SAT Flashcards - Lesson 4

aesthetic (adj.)

relating or pertaining to a sense of beauty or art.

ex: He is considered to have aesthetic tastes because he loves beauty and the arts.

\
aloof (adj.)

apart, indifferent (*at a distance emotionally*.)

ex: The woman remained aloof during the party, separating herself from everyone else.

archaic (adj.)

antiquated, old, out of use.

ex: Words such as “thou”, which are no longer part of normal vocabulary, are archaic.

assuage (v.)

to ease, to mitigate, to make less painful or burdensome, to calm.

ex: Your kind words should assuage her suffering. The medicine should assuage his pain.

belie (v.)

to contradict, to give a false impression.

ex: Her first words appeared to belie wall the wonderful things I had heard about her.

contentious (adj.)

quarrelsome, stirring controversy (*always ready to argue.)*

ex: My contentious child will not listen to any form of reason.

daunt (v.)

to intimidate, to dismay.

ex: ed I am not daunted by your threats.

debilitate (v.)

to weaken, to enfeeble.

ex: I was debilitated by my bout with pneumonia.

discord (n.)

lack of agreement, tension, strife.

ex: There is a lot of discord in the nation over the issue of politics.

dissemination (n.)

the act of spreading widely; scattering.

ex: The dissemination of these ideas can best be achieved through television.

dogmatic (adj.)

strongly opinionated in an unwarranted manner (*arrogant with opinion.*)

ex: He was so dogmatic that having an intelligent conversation was impossible.

duplicity (n.)

double-dealing, hypocrisy (*deceitfulness.*)

ex: His duplicity was exposed when the girl he was seeing found out he was married.

egocentric (adj.)

self-centered, selfish.

ex: Egocentric people rarely show any concern for others.

euphemism (n.)

substitution of an inoffensive term for one that is offensive (*a nice way to say it.*)

ex: People frequently use a euphemism for the word “died.” They common say someone “passed away.”

gluttonous (adj.)

greedy for food and drink (*wanting too much.*)

ex: I am so gluttonous that I would have great difficulty dieting.

mundane (adj.)

ordinary, commonplace (*unimaginative*.)

ex: After I take care of these mundane matters, we can do something exciting.

ominous (adj.

threatening (*foreshadowing evil.)*

ex: The ominous clouds were harbingers of the tornado.

petulance (n.)

unreasonable touchiness for irritability.

ex: Petulance is sometimes the trait of a child who is not getting his way.

pompous (adj.)

exaggerated show of dignity or self-importance bombastic.

ex: It is very pompous to believe that his ideas should always receive the first consideration.

precocious (adj.)

exceptionally early in development or occurrence (*unusually talented.)*

ex: A child prodigy is a young person who is very precocious.

slothful (adj.)

lazy, indolent.

ex: That student is so slothful that he has never done any of his homework assignments.

trivia (n.)

insignificant matters (*something unimportant.)*

ex: The English teacher is looking for substance, not trivia, in themes.

verbose (adj.)

wordy, very talkative.

ex: That professor is so verbose that it takes him an hour to cover material that should take fifteen minutes.

virulent (adj.)

extremely poisonous; hateful (*hostile.)*

ex: The doctor prescribed a lot of medication to arrest the virulent infection.

volatile (adj.)

quickly changeable, easily vaporized (*easily turned to violence.)*

ex: Because of his volatile temper, one must use caution in dealing with him.