Barron's Gre Vocab 8Th 40

Front 1

inconsequential

Back 1

insignificant; unimportant
The meeting of the two woman seemed inconsequential at the time, but in retrospect it let of one of literature's great collaborations.

Front 2

inherent

Back 2

firmly established by nature or habit

Front 3

internecine

Back 3

deadly to both sides
The US civil war was an internecine conflict that lead to the death of 620000 soldiers out of 2.4 million who fought in the war.

Front 4

inveigh

Back 4

to disapprove; protest vehemently
The conservative writer inveighed against the school board's decision to exclude moral education from the curriculum.

Front 5

jocose

Back 5

fond of joking; jocular; playful
The English word jocose, jocular, and joke all come from derivatives of the Latin word Jocus which means jest or joke.

Front 6

latent

Back 6

present but hidden; potential
some experts in human psychology believe that we are just beginning to explore the latent powers of the human mind.

Front 7

limpid

Back 7

clear; transparent
At the bottom of the limpid pond we could see hundred of fish swimming.

Front 8

lustrous

Back 8

shining
On the clear night we gazed up in awe at the lustrous stars.

Front 9

menagerie

Back 9

a variety of animals kept together
Linda seems to take home every abandoned pet in the town; she now has an incredible menagerie of dogs, cats, turtles, rabbits and other animals.

Front 10

mettlesome

Back 10

full of courage and fortitude; spirited
The mettlesome young officer was well regarded by all the senior officers.

Front 11

mitigate

Back 11

To cause to become less harsh, severe, or painful; alleviate
The decisions did mitigate the effects of some of the rulings of the Warren court.

Front 12

negate

Back 12

to cancel out; nullify
The soldiers' poor treatment of the prisoners negated any goodwill they had built up among the population.

Front 13

obsequy

Back 13

funeral ceremony
Solemn obsequies were help for president JFK following his assassination

Front 14

opprobrium

Back 14

disgrace; contempt
It is difficult to imagine the opprobrium heaped on a person who is a traitor to his or her group.

Front 15

partisan

Back 15

one-sided; committed to a party, group or cause prejudiced

Front 16

perennial

Back 16

present throughout the years; persistent
Perennial warfare had left most of the people of the country in poverty.

Front 17

physiognomy

Back 17

facial fear
The art teacher assigned her students to make drawings of people with a wide variety of physiognomy

Front 18

plethora

Back 18

excess; overabundance
Because it deals with death and grieving, the funeral business had produced a plethora of euphemisms such as "slumber room".

Front 19

precarious

Back 19

uncertain
the prime minister's precarious hold on power ended when she lost a vote of confidence in Parliament.

Front 20

preternatural

Back 20

Beyond the normal cause of nature; supernatural
Most scientists believe that putative preternatural phenomena are outside the scope of scientific inquiry

Front 21

propensity

Back 21

inclination; tendency
There is a natural propensity to stress the importance of what one is saying by exaggerating it.

Front 22

quagmire

Back 22

marsh; difficult situation
The federal government's antitrust suit in the 1990s against Microsoft created a legal quagmire.

Front 23

raiment

Back 23

clothing
It took two hours for the princess's handmaidens to help her put on her splendid raiment for her coronation as queen.

Front 24

refractory

Back 24

stubborn; unmanageable; resisting ordinary methods of treatment
The general practitioner called in specialists to help determine the cause of the patient's refractory illness.

Front 25

reproach

Back 25

to find fault with; blame
The speaker in Andrew's poem "To his coy mistress" reproached his beloved for ignoring the passing of time.

Front 26

rubric

Back 26

Title or heading; category; established mode of procedure or conduct; protocol
The data from the experiment was so diverse that the scientist decided to design a new rubric to organize it.

Front 27

satiate

Back 27

to satisfy
The bully satiated his fury by pummeling the helpless little boy.

Front 28

sensual

Back 28

relating to senses; gratifying the physical senses, especially sexual appetites
The yogi teaches his students that attachment to sensual pleasure is one of the greatest hindrances to spiritual advancement.

Front 29

singular

Back 29

unique; extraordinary; odd
The defendant's singular appearance made it easy for the witness to identify his as the person at the scene of the crime.

Front 30

sordid

Back 30

filthy; contemptible and corrupt
The Monica Lewinsky scandal, which led to president BIll Clinton's impeachment in 1998, must certainly rank as one of the most sordid affairs in American history.

Front 31

stint

Back 31

to be sparing
stinting on funding for education strikes many people as shortsighted.

Front 32

stygian

Back 32

dark and gloomy; hellish
The poem describes an unfortunate soldier who was unable to get his gas mask on in time, seem through the stygian gloom of poison gas.

Front 33

supersede

Back 33

to replace, especially to displace as inferior or antiquated
Malay was the lingua franca of the Malay peninsula for centuries, but in many parts of that region it is being superseded in that role by a European interloper, English.

Front 34

tangential

Back 34

peripheral; digressing
The judge ruled that the evidence had only a tangential bearing on the case and directed the lawyer to present only a brief summary of it.

Front 35

toady

Back 35

flatterer; hanger-on; yes-man
The boss had no respect for the employee because he considered him a toady who would do anything he said.

Front 36

travail

Back 36

work, especially arduous work; tribulation; anguish
America's early pioneers endured great travail, but perserved and eventually settled much of the vast continent.

Front 37

tutelary

Back 37

serving as a guardian or protector
most of the people of ancient Rome believed in existence of tutelary spirits.

Front 38

vapid

Back 38

tasteless; dull
To relax in the evening the judge likes to watch vapid situation comedies on TV.

Front 39

viable

Back 39

practicable; capable of developing
They spend a great deal of money to keep cities viable by rebuilding decrepit infrastructures.

Front 40

vortex

Back 40

whirlpool; whirlwind; center of turbulence
Inexorably, the country was drawn into the vortex of war.