SAT Vocab #1

abjure

(v.) to renounce, repudiate under oath; to avoid, shun (To prove his honesty, the president abjured the evil policies of his wicked predecessor.)

acerbic

(adj.) biting, bitter in tone or taste (Biff became extremely acerbic and began to cruelly make fun of all his friends.)

acrimony

(n.) bitterness, discord (Though they vowed that no girl would ever come between them, Biff and Trevor could not keep acrimony from overwhelming their friendship after they both fell in love with the lovely Teresa.)

acumen

(n.) keen insight (Because of her mathematical acumen, Josephina was able to figure out in minutes problems that took other students hours.)

alacrity

(n.) eagerness, speed (For some reason, Chuck loved to help his mother whenever he could, so when his mother asked him to set the table, he did so with alacrity.)

antipathy

(n.) a strong dislike, repugnance (I know you love me, but because you are a liar and a thief, I feel nothing but antipathy for you.)

approbation

(n.) praise (The crowd welcomed the heroes with approbation.)

aspersion

(n.) a curse, an expression of ill-will or slander (The rival politicians repeatedly cast aspersions on each other's integrity.)

assiduous

(adj.) persistent, hard-working, diligent (The construction workers erected the skyscraper during two years of assiduous labor.)

boon

(n.) a gift or blessing (The good weather has been a boon for many businesses located near the beach.)

cajole

(v.) to urge, coax (Sarah's buddies cajoled her into performing at the poetry slam.)

calumny

(n.) an attempt to spoil someone else's reputation by spreading lies (The local official's calumny ended up ruining his opponent's prospect of winning the election.)

capricious

(adj.) subject to whim, fickle (The young boy's capricious tendencies made it difficult for him to focus on achieving his goals.)

cogent

(adj.) intellectually convincing (Irene's arguments in favor of abstinence were so cogent that I could not resist them.)

credulity

(n.) readiness to believe (His credulity made him an easy target for con men.)

cursory

(adj.) brief to the point of being superficial (Late for the meeting, she cast a cursory glance at the agenda.)

deride

(v.) to laugh at mockingly, scorn (The bullies derided the foreign student's accent.)

diffident

(adj.) shy, quiet, modest (While eating dinner with the adults, the diffident youth did not speak for fear of seeming presumptuous.)

dissemble

(v.) to conceal, fake (Not wanting to appear heartlessly greedy, she dissembled and hid her intention to sell her ailing father's stamp collection.)

dither

(v.) to be indecisive (Not wanting to offend either friend, he dithered about which of the two birthday parties he should attend.)

egregious

(adj.) extremely bad (The student who threw sloppy joes across the cafeteria was punished for his egregious behavior.)

enervate

(v.) to weaken, exhaust (Writing these sentences enervates me so much that I will have to take a nap after I finish.)

ephemeral

(adj.) short-lived, fleeting (She promised she'd love me forever, but her "forever" was only ephemeral: she left me after one week.)

eschew

(v.) to shun, avoid (George hates the color green so much that he eschews all green food.)

evince

(v.) to show, reveal (Christopher's hand-wringing and nail-biting evince how nervous he is about the upcoming English test.)