Digital SAT Vocabulary: Essential Words for Advanced Learners

Abate

To reduce in intensity; to lessen

Abet

To support or encourage

Abridge

To shorten or condense

Abhor

To hate something

Abnegate

To deny or to give up the right or privilege

Abscond

To escape, run away especially with something

Acclaim

To praise enthusiastically

Admonish

To warn or reprimand

Aesthetic

Related to beauty or artistic taste

Alleviate

To make less severe

Ambiguity

Something that can be understood or interpreted in more than one manner

Anomaly

Something that deviates from the norm

Antithesis

Direct opposite

Apathy

Lack of interest or concern

Apprehend

To arrest someone; recognize the meaning of an idea or a thing

Archaic

Very old or old-fashioned

Articulate

To explain something clearly

Assiduous

Showing great care and perseverance

Astute

Having sharp judgment

Banal

Lacking originality; boring

Bane

Something capable of causing destruction or ruin

Benign

Gentle and kind; not harmful.

Bereft

Lacking something needed, wanted, or expected; a person grieving the death of a loved one

Bolster

To support or strengthen

Cache

A secure place that is used to store objects secretly

Cacophony

Harsh, discordant sounds

Capitalize

To profit from a resource or an opportunity

Capitulate

To surrender on terms agreed upon in advance

Capricious

Given to sudden changes of mood or behavior.

Censure

To express severe disapproval

Circumvent

To avoid (defeat, failure, unpleasantness, etc.) by artfulness or deception; avoid by anticipating or outwitting

Credible

Something that can be trusted on the basis of logic or rationale

Coherent

Logical and consistent

Corroborate

To support with evidence or authority

Complacent

Accepting something after being self-satisfied

Complementary

The quality of being different but useful when combined; parts complete each other

Complimentary

Expressing praise or admiration; given freely

Condone

To accept or allow behavior that is considered wrong

Conspicuous

Easily seen or noticed

Construe

To construct or interpret meaning out of a sentence or words

Contentious

Inclined towards argument or dispute

Contrive

To form or create in an artistic or ingenious manner

Convoluted

Complex and difficult to follow

Covet

Want or desire

Daunting

Intimidating and challenging

Dearth

Lack or absence of something

Debunk

To expose the falseness of a fact

Defunct

Extinct or no longer functioning

Deride

To mock or ridicule

Despondent

In low spirits from loss of hope.

Didactic

Intended primarily to teach rather than to entertain

Disconcerning

Disturbing to one's composure or self-possession; upsetting, discomfiting

Disparage

To belittle or degrade

Delegate

A representative; to entrust work or responsibility to another person

Dispel

To drive away something (can also be a belief system or a myth)

Doctrine

Principles or rules that create a belief system

Dogma

Belief or set of moral codes considered an established opinion

Dubious

Hesitating or doubting

Eclectic

Composed of elements drawn from various sources; can be used to refer to a person who pursues an eclectic method or approach

Elucidate

To make clear; explain

Elicit

To draw out an answer or explanation often by skillful questioning or discussion

Elusive

Hard to find or capture; hard to understand or define.

Embezzle

To take something (usually money or property) dishonestly for one's own use

Empirical

Something capable of being derived, verified, or disproved by observation or experiment

Emulate

To try to be like or better than something

Enigmatic

Mysterious and difficult to understand

Ephemeral

Lasting for a very short time

Equivocate

To use ambiguous language to conceal the truth

Esoteric

Intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people.

Espouse

To take up and support as a cause; to marry someone

Exacerbate

To make worse

Exculpate

To show or declare that someone is not guilty.

Exemplify

To show or illustrate by example

Expedite

To speed up the process or progress of an event

Extort

To take something forcefully from a person

Extraneous

Irrelevant or unrelated to the subject

Equivocal

Something that is unclear or uncertain in its meaning

Facetious

Based on a mistaken belief

Fallacy

A false or mistaken idea

Fastidious

Very attentive to detail; hard to please.

Fervor

Intense and passionate feeling

Flagrant

So bad as to be impossible to overlook

Fortuitous

Fortunate or lucky

Frugal

Economical in use or expenditure

Garrulous

Excessively talkative

Grapple

To begin to understand or deal with something in a direct or effective way

Gratuitous

Something that is required by the circumstance but done or provided freely

Hackneyed

Lacking significance through overuse

Hapless

Unfortunate

Hegemony

The social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group

Heterogenous

Something originating from an outside source; something consisting of different elements from various sources

Hubris

A heightened sense of self-pride or overconfidence

Idiosyncrasy

A way of behaving or thinking that is characteristic of a person

Imminent

Ready to take place, happening soon

Immutable

Unchanging over time.

Impartial

Treating all sides equally; fair and just

Impetuous

Impulsive

Imperceptible

Not noticeable or hardly noticeable; not perceptible by a sense or by the mind

Impute

To blame someone unjustly

Incumbent

Someone who occupies a particular position or place