SAT/ACT Vocabulary List ALL

Semester 1

pedantic

stressing trivial points of learning; lacking a sense of proportion in scholarship; a narrow-minded teacher who insists on rigid adherence to a set of arbitrary rules.

pertinacious

stubborn; unyielding; holding firmly to some belief.

pontificial

orante; stiff; having the pomp and dignity of a high priest or pope.

pretentious

making claims to some distinctions; showy. pretentious people put on airs, try to appear more important than they are.

prolix

wordy; long-winded

puerile

childish; silly; young/

quiescent

inactive; in response; latent.

recalcitrant

unruly; refusing to obey authority.

restive

hard to control; restless; contrary

ribald

coarse; vulgar in language; irreverent.

sardonic

sarcastic; bitterly sneering. it is believed that this word can be traced back to a Sardinian plant whose bitter taste caused facial distortion.

sedulous

busy; working hard; diligent

sleazy

flimsy or thin in texture or substance; of poor quality. this word can be traced back to cloth made in Silesia, Germany.

supercilious

naughty; arrogant; contemptuous.

voluptuous

sensuous; full of sensual delights and pleasures.

acrophobia

abnormally intense fear of being in high places

bibliophile

one who loves books, a book cocllector. opposite would be a bibliocast.

claustrophobia

an abnormal dread of being in a closed or narrow space. one who has a fear of open spaces suffers from agoraphobia.

francophile

an admirer of france, its people and its customs. it may also be used as an adjective.

hydrophobia

fear of water; rabies.

one of the symptoms of the disease caused by the bite of a rapid animal is an inability to swallow; hence, the name hydrophobia for the disease itself

misanthropy

hatred of or distrust of mankind. the misanthropist has his opposite in the philanthropist, that is, one who loves mankind and has the means to support worthy causes.

misogyny

hatred of women

paranoid

showing, unreasonable distrust, suspicion, or an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance.

philately

the collection and study of postage stamps, postmarks, and related materials.

philistine

a smug, ignorant, especially middle class person who is held to be indifferent or antagonistic to artistic and cultural values; boorish opr barbarous; an ignoramous or outsider

philogyny

love of or fondness for women

philology

historical and comparative linguistics; the study of human speech, especially as the vehicle of literature; literary or classical learning

russophobia

dislike or fear of russia or its policies

triskaidekaphobia

fear of the number thirteen

treis = three, kai = and, deka = ten

xenophobia

an usual fear or contempt of strangers or foreigners, especially as reflected in one’s poltiical or cultural views

anachronism

anything that is out of place in time.

ana (against) and chronos (time)

anon

soon; shortly.

antebellum

before the war; especially before the American Civil War.

ante (before) and bellum (war)

antediluvian

old-fashioned; before the flood.

diluvium (flood)

atavism

reversion to a primitive type; resemblance to a remote ancestor.

atavus (father of a great-grandfather)

augury

the art of prophecy; an omen.

augur (priest who presides at fertility rituals)

biennial

happening every two years

chronology

arrangement of events in time; determination of dates

diurnal

daily; of the daytime

eon

long, indefinite period of time; thousands of years

ephermal

short-lived; transitory

ephermos (for the day)

epoch

noteworthy period

generation

the period of time between the birth of one group and that of its offspring. a generation is about 30 years.

score

twenty people or objects; twenty years.

tercentenary

a period of 300 years.

ter (three) and centenary (hundred)