SAT Vocab

Abate

To become less active, less intense, or less in amount

Advent

Arrival or creation of something

lugubrious

sounding sad and dismal

Ambivalance

Mixed or conflicting feelings → “Jessie felt ambivalence about moving to a new city,” or, “His ambivalence about buying the house kept him up with worries all night"

Antipathy

Strong dislike

Arcane

Mysterious or known by few

Austere

adj. extremely plain

adj. stern and forbidding

adj. relating to self-denial

He lived in a small, austere cabin in the middle of the woods.

My boss had an austere expression on her face.

An austere lifestyle, like that of monks, isn’t for everybody.

Buttress

Defend or uphold

Calibrate

To adjust for precision

Compound

To intensify or combine

Comprised

Made up of

Conflated

Combined in a misleading way; blending something erroneously or confusingly

Conspicuous

The trait of drawing attention to something

Contingent

Depending on something else; “The phone policy was contingent with students following the rules.”

Contrived

Artificially or overly planned (unbelievable or exaggerating)

Corroborate

Support with evidence

Cordially

Welcoming, friendly manner

Reprise

Repeat

Obfuscate

To make something unclear

Subvert

Overturn

Delegate

To assign roles or authority

Demarcate

To separate or establish boundaries from; branch off

Desultory

Lacking a clear plan or enthusiam; could mean aimless or erratic

Disconcerting

Causing discomfort or confusion

Discord

Disagreement (“dis” bad, “cord” cordial)

Disparage

To speak negatively about or belittle

Earnest

Serious and sincere

Elusive

Escapable; hard to find or understand → comes from “elude”

Evade

Similar to elude, but with a strategic motive → evade taxes

Exacerbate

To make a situation worse

Grapple

Struggle or wrestle with

Fabricate

To create dishonestly

Imminent

About to happen soon

Implicit

Implied, not stated directly

Inadvertently

By accident

Incite

Encourage or stir up

Interject

Interrupt rudely

Latent

Present but not active

Misanthropic

Disliking people or society

Multifaceted

Having many aspects of features

Notional

Only in theory

Obsolete

No longer needed, uncommon, useless

Offhand

Done without preparation or thought

Omnipotent

Almighty and powerful

Ornamental

Decorative, rather than functional

Oust

remove or force out (from office typically)

Outstrip

Surpass or exceed

Overtly

Clearly

Paramount

Superior, peak

Postulate

Assume a theory without evidence yet

Pragmatic

Useful

Precarious

Dangerous, unstable

Preclude

To prevent from happening

Presume

Assume to be true

Proclaim

Officially announce

Profusion

Large quanitity of; abundance

Prudently

In a wise manner

Ramify

Split or break into sections; branch out

Recalcitrant

adj. Stubbornly resistant to authority

Recant

To take back a statement

Rectify

To coRECT or fix something

Redress

Set right or remedy

Renounce

To give up or reject formally

Replicable

Able to be copied

Repress

Suppress

Reprieve

Temp relief or delay

Repudiate

To reject or disown

Sanguine

Optimistic, hopeful

Robust

Lively, sturdy

Rustic

Countryside-esque

Implore

Beg

Germane

Appropriate, relevant

Pertinence

Relevance

Spurious

False or deceptive

Stymie

Hinder or block

Surmise

To infer or guess

Tenuous

Weak or unsubstantial

Underscore

Emphasize

Undermine

Oppose/weaken

Unobstrusive

Not attracting attention

Vigilance

The act of keeping careful watch

Waive

Give up or forgo right to

Conflate

Combine or merge

Transpose

Swtiched or interchanged

Mediated

Influenced

Entrenching

Solidifying

Capitulate

Surrender, give in

Transient

Something lasting only a short time; fleeting

Volatile

Prone to rapid, unpredictable, violent changes, unstable

Comprehensive

Covers broad range of info/details, all-encompassing, thorough

Exhaustive

Thorough, comprehensive, complete (leave nothing out)

Aberration

A departure from what is normal.

Abstruse

Difficult to understand.

Adamant

Refusing to change one’s mind.

Banal

Boring, unoriginal

Blight

Something that ruins or damages.

Brazen

Bold in a shameless way.

Brusque

Rude; blunt.

Condone

Approve of wrongdoing → “The school does not condone cheating.”

Cadence

Rhythm, flow