SAT Words in Context Vocab

abase (v.) to humiliate, degrade (After being overthrown and abased, the deposed

leader offered to bow down to his conqueror.)

abate (v.) to reduce, lessen (The rain poured down for a while, then abated.)

abdicate (v.) to give up a position, usually one of leadership (When he realized that the

revolutionaries would surely win, the king abdicated his throne.)

abduct (v.) to kidnap, take by force (The evildoers abducted the fairy princess from her

happy home.)

aberration (n.)something that differs from the norm (In 1918, the Boston Red Sox won

the World Series, but the success turned out to be an aberration, and the Red Sox

have not won a World Series since.)

abet (v.) to aid, help, encourage (The spy succeeded only because he had a friend on the

inside to abet him.)

SAT Vocabulary

A

abhor (v.) to hate, detest (Because he always wound up kicking himself in the head

when he tried to play soccer, Oswald began to abhor the sport.)

abide 1. (v.) to put up with (Though he did not agree with the decision, Chuck decided

to abide by it.) 2. (v.) to remain (Despite the beating they’ve taken from the weather

throughout the millennia, the mountains abide.)

abject (adj.) wretched, pitiful (After losing all her money, falling into a puddle, and

breaking her ankle, Eloise was abject.)

abjure (v.) to reject, renounce (To prove his honesty, the President abjured the evil

policies of his wicked predecessor.)

abnegation (n.) denial of comfort to oneself (The holy man slept on the floor, took only

cold showers, and generally followed other practices of abnegation.)

abort (v.) to give up on a half-finished project or effort (After they ran out of food, the

men, attempting to jump rope around the world, had to abort and go home.)

abridge 1. (v.) to cut down, shorten (The publisher thought the dictionary was too long

and abridged it.) 2. (adj.) shortened (Moby-Dick is such a long book that even the

abridged version is longer than most normal books.)

abrogate (v.) to abolish, usually by authority (The Bill of Rights assures that the

government cannot abrogate our right to a free press.)

abscond (v.) to sneak away and hide (In the confusion, the super-spy absconded into the

night with the secret plans.)

absolution (n.) freedom from blame, guilt, sin (Once all the facts were known, the jury

gave Angela absolution by giving a verdict of not guilty.)

abstain (v.) to freely choose not to commit an action (Everyone demanded that Angus

put on the kilt, but he did not want to do it and abstained.)

abstruse (adj.) hard to comprehend (Everyone else in the class understood geometry

easily, but John found the subject abstruse.)

accede (v.) to agree (When the class asked the teacher whether they could play baseball

instead of learn grammar they expected him to refuse, but instead he acceded to

their request.)

accentuate (v.) to stress, highlight (Psychologists agree that those people who are

happiest accentuate the positive in life.)

A

SAT Vocabulary

accessible (adj.) obtainable, reachable (After studying with SparkNotes and getting a

great score on the SAT, Marlena happily realized that her goal of getting into an

Ivy-League college was accessible.)

acclaim (n.) high praise (Greg’s excellent poem won the acclaim of his friends.)

accolade (n.) high praise, special distinction (Everyone offered accolades to Sam after

he won the Noble Prize.)

accommodating (adj.) helpful, obliging, polite (Though the apartment was not big

enough for three people, Arnold, Mark, and Zebulon were all friends and were

accommodating to each other.)

accord (n.) an agreement (After much negotiating, England and Iceland finally came to

a mutually beneficial accord about fishing rights off the cost of Greenland.)

accost (v.)to confront verbally (Though Antoinette was normally quite calm, when the

waiter spilled soup on her for the fourth time in 15 minutes she stood up and accosted

the man.)

accretion (n.) slow growth in size or amount (Stalactites are formed by the accretion of

minerals from the roofs of caves.)

acerbic (adj.) biting, bitter in tone or taste (Jill became extremely acerbic and began to

cruelly make fun of all her friends.)

acquiesce (v.) to agree without protesting (Though Mr. Correlli wanted to stay outside

and work in his garage, when his wife told him that he had better come in to dinner,

he acquiesced to her demands.)

acrimony (n.) bitterness, discord (Though they vowed that no girl would ever come

between them, Biff and Trevor could not keep acrimony from overwhelming their

friendship after they both fell in love with the lovely Teresa.)

acumen (n.) keen insight (Because of his mathematical acumen, Larry was able to figure

out in minutes problems that took other students hours.)

acute 1. (adj.) sharp, severe (Arnold could not walk because the pain in his foot was so

acute.) 2. (adj.) having keen insight (Because she was so acute, Libby instantly

figured out how the magician pulled off his “magic.”)

adamant (adj.) impervious, immovable, unyielding (Though public pressure was

intense, the President remained adamant about his proposal.)

adept (adj.) extremely skilled (Tarzan was adept at jumping from tree to tree like a

monkey.)

SAT Vocabulary

A

adhere 1. (n.) to stick to something (We adhered the poster to the wall with tape.) 2. (n.)

to follow devoutly (He adhered to the dictates of his religion without question.)

admonish (v.) to caution, criticize, reprove (Joe’s mother admonished him not to ruin

his appetite by eating cookies before dinner.)

adorn (v.) to decorate (We adorned the tree with ornaments.)

adroit (adj.) skillful, dexterous (The adroit thief could pick someone’s pocket without

attracting notice.)

adulation (n.) extreme praise (Though the book was pretty good, Marcy did not believe

it deserved the adulation it received.)

adumbrate (v.) to sketch out in a vague way (The coach adumbrated a game plan, but

none of the players knew precisely what to do.)

adverse (adj.) antagonistic, unfavorable, dangerous (Because of adverse conditions, the

hikers decided to give up trying to climb the mountain.)

advocate 1. (v.) to argue in favor of something (Arnold advocated turning left at the

stop sign, even though everyone else thought we should turn right.) 2. (n.) a person

who argues in favor of something (In addition to wanting to turn left at every stop

sign, Arnold was also a great advocate of increasing national defense spending.)

aerial (adj.) somehow related to the air (We watched as the fighter planes conducted