Words for GRE

amiable

friendly — Example: "Amy's name was very apt: she was so amiable that she was twice voted class president."

derive

originate in — Example: "Many words in the English language are derived from Latin, including the word derive."

diligent

careful and hard-working — Example: "Michael was a diligent gardener, never leaving a leaf on the ground and regularly watering each plant."

banish

get rid of — Example: "The most difficult part of the fast was banishing thoughts of food."

negligible

insignificant — Example: "The GRE tests cumulative knowledge, so if you cram the night before it is, at best, likely to only have a negligible impact on your score."

malleable

moldable — Example: "The clay became malleable and easy to work with after a little water was added."

retract

take back (a statement) — Example: "Email is wonderfully efficient, but once something awkward or damaging has been sent, there is no way to retract it."

audacity

boldness — Example: "She surprised her colleagues by having the audacity to publicly criticize the findings of a distinguished scientist."

jovial

merry — Example: "The presidential candidate and her supporters were jovial once it was clear that she had won."

paragon

the best of its kind — Example: "Even with the rise of Kobe Bryant, many still believe that Michael Jordan is the paragon for basketball players."

eradicate

destroy completely — Example: "I tried eradicating the mosquitos in my apartment with a rolled up newspaper, but there were too many of them."

embellish

add details to — Example: "McCartney would write relatively straightforward lyrics, and Lennon would embellish them with puns and poetic images."

melancholy

sadness — Example: "Hamlet is a figure of tremendous melancholy: he doesn't have a truly cheerful scene throughout the entire play."

unprecedented

never done before — Example: "When America first created its national parks, the idea of setting aside the most beautiful land in a country was unprecedented in the history of mankind."

mundane

routine — Example: "Nancy found doing dishes a thoroughly mundane task, although Peter found a kind of Zen pleasure in the chore."

delegate

assign — Example: "Since the senior manager had to go on many international business trips, she was forced to delegate many of her responsibilities to two lower-level managers."

crystallize

become definite — Example: "Only after fifteen minutes of brainstorming did Samantha's ideas for the essay crystallize."

apex

summit — Example: "The Ivy League is considered the apex of the secondary education system."

qualify

restrict a statement — Example: "Chris qualified his love for San Francisco, adding he didn't like the weather there as much as he liked the weather in Los Angeles."

variance

quality of being different — Example: "The cynic quipped, "There is not much variance in politicians; they all seem to lie"."

empathetic

relating to feelings of others — Example: "Most discrimination and hatred is based on a lack of empathetic awareness of people that have the same aspirations and fears."

extrapolate

estimate or conclude — Example: "By extrapolating from the data on the past three months, we can predict a 5% increase in traffic to our website."

misattribute

misidentify — Example: "I made a mistake; I misattributed Crime and Punishment to Leo Tolstoy when it was actually written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky."

disheartened

losing confidence — Example: "After the visiting team scored nine times, the home team's fans were disheartened, some leaving the game early."

archaic

very old — Example: "Hoping to sound intelligent, Mary spoke in archaic English that was right out of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice--needless to say, she didn't have many friends."

anachronism

belonging to another time — Example: "Dressed in 15th century clothing each day, Edward was a walking anachronism."

robust

sturdy — Example: "Chris preferred bland and mild beers, but Bhavin preferred a beer with more robust flavor."

tarnish

disgrace — Example: "Pete Rose was one of the best baseball players of his generation, but his involvement with gambling on baseball games has tarnished his image in the eyes of many."

stipend

regular allowance — Example: "He was hoping for a monthly allowance loan from the government, but after no such stipend was forthcoming he realized he would have to seek other means of paying for his college tuition."

lucid

easy to understand — Example: "Though Walters writes about physics and time travel, his writing is always lucid, so readers with little scientific training can understand difficult concepts."

analogous

similar — Example: "In many ways, the Internet's transformative effect on society has been analogous to that of the printing press."

mesmerize

hypnotize — Example: "The plot and the characters were so well developed that many viewers were mesmerized, unable to move their eyes from the screen for even a single second."

impermeable

sealed — Example: "The sand bags placed on the river formed an impermeable barrier, protecting the town from flooding."

sentimental

emotional — Example: "I don't like romanticism for the same reason I don't like melodramatic acting and soap operas-overly sentimental."

embryonic

undeveloped — Example: "The Board of Directors is hoping to launch a new product soon, but planning for the Z7 is in an embryonic stage."

egotist

boaster — Example: "An egotist, Natasha had few friends because of her inability to talk about anything except her dream of becoming the next American Idol."

lethargic

weary — Example: "Nothing can make a person more lethargic than a big turkey dinner."

discriminate

differentiate — Example: "Sarah couldn't discriminate between a good wine and a bad wine, so she avoided wine tastings."

resolve

determine — Example: "After much thought, Ted resolved not to travel abroad this summer because he didn't have much money in his bank account."

complementary

matching — Example: "The head waiter was careful to tell the amateur diners that red wine was complementary with beef, each bringing out subtle taste notes in the other."

pinnacle

highest point — Example: "At its pinnacle, the Roman Empire extended across most of the landmass of Eurasia, a feat not paralleled to the rise of the British Empire in the 18th and 19th century."

serene

peaceful — Example: "I'd never seen him so serene; usually, he was a knot of stress and anxiety from hours of trading on the stock exchange."

autonomous

independent — Example: "Many of the factory workers are worried about being replaced by machines and computers that will work completely autonomously."

impartial

unbiased — Example: "The judge was not impartial since he had been bribed by the witness's family."

belittle

put somebody down — Example: "A good teacher will never belittle his students, but will instead empower them."

uncompromising

inflexible — Example: "Bart and Hilda's relationship ultimately failed because they were both so uncompromising that they couldn't agree on an apartment."

chauvinism

feeling of superiority — Example: "Vegetarians argue that man is chauvinistic in his belief that animals do not consciously feel the pain we humans do."

censor

remove objectionable material — Example: "Every fall, high school English teachers are inundated by requests to censor their curriculum by removing The Catcher in the Rye and Scarlet Letter from their reading lists."

differentiate

identify differences between — Example: "Mozart's long melodies differentiate his compositions from the work of other late 18th century composers."

anomaly

oddity — Example: "After Sally found an anomaly in the data, she had to redo the entire experiment."

elaborate

detailed — Example: "After returning from Morocco, Thomas replaced his dirty gray carpet with an elaborate one he'd brought back with him."

irrefutable

certain — Example: "The existence of life on earth is irrefutable; the existence of intelligent life on earth is still hotly debated."

economical

avoiding waste — Example: "Journalists favor an economical style of writing, in which no unnecessary words are used and every sentence is as short as possible."

advocate

support a cause — Example: "While Senator Radge privately approved of gay marriage, he was unwilling to advocate for the cause in public."

laborious

demanding — Example: "The most laborious job I've had was working 20 hours a day as a fisherman in Alaska."

catalyst

cause of a process — Example: "Rosa Park's refusal to give up her bus seat acted as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, setting into motion historic changes for African-Americans."

constraint

limit — Example: "We don't have many resources, so we'll have to work with some very tight constraints."

degrade

humiliate — Example: "Jesse mockingly listed all of Nancy's faults in front of their friends, publicly degrading the poor girl."