandiloquent; grandiose; high-flown; magniloquent; orotund; pretentious; rhetorical; self-important

good-natured geniality; atmosphere of good cheer

The aspects of her job she loved most were the flexible hours and the pleasant bonhomie in the office.

crude person, one lacking in manners or taste

"That utter boor ruined my recital with his constant guffawing!" wailed the pianist.

Synonyms: clod; lout; oaf; vulgarian; yahoo

to grow and flourish

Faulkner neither confirmed nor denied stories about himself, allowing rumor to burgeon where it would.

Synonyms: bloom flourish prosper; thrive

to polish

He burnished the silver coffee pot until it shone brightly

Synonyms: buff; luster; polish; scour

a secret group seeking to overturn something

The boys on the street formed a cabal to keep girls out of their tree house.

Synonyms: camp; clan; clique; coterie; in-group; mafia; mob; ring

harsh, jarring noise

The junior high orchestra created an almost unbearable cacophony as they tried to tune their instruments.

Synonyms: chaos; clamor; din; discord; disharmony; noise

a false malicious accusation; misrepresentation

The unscrupulous politician used calumny to bring down his opponent in the senatorial race.

Synonyms: defamation; libel; slander

a lie

That tabloid's feature story about a goat giving birth to a human child was clearly a canard.

Synonyms: falsehood; falsity; fib; misrepresentation; prevarication; tale; untruth

impartial, and honest in speech

The observations of a child can be charming since they are candid and unpretentious

Synonyms: direct; forthright; frank; honest; open; sincere; straight; straightforward; undisguised

changing one's mind quickly and often

Queen Elizabeth I was quite capricious; her courtiers could never be sure which one would catch her fancy.

Synonyms: arbitrary; chance; changeable; erratic; fickle; inconstant; mercurial; random; whimsical; willful

science or art of making maps

Gail's interest in cartography may stem from the extensive traveling as a child.

Synonyms: charting; surveying; topography

to punish or criticize harshly

Martina castigated her boyfriend for not remembering her birthday.

Synonyms: admonish; chastise; chide; rebuke; reprimand; reproach; reprove; scold; tax; upbraid

something that brings about a change in something else

The imposition of harsh taxes was the catalyst that finally brought on the revolution.

Synonyms: accelerator; goad; impetus; impulse; incentive; motivation; spur; stimulant

universal; broad and comprehensive

Hot tea with honey is a catholic remedy for a sore throat.

Synonyms: extensive; general

biting in wit

Dorothy Parker gained her caustic reputation from her cutting, yet witty, insults.

Synonyms: acerbic; biting; mordant; trenchant

great disorder or confused situation

In most religious traditions, God created an ordered universe from chaos.

Synonyms: clutter; confusion; disarrangement; disarray; disorder; disorderliness;disorganization; jumble; mess; muddle; scramble; snarl; topsy-turviness; turmoil

someone prejudiced in favor of a group to which he or she belongs

The attitude that men must be obeyed since they are inherently superior to women is common among male chauvinists.

Synonyms: biased; colored; one-sided; partial; partisan; prejudicial; prepossessed; tendentious

deception by means of craft or guile

Dishonest used-car salesmen often use chicanery to sell their beat-up old cars.

Synonyms: artifice; conniving; craftiness; deception; deviousness; misrepresentation; pettifoggery; shadiness; sneakiness; sophistry; subterfuge; underhandedness

cautious; aware of potential consequences

She was very circumspect in her language and behavior when first introduced to her fiancée's parents.

Synonyms: alert; cautious; heedful; mindful; prudent; solicitous; vigilant; wary

sickly sweet; excessive

When Enid and Jay first started dating, their cloying affection towards one another often made their friends ill.

Synonyms: excessive; fulsome

to grow together to form a single whole

The sun and planets eventually coalesced out of a vast cloud of gas and dust.

Synonyms: amalgamate; blend; coalesce; condense; consolidate; fuse; unite

stongbox; large chest for money

The bulletproof glass of the coffer is what keeps the crown jewels secure.

Synonyms; treasury; chest; exchequer; war chest

convincing and well-reasoned

Swayed by the cogent argument of the defense, the jury had no choice but to acquit the defendant.

Synonyms; convincing; persuasive; solid; telling; valid

collaboration; complicity; conspiracy

It came to light that the police chief and the mafia had a collusion in running the numbers racket.

Synonyms: connivance; intrigue; machination

to overlook, pardon, or disregard

Some theorists believe that failing to prosecute minor crimes is the same as condoning an air of lawlessness.

Synonyms: exculpate; excuse; pardon; remit

a person with expert knowledge or discriminating tastes

Dr. Crane was a connoisseur of fine food and wine, drinking and eating only the best.

Synonyms: authority; epicure; expert; gastronome; gourmet

deeply sorrowful and repentant for a wrong

After three residents were mugged in the lobby while the watchman was away from his post, he felt very contrite.

Synonyms: apologetic; regretful; remorseful

rebellious

The contumacious teenager ran away from home when her parents told her she was grounded.

Synonyms: factious; insubordinate; insurgent; mutinous;rebellious; seditious

intricate and complicated

Although many people bought the professor's book, few people could follow its convoluted ideas and theories.

Synonyms: Byzantine; complex elaborate; intricate; knotty; labyrinthine; perplexing; tangled

to support with evidence

All the DA needed were fingerprints to corroborate the witness's testimony that he saw the defendant in the victim's apartment.

Synonyms: authenticate; back; buttress; confirm; substantiate; validate; verify

to pamper; treat with great care

Marta just loves to cosset her first and only grandchild.

Synonyms: cater to; cuddle; dandle; fondle; love; pamper; pet; spoil

an intimate group of persons with a similar purpose

Angel invited a coterie of fellow stamp enthusiasts to a stamp-trading party

Synonyms: clique; set

lacking courage

The craven lion cringed in the corner oh his cage, terrified of the mouse

Synonyms: fainthearted; spineless; timid

too trusting; gullible

Although some 4-year-olds believe in the Tooth Fairy, only the most credulous 9-year-olds also believe in her.

Synonyms: naive; susceptible; trusting

steadily increasing in volume or force

The crescendo of tension became unbearable as Evel Knievel prepared to jump his motorcycle over the school buses.

Synonyms: acme; capstone; climax; crest; culmen; culmination; meridian; peak

greed; strong desire

The thief stared at the shining jewels with cupidity in his gleaming eyes.

Synonyms: avarice; covetousness; rapcity

cranky person, usually old

Ernesto was a notorious curmudgeon who snapped at anyone who disturbed him for any reason.

Synonyms: crab; coot; grouch