All Sat Words

Front 1

abase

Back 1

(v.) to humiliate, degrade (After being overthrown and abased, the deposed leader offered to bow down to his conqueror.)

Front 2

abate

Back 2

(v.) to reduce, lessen (The rain poured down for a while, then abated.)

Front 3

abdicate

Back 3

(v.) to give up a position, usually one of leadership (When he realized that the revolutionaries would surely win, the king abdicated his throne.)

Front 4

abduct

Back 4

(v.) to kidnap, take by force (The evildoers abducted the fairy princess from her happy home.)

Front 5

aberration

Back 5

(n.) something that differs from the norm (In 1918, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, but the success turned out to be an aberration, and the Red Sox have not won a World Series since.)

Front 6

abet

Back 6

(v.) to aid, help, encourage (The spy succeeded only because he had a friend on the inside to abet him.)

Front 7

abhor

Back 7

(v.) to hate, detest (Because he always wound up kicking himself in the head when he tried to play soccer, Oswald began to abhor the sport.)

Front 8

abide

Back 8

1. (v.) to put up with (Though he did not agree with the decision, Chuck decided to abide by it.) 2. (v.) to remain (Despite the beating they’ve taken from the weather throughout the millennia, the mountains abide.)

Front 9

abject

Back 9

(adj.) wretched, pitiful (After losing all her money, falling into a puddle, and breaking her ankle, Eloise was abject.)

Front 10

abjure

Back 10

(v.) to reject, renounce (To prove his honesty, the President abjured the evil policies of his wicked predecessor.)

Front 11

abnegation

Back 11

(n.) denial of comfort to oneself (The holy man slept on the floor, took only cold showers, and generally followed other practices of abnegation.)

Front 12

abort

Back 12

(v.) to give up on a half-finished project or effort (After they ran out of food, the men, attempting to jump rope around the world, had to abort and go home.)

Front 13

abridge

Back 13

1. (v.) to cut down, shorten (The publisher thought the dictionary was too long and abridged it.) 2. (adj.) shortened (Moby-Dick is such a long book that even the abridged version is longer than most normal books.)

Front 14

abrogate

Back 14

(v.) to abolish, usually by authority (The Bill of Rights assures that the government cannot abrogate our right to a free press.)

Front 15

abscond

Back 15

(v.) to sneak away and hide (In the confusion, the super-spy absconded into the night with the secret plans.)

Front 16

absolution

Back 16

(n.) freedom from blame, guilt, sin (Once all the facts were known, the jury gave Angela absolution by giving a verdict of not guilty.)

Front 17

abstain

Back 17

(v.) to freely choose not to commit an action (Everyone demanded that Angus put on the kilt, but he did not want to do it and abstained.)

Front 18

abstruse

Back 18

(adj.) hard to comprehend (Everyone else in the class understood geometry easily, but John found the subject abstruse.)

Front 19

accede

Back 19

(v.) to agree (When the class asked the teacher whether they could play baseball instead of learn grammar they expected him to refuse, but instead he acceded to their request.)

Front 20

accentuate

Back 20

(v.) to stress, highlight (Psychologists agree that those people who are happiest accentuate the positive in life.)

Front 21

accessible

Back 21

(adj.) obtainable, reachable (After studying with SparkNotes and getting a great score on the SAT, Marlena happily realized that her goal of getting into an Ivy-League college was accessible.)

Front 22

acclaim

Back 22

(n.) high praise (Greg’s excellent poem won the acclaim of his friends.)

Front 23

accolade

Back 23

(n.) high praise, special distinction (Everyone offered accolades to Sam after he won the Noble Prize.)

Front 24

accommodating

Back 24

(adj.) helpful, obliging, polite (Though the apartment was not big enough for three people, Arnold, Mark, and Zebulon were all friends and were accommodating to each other.)

Front 25

accord

Back 25

(n.) an agreement (After much negotiating, England and Iceland finally came to a mutually beneficial accord about fishing rights off the cost of Greenland.)

Front 26

accost

Back 26

(v.) to confront verbally (Though Antoinette was normally quite calm, when the waiter spilled soup on her for the fourth time in 15 minutes she stood up and accosted the man.)

Front 27

accretion

Back 27

(n.) slow growth in size or amount (Stalactites are formed by the accretion of minerals from the roofs of caves.)

Front 28

acerbic

Back 28

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

Front 29

acquiesce

Back 29

(v.) to agree without protesting (Though Mr. Correlli wanted to stay outside and work in his garage, when his wife told him that he had better come in to dinner, he acquiesced to her demands.)

Front 30

acrimony

Back 30

(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.)

Front 31

acumen

Back 31

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

Front 32

acute

Back 32

1. (adj.) sharp, severe (Arnold could not walk because the pain in his foot was so acute.) 2. (adj.) having keen insight (Because she was so acute, Libby instantly figured out how the magician pulled off his “magic.”)

Front 33

adamant

Back 33

(adj.) impervious, immovable, unyielding (Though public pressure was intense, the President remained adamant about his proposal.)

Front 34

adept

Back 34

(adj.) extremely skilled (Tarzan was adept at jumping from tree to tree like a monkey.)

Front 35

adhere

Back 35

1. (n.) to stick to something (We adhered the poster to the wall with tape.)

Front 36

admonish

Back 36

(v.) to caution, criticize, reprove (Joe’s mother admonished him not to ruin his appetite by eating cookies before dinner.)

Front 37

adorn

Back 37

(v.) to decorate (We adorned the tree with ornaments.)

Front 38

adroit

Back 38

(adj.) skillful, dexterous (The adroit thief could pick someone’s pocket without attracting notice.)

Front 39

adulation

Back 39

(n.) extreme praise (Though the book was pretty good, Marcy did not believe it deserved the adulation it received.)

Front 40

adumbrate

Back 40

(v.) to sketch out in a vague way (The coach adumbrated a game plan, but none of the players knew precisely what to do.)

Front 41

adverse

Back 41

(adj.) antagonistic, unfavorable, dangerous (Because of adverse conditions, the hikers decided to give up trying to climb the mountain.)

Front 42

advocate

Back 42

1. (v.) to argue in favor of something (Arnold advocated turning left at the stop sign, even though everyone else thought we should turn right.) 2. (n.) a person who argues in favor of something (In addition to wanting to turn left at every stop sign, Arnold was also a great advocate of increasing national defense spending.)

Front 43

aerial

Back 43

(adj.) somehow related to the air (We watched as the fighter planes conducted aerial maneuvers.)

Front 44

aesthetic

Back 44

(adj.) artistic, related to the appreciation of beauty (We hired Susan as our interior decorator because she has such a fine aesthetic sense.)

Front 45

affable

Back 45

(adj.) friendly, amiable (People like to be around George because he is so affable and good-natured.)

Front 46

affinity

Back 46

(n.) a spontaneous feeling of closeness (Jerry didn’t know why, but he felt an incredible affinity for Kramer the first time they met.)

Front 47

affluent

Back 47

(adj.) rich, wealthy (Mrs. Grebelski was affluent, owning a huge house, three cars, and an island near Maine.)

Front 48

affront

Back 48

(n.) an insult (Bernardo was very touchy, and took any slight as an affront to his honor.)

Front 49

aggrandize

Back 49

(v.) to increase or make greater (Joseph always dropped the names of the famous people his father knew as a way to aggrandize his personal stature.)

Front 50

aggregate

Back 50

1. (n.) a whole or total (The three branches of the U.S. Government form an aggregate much more powerful than its individual parts.) 2. (v.) to gather into a mass (The dictator tried to aggregate as many people into his army as he possibly could.)

Front 51

aggrieved

Back 51

(adj.) distressed, wronged, injured (The foreman mercilessly overworked his aggrieved employees.)

Front 52

agile

Back 52

(adj.) quick, nimble (The dogs were too slow to catch the agile rabbit.)

Front 53

agnostic

Back 53

(adj.) believing that the existence of God cannot be proven or disproven (Joey’s parents are very religious, but he is agnostic.)

Front 54

agriculture

Back 54

(n.) farming (It was a huge step in the progress of civilization when tribes left hunting and gathering and began to develop more sustainable methods of obtaining food, such as agriculture.)

Front 55

aisle

Back 55

(n.) a passageway between rows of seats (Once we got inside the stadium we walked down the aisle to our seats.)

Front 56

alacrity

Back 56

(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.)

Front 57

alias

Back 57

(n.) a false name or identity (He snuck past the guards by using an alias and fake ID.)

Front 58

allay

Back 58

(v.) to soothe, ease (The chairman of the Federal Reserve gave a speech to try to allay investors’ fears about an economic downturn.)

Front 59

allege

Back 59

(v.) to assert, usually without proof (The policeman had alleged that Marshall committed the crime, but after the investigation turned up no evidence, Marshall was set free.)

Front 60

alleviate

Back 60

(v.) to relieve, make more bearable (This drug will alleviate the symptoms of the terrible disease, but only for a while.)

Front 61

allocate

Back 61

(v.) to distribute, set aside (The Mayor allocated 30 percent of the funds for improving the town’s schools.)

Front 62

aloof

Back 62

(adj.) reserved, distant (The scientist could sometimes seem aloof, as if he didn’t care about his friends or family, but really he was just thinking about quantum mechanics.)

Front 63

altercation

Back 63

(n.) a dispute, fight (Jason and Lionel blamed one another for the car accident, leading to an altercation.)

Front 64

amalgamate

Back 64

(v.) to bring together, unite (Because of his great charisma, the presidential candidate was able to amalgamate all democrats and republicans under his banner.)

Front 65

ambiguous

Back 65

(adj.) uncertain, variably interpretable (Some people think Caesar married Cleopatra for her power, others believe he was charmed by her beauty. His actual reasons are ambiguous.)

Front 66

ambivalent

Back 66

(adj.) having opposing feelings (My feelings about Calvin are ambivalent because on one hand he is a loyal friend, but on the other, he is a cruel and vicious thief.)

Front 67

ameliorate

Back 67

(v.) to improve (The tense situation was ameliorated when Sam proposed a solution everyone could agree upon.)

Front 68

amenable

Back 68

(adj.) willing, compliant (Our father was amenable when we asked him to drive us to the farm so we could go apple picking.)

Front 69

amenity

Back 69

(n.) an item that increases comfort (Bill Gates’s house is stocked with so many amenities, he never has to do anything for himself.)

Front 70

amiable

Back 70

(adj.) friendly (An amiable fellow, Harry got along with just about everyone.)

Front 71

amicable

Back 71

(adj.) friendly (Claudia and Jimmy got divorced, but amicably and without hard feelings.)

Front 72

amorous

Back 72

(adj.) showing love, particularly sexual (Whenever Albert saw Mariah wear her slinky red dress, he began to feel quite amorous.)

Front 73

amorphous

Back 73

(adj.) without definite shape or type (The effort was doomed from the start, because the reasons behind it were so amorphous and hard to pin down.)

Front 74

anachronistic

Back 74

(adj.) being out of correct chronological order (In this book you’re writing, you say that the Pyramids were built after the Titanic sank, which is anachronistic.)

Front 75

analgesic

Back 75

(n.) something that reduces pain (Put this analgesic on the wound so that the poor man at least feels a little better.)

Front 76

analogous

Back 76

(adj.) similar to, so that an analogy can be drawn (Though they are unrelated genetically, the bone structure of whales and fish is quite analogous.)

Front 77

anarchist

Back 77

(n.) one who wants to eliminate all government (An anarchist, Carmine wanted to dissolve every government everywhere.)

Front 78

anathema

Back 78

(n.) a cursed, detested person (I never want to see that murderer. He is an anathema to me.)

Front 79

anecdote

Back 79

(n.) a short, humorous account (After dinner, Marlon told an anecdote about the time he got his nose stuck in a toaster.)

Front 80

anesthesia

Back 80

(n.) loss of sensation (When the nerves in his spine were damaged, Mr. Hollins suffered anesthesia in his legs.)

Front 81

anguish

Back 81

(n.) extreme sadness, torment (Angelos suffered terrible anguish when he learned that Buffy had died while combating a strange mystical force of evil.)