SAT Vocab Practice 6-10

treacherous

subtly dangerous, deceitful

hazardous

perilous

profoundity

This is an error of great profundity → This is a profound error

forbearance

patient, self control, tolerant for others wrongdoings

political subversive (n)

phản động

a person who tries to destroy or damage a government or political system by attacking it secretly or indirectly

subversive (adj)

seditious

vindicate

justify

hypocrisy

behaviour that does not meet the moral standards or match the opinions that somebody claims to have

• The play exposes the hypocrisy of the ruling elite

diversion

the diversion of funds from the public to the private sector of industry

changing direction

vicissitudes

one of the many changes and problems in a situation or in your life, that you have to deal with

• Losing your job is just one of the vicissitudes of life.

• Humbled by life’s vicissitudes

etiquette

propriety

prominent figures

luminaries

intellectual

cerebral

cut-throat

(of an activity) in which people compete with each other in aggressive and unfair ways

• the cut-throat world of politics

insinuate something

imply that something unpleasant is true

insinuate yourself into something

In the first act, the villain insinuates himself into the household of the man he intends to kill

be tempered with/by something

to make something less severe by adding something that has the opposite effect

• Justice must be tempered with mercy

haphazard

with no particular order or plan; not well-organized

• The government's approach to the problem was haphazard.

acrimonious

bitter

• His parents went through an acrimonious divorce.

plaintive

mournful

• a plaintive cry/voice

usury

~ loan-sharking

charging excessive interest on loans

• It is difficult to believe that charging 20% on an outstanding credit card balance isn’t usury

innocuous

harmless

innoculation

~ immunisation, vaccination

• haggle (with somebody) over/about something

• haggle something

• haggle something down (to something)

bargain

stipulate

specify

​ruminate (on/over/about something)

to think deeply about something

conjecture

guess, surmise

• The truth of his conjecture was confirmed by the newspaper report

culprit

~ cause

• A carbon tax avoids some problems by directly targeting the real culprit - carbon.

​relegate somebody/something (to something)

to give somebody a lower or less important position, rank, etc. than before

• She was then relegated to the role of assistant.

• He relegated the incident to the back of his mind.

• As more shops and transport networks adapt to swipe-based cards and touch-and-go mobile technology, many major cities around the world are in the process of relegating cash to second-class status

incorrigible

incurable (habits)

polished work

skillfully crafted or refined

condescending

behave as if you are superior

• He has a condescending attitude towards women.

• Her tone of voice was always so condescending.

clemency

mercy

• There is a growing belief among psychologists that the clemency shown the first-time offender tends to do little but encourage many youth to begin a pattern of breaking the law.

loathing (for/of somebody/something) (n)

→ self-loathing

hate (n)

→ self-hatred

composure

the state of being calm and in control of your feelings or behaviour

• to keep/lose/recover/regain your composure

• She answered with perfect composure.

• He closed his eyes for a moment, to gather his composure

perspicacity

perceptiveness

codify

implement, arrange laws, rules, etc. into a system

scalable

ascendable

stumble across/on/upon something/somebody

​to discover something/somebody unexpectedly

flimsy ~ rickety (1)

badly made and not strong enough for the purpose for which it is used

flimsy ~ feeble (2)

weak, difficult to believe

• a flimsy excuse/explanation

• The evidence against him is pretty flimsy.

embellish

~ decorate (1)

~ embroider (2)

to make a story more interesting by adding details that are not always true

• His account of his travels was embellished with details of famous people he met.

highfalutin

pretentious

recondite ~ obscure

~ unknown

a confluence of social factors

the fact of two or more things becoming one

In March 2016, the Jakarta government announced that the three-in-one policy would be lifted

terminate/ abolish a policy

cogently

convincingly

sum up

encapsulate something in something

replete with trepidation

If the phone rang in the middle of the night, one felt ______-because one intuited that something awful must have happened. 

postulate ~ posit that

to suggest or accept that something is true so that it can be used as the basis for an argument or discussion

• Most religions posit the existence of life after death.

• She posits that ideas of gender are socially constructed.

resurgence

the return and growth of an activity that had stopped

• a resurgence of interest in the artist’s work

charlatan

a person who claims to have knowledge or skills that they do not really have

• He knows nothing about medicine—he’s a complete charlatan

caricature

a person who makes themselves seem silly because they exaggerate some of their characteristics

• The two stars had become caricatures of themselves

divest yourself of something

get rid of

~deprive

erroneous conclusions/assumptions/impression

wrong

salubrious

During the 1960s, many retirees moved to Arizona to enjoy the ______ climate promised to those suffering from many forms of breathing complications. 

furtively

secretively

emotional distress, in distress

of great pain

nullify

invalidate (a statement or enforcement)

stochastic

randomly determined; having a random probability distribution or pattern that may be analyzed statistically but may not be predicted precisely

wealth homophily

the tendency of people from the same economical status to form friendship

assortment

~ mixture

neatly corralled

to gather a group of st/people together and keep them in a particular place

humanoid

(especially in science fiction) a machine or creature that looks and behaves like a human