Vocab for GRE

**Pedantic**

Overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, especially in teaching.

**Laconic**

Using very few words.

**Equivocal**

Open to more than one interpretation; ambiguous.

**Harangue**

A lengthy and aggressive speech.

**Galvanize**

To shock or excite someone into taking action.

**Gossamer**

Something very light, thin, and insubstantial or delicate.

**Didactic**

Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive.

**Dogmatic**

Inclined to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true.

**Gainsay**

To deny or contradict.

**Mawkish**

Excessively sentimental.

**Prescience**

The fact of knowing something before it takes place; foreknowledge.

**Querulous**

Complaining in a petulant or whining manner.

**Recondite**

(Of a subject or knowledge) little known; abstruse.

**Deferential**

Showing respect and esteem due a superior or an elder.

**Reticent**

Not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily.

**Gall**

Bold and impudent behavior.

**Torpor**

A state of physical or mental inactivity; lethargy.

**Ephemeral**

Lasting for a very short time.

**Quotidian**

Of or occurring every day; daily.

**Refractory**

Stubborn or unmanageable.

**Travesty**

A false, absurd, or distorted representation of something.

**Spurious**

Not being what it purports to be; false or fake.

**Ascetic**

Characterized by severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence.

**Languid**

Displaying or having a disinclination for physical exertion or effort; slow and relaxed.

**Soporific**

Tending to induce drowsiness or sleep.

**Largess**

Generosity in bestowing money or gifts upon others.

**Apocryphal**

(Of a story or statement) of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true.

**Intransigent**

Unwilling or refusing to change one's views or to agree about something.

**Abstruse**

Difficult to understand; obscure.

**Provincial**

Unsophisticated or narrow-minded; being from a province or rural area.

**Iconoclastic**

Criticizing or attacking cherished beliefs or institutions.

**Tortuous**

Full of twists and turns.

**Discrete**

Individually separate and distinct.

**Circumscribe**

To restrict something within limits.

**Arcane**

Understood by few; mysterious or secret.

**Hegemony**

Leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others.

**Inimical**

Tending to obstruct or harm; unfriendly or hostile.

**Inveterate**

Having a habit unlikely to change.

**Propitious**

Giving a good chance of success; favorable.

**Precipitous**

Dangerously high or steep; done suddenly and without careful consideration.

**Intrepid**

Fearless; adventurous.

**Pedestrian**

Lacking inspiration or excitement; dull.

**Austere**

Severe or strict in manner; simple or plain.

**Repudiate**

Refuse to accept or be associated with.

**Sycophant**

A person who acts obsequiously to gain advantage.

**Winsome**

Charming or attractive.

**Pernicious**

Having a harmful effect.

**Specious**

Superficially plausible but wrong.

**Deleterious**

Causing harm or damage.

**Polemic**

A strong verbal or written attack.

**Askance**

With an attitude of suspicion or disapproval.

**Mendacity**

Untruthfulness.

**Dilatory**

Slow to act.

**Capricious**

Given to sudden changes of mood.

**Posit**

Assume as a fact.

Ponderous

Slow and clumsy due to great weight; dull, laborious, or excessively solemn.

Depravity

Moral corruption; wickedness.

Turpitude

Depraved or wicked behavior or character.

Vicissitude

A change of circumstances or fortune, typically unwelcome or unpleasant.

Factious

Inclined to form factions; causing disagreement.

Expansive

Covering a wide area in terms of space or scope; extensive or wide-ranging.

Arrant

Complete, utter (used with a negative connotation).

Churlish

Rude in a mean-spirited and surly way.

Sedulous

Showing dedication and diligence.

Choleric

Bad-tempered or irritable.

Mettlesome

Full of spirit, courage, or determination.

Sentence

The mettlesome young athlete never backed down from a challenge.

Synonyms

Spirited, bold, plucky

**Mettlesome**

Full of vigor and strength of spirit or temperament.

**Blinkered**

Narrow-minded and subjective; unwilling to understand another viewpoint.

**Tendentious**

Expressing or intending to promote a particular cause or point of view, especially a controversial one.

**Sanguine**

Optimistic or positive, especially in an apparently difficult or bad situation.

**Palimpsest**

A manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing.

**Jejune**

Naive, simplistic, and superficial.

**Mulct**

Extract money from (someone) by fine or taxation.

**Parvenu**

A person of obscure origin who has gained wealth, influence, or celebrity.

**Excoriate**

Criticize (someone) severely.

**Protean**

Tending or able to change frequently or easily; versatile.