Barron's Gre Vocab 3Rd 40

Front 1

abdicate

Back 1

To give up a position, right, or power
Romulus augustus, the last western emperor, was forced to abdicate the throne in 476 AD.

Front 2

accretion

Back 2

The growth in size of increase in amount
Sea floor spreading is a process in which the new crust in the ocean is continually generated by igneous processes at the crest of the mid-ocean ridges causing a steady accretion of the crust.

Front 3

aggregate

Back 3

amounting to a whole
The aggregate wealth of a country includes private as well as public resources and possesions.

Front 4

ambrosia

Back 4

something delicious; the food of the gods
The combination of flavors n the moroccan backed eggplant was pure ambrosia

Front 5

anomalous

Back 5

Irregula; diviating fromt the norm
The psychologist discouted the anomalous behavior of the soldier, saying it was merely a short-term effect of the stress of battle.

Front 6

apposite

Back 6

strikingly appropriate or relevent
The writer searched two dictionaries and a thesaurus before finding the perfectly apposite word he was looking for.

Front 7

arrest

Back 7

to stop; to seize
Tempory arrest of the patient's respiration made it easier for the doctor to perform surgery on him

Front 8

atavism

Back 8

In biology the reappearence of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absense
Some morden political theories reject nationalism as a tribal atavism.

Front 9

bacchanalian

Back 9

pertaining to riutous or drunken festivity; pertaining to revelry
for some people New Year's Eve is an occasion for bacchanalian

Front 10

bifurcate

Back 10

divide into two parts
Comtempory physiscists generally bifurcate their discipline intot two parts-classical physics and modern physics.

Front 11

burgeon

Back 11

to flourish
After world war II the increased speed of industialization and the burgeoning world population resulted in such an increased speed of pollution.

Front 12

cantankerous

Back 12

irritable, ill-humoured
Many of us have in our mind the stereotype of the cantankerous old man who is constantly complaining about something or other.

Front 13

catalyst

Back 13

Something causing change
Among the catalysts of the romantic movement were the libertarian ideals of the French Revolution.

Front 14

chicanery

Back 14

trickery; fraud
The governor ordered an audit to investigate alleged fanancial chicanery.

Front 15

coda

Back 15

Concluding part of a literary or musical composition; something that summarizes or concludes
The coda of the danish composer Per Norgard's Sixth Symphony seems to return to the serene souds of the opening.

Front 16

compumction

Back 16

uneasiness caused by guilt
They feel no compunction over being violent to women, children, and one another.

Front 17

conscript

Back 17

person complusorily erolled for millitary service
The postion of NOW is that having male-only conscripts violates the principle of gender equality.

Front 18

converge

Back 18

To approach; come together; tend to meet
Although the People's Republic of China and India are rivals in many ways, in vertain areas their interests converge

Front 19

cozen

Back 19

To mislead by trick or fraud ; deceive
The writter HLM pointed out that a common strategy of politicians is to cozen the pople by exaggeration the seriousness of a problem.

Front 20

deference

Back 20

respect; regard for another's wish
There was a movement to condemn slavery among some of the writers of the Declaration of Independence, but despite many misgivings, the proposal was dropped in deference to the objections of a number of people.

Front 21

derivative

Back 21

Something derived;

Front 22

diffuse

Back 22

To spread out
The idea of equality and liberty diffused through society after the French Revolution.

Front 23

discretion

Back 23

Quality ofshowing self-restraint in speech or actions; circumspection;freedom to act on one's own
In 19th century Britain gentlemen were expected to behave with discretion.

Front 24

dissolution

Back 24

disintegration; debauchery
some Philosphers maintain that the dissolution of the body does not mean the destruction of the mind.

Front 25

doggerel

Back 25

poor verse
In his book Poetic Meter and Poetic Form, the literay critic paul Fussell quotes this bit of doggerel from a U.S. Army Latrine during World war II.

Front 26

effrontery

Back 26

shameless boldness; presumptuousness
In her essay the student had the effrontery to argue that school is largely a waste of time.

Front 27

empirical

Back 27

derived from observation or experiment

Front 28

epistemology

Back 28

branch of philosophy that examines the nature of knowledge
A major question in epistemology is whether the mind can ever gain objective knowlege.

Front 29

etiology

Back 29

causes or origins
The etiology of mental illness is complex because of the diversity of factors.

Front 30

exact

Back 30

to force the payment of; demand and obtain by authority
The conquering rulers exacted a tax of 10% from every adult male in the country.

Front 31

explicate

Back 31

The explain; intercept; clarify
The literay exam requires students to explicate three poems they studied in class and one they have not studied.

Front 32

factotum

Back 32

a person who does all sort of work; a a handyman
The character M aspires to become more than merely a factotumin the house of Lady Olivia.

Front 33

fetter

Back 33

to bind; confine
The poet William Blake believed that each person creates "Mind-forged manacles," fettering his or her natural instincts and spirit.

Front 34

Flourish

Back 34

an embellishment or ornamentation
The sorphists often gave interminable speeches full of rhetorical flourishes.

Front 35

fractious

Back 35

Quarralsome; unruly; rebellious
In an effort to unify their devided party, its leaders decidedto first placate the party's most fractious element.

Front 36

gambol

Back 36

to frolic; leap playfully
The children gamboled on the lawn while their parents ate lunch

Front 37

gregarious

Back 37

sociable
A recent anthropological theory is that human beings are gregarious creatures that are comfortable living in groups of around 150 individuals

Front 38

herbivorous

Back 38

Relating to a herbivore,an animal that feeds mainly on plants
Most researchers now believe that the common ancestor of apes and humans was a stronly herbivorous animal

Front 39

inconoclastic

Back 39

Attacking cherished traditions
The linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky has been described as gleefully iconoclastic.

Front 40

imperturbable

Back 40

not easily disturbe
Buddha counseled that one should try to remain imperturbable through life's vicissitudes.