Barron's Gre That I Need

Front 1

avocation

Back 1

secondary occupation; pleasure; hobby

Dan became so proficient as his avocation- computer programming- that he is thinking of giving up his job as a teacher to do it full time.

Front 2

avuncular

Back 2

like an uncle; benevolent and tolerant

Walter Cronkite, who was the anchorman of CBS news during much of the 1970's and 1980's, had an avuncular manner that made him one of America's most trusted personalities.

Front 3

axiomatic

Back 3

taken for granted; self-evident truth that requires no proof

In nineteenth-century geology, uniformitarianism was the antithesis of catastrophism, asserting that it was axiomatic that natural law and processes do not fundamentally change, and that what we observe now is essentially what occurred in the past.

(catastrophism- earth formed through catastrophic events
uniformitarianism- geological processes slowly shaped earth and continue to do so)

It is axiomatic that your pastor believes in redemption.

Front 4

aphorism

Back 4

a terse saying embodying a general truth or astute observation

A common aphorism is "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Front 5

apothegm

Back 5

A short pithy, instructive saying or aphorism

The whole “pass now, fix later” apothegm is naïve.

Front 6

bacchanalian

(back-a-nay-lee-uhn)

Back 6

pertaining to riotous or drunken festivity; pertaining to revelry

For some people New Year's Eve is an occasion for bacchanalian revelry.

Front 7

bard

Back 7

poet

The great bards of English literature have all been masters of the techniques of verse.

Front 8

bawdy

Back 8

obscene; indecent; lewd; ribald

Canterbury Tales is filled with stories ranging from the holy to the body on the way to the Canterbury Cathedral.

Front 9

beatify

Back 9

to sanctify; to bless; to ascribe a virtue to

Pope John Paul 2 traveled to Portugal to beatify 2/3 children who said they saw the appearance of the Virgin Mary.

Front 10

bedizen

(beh-die-zen)

(v)

Back 10

to dress in a vulgar, showy manner; dress gaudily

Paul went to the costume party bedizened as a seventeenth century French aristocrat.

The children entertained themselves for hours with the contents of the old trunk, donning fancy dresses and bedizening themselves with jewelry and scarves.

Front 11

beneficent

Back 11

kindly; doing good

The theologian discussed the question of why a beneficent and omnipotent God allows bad things to happen to good people.

Front 12

blandishment

Back 12

flattery; cajolery; wheedling; blarney

Despite the salesperson's blandishments, Donna did not buy the car.

Blandish is a verb meaning to flatter.
blarney can also be a verb; cajole; wheedle

Front 13

blasé

Back 13

indifferent to or bored with life; unimpressed, as or as if from an excess of worldly pleasures; unconcerned

We were amazed by John's blasé attitude toward school; he seems to have made it a rule never to open a book.

Front 14

bovine

Back 14

cowlike; dull-sluggish

Following the slow students, the word "bovine" popped into the English teacher's mind.

Front 15

broach

Back 15

to mention for the first time;

Ellen H. did not take long to broach the subject of her disapproval with the intern.

The music industry's decline has been swift, merciless and bloody; perhaps it's best to broach such a dire story by laughing.