SAT Hard Words

Act

to do something

Adept

very skilled

Adversity

hardship or difficulty

Abyssal

very deep

Accrue

to grow or increase over time

Adroit

skillful and quick

Agglomeration

a group or cluster

Ambivalent

having mixed feelings

Apprehension

fear or anxiety

Apathy

lack of interest or emotion

Apprise

to inform

Aperture

an opening or hole

Arbiter

someone who settles a dispute

Appraise

to evaluate or judge

Apprehensive

worried or uneasy

Apostle

a strong supporter of an idea

Anatomical

related to the body’s structure

Apostrophize

to address someone not present

Anatomize

to examine in detail

Analogous

similar in some way

Augment

to make bigger or better

Awry

off course or not right

Belie

to give a false impression

Ascertain

to find out for sure

Barring

except for

Attribute to

to say something is caused by

Automate

to make something run by itself

Banal

boring and unoriginal

Assent

to agree

Bestow

to give as a gift

Assuage

to ease or calm

Bemoan

to complain about

Boorish

rude and unrefined

Bough

a tree branch

Brusque

short and rude in speech

Cast-iron

very strong or firm

Brood on

to think a lot about something negative

Bolster

to support or strengthen

Calibration

adjusting for accuracy

Candor

honesty

Canon

a set of rules or works accepted as correct

Categorical

definite and clear

Circumvent

to go around or avoid

Clad

dressed or covered

Coherence

clear and logical connection

Cataract

a large waterfall or eye condition

Celestial

related to the sky or space

Chamber

a room or enclosed space

Catalyst

something that speeds up change

Chafe

to rub and irritate

Coalition

a group formed for a purpose

Clade

a group of organisms with a common ancestor

Clerical

related to office or church work

Chronicle

a record of events

Collocation

words often used together

Collaborative

working together

Comet

a space object with a tail of gas/dust

Conceptualize

to form an idea

Conceivable

able to be imagined

Concurrent

happening at the same time

Configure

to arrange or set up

Compound

to add to and make worse; or a mixture

Collaborate

to work together

Confer

to discuss or give

Conjecture

a guess based on little info

Consternation

sudden fear or shock

Conflagration

a big destructive fire

Contemporaneous

happening at the same time

Contemporary

from the same time period

Conflate

to combine two things into one

Convoluted

very complicated

Confound

to confuse or surprise

Consecutive

one after another

Corollary

a result or effect

Counteract

to oppose or reduce

Corpora

collections of written texts

Corpus

a large body of work or writing

Crucible

a test or trial; a container for melting

Countenance

a person’s face or expression

Courser

a fast horse

Crude

rough or not finished

Cryptology

the study of codes

Cynical

believing people are selfish

Deference

respectful submission

Diffraction

bending of light or sound

Desultory

lacking plan or focus

Detractor

someone who criticizes

Denigrate

to put down or belittle

Deposition

a formal statement or the act of laying down

Detect

to discover or notice

Desiccation

extreme dryness

Defunct

no longer existing

Denote

to mean or indicate

Destitute

extremely poor

Demarcate

to set boundaries

Deposit

to place or leave something

Detrimental

harmful

Departure

the act of leaving

Discrete

separate and distinct

Dispute

a disagreement