Barron's Gre Vocab 9Th 40

Front 1

abject

Back 1

miserable; pitiful
The novel The Grapes of Wrath portrays the abject poverty of many people during the great depression.

Front 2

adjunct

Back 2

something added, attached, or joined
Speed walking, cross-country running, and marathons are normally regarded as adjuncts of track and field athletics since races in there sports are not normally held on a track.

Front 3

allay

Back 3

to lessen; ease; soothe
Improvements in antivirus software have allayed many people's fears of having their computers "infected" with malicious software.

Front 4

amenity

Back 4

something that increases comfort
Many amenities considered normal and necessary by people in developed countries were luxuries only a few generations ago.

Front 5

antipathy

Back 5

dislike; hostility
Heathcliff feels great antipathy for Edgar Linton, the man who marries the woman he loves.

Front 6

appropriate

Back 6

to take possession for one's own use; confiscate
The invading army appropriated supplies from the houses of the local people.

Front 7

ascetic

Back 7

one who practices self-denial
Muslim ascetics consider the internal battle against human passions a greater jihad than the struggle against infidels.

Front 8

austere

Back 8

stern; unadorned
Deism is an austere belief that reflects the predominant philosophy of the Age of enlightenment: a universe symmetrical and governed by rationality.

Front 9

bard

Back 9

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

Front 10

bolster

Back 10

to give a boost to; prop up; support
The president has visited the state several times to bolster his sagging popularity there.

Front 11

cacophonous

Back 11

unpleasant or harsh-sounding
The dissonant harmonies of the great jazz pianist and the composer Thelonious Monk might seem cacophonous to some listeners, but to many jazz aficionados they are sublime.

Front 12

cardinal

Back 12

of foremost importance
The cardinal rule of many weight-loss diet must be limiting the intake of calories.

Front 13

causal

Back 13

involving a cause

Front 14

circuitous

Back 14

according to Hindu philosophy, some souls take a circuitous path through many births to reach god.

Front 15

collage

Back 15

artistic composition of materials pasted over a surface; an assemblage of diverse elements.
The cubist Juan Gris is noted for his use of collage to create trompe L'oell effects- the illusion of photographic reality.

Front 16

concoct

Back 16

to invent
The various human cultures have concocted a great many explanations to describe the beginning of the Earth, life, and humanity.

Front 17

contentious

Back 17

quarrelsome; causing quarrels
When genetic engineering began in the 1970s, there was a contentious and sometimes acrimonious debate among scientists themselves about its danger.

Front 18

convoluted

Back 18

twisted; complicated
Unraveling the convoluted genetic code is one of the greatest achievements of modern science.

Front 19

credo

Back 19

statement of belief or principle; creed
The credo of Google is "Don't be evil".

Front 20

demographic

Back 20

related to population balance
Demographic trends in many European counties indicate that in the next generation there will be relatively fewer working people to support retired people.

Front 21

desultory

Back 21

random; disconnected; rambling
The jury had difficulty following the witnesses' desultory testimony.

Front 22

disabuse

Back 22

to free from a misconception
The chairman of the Federal Reserve used his testimony before Congress to disabuse his audience of the idea that the business cycle had been eliminated by the unprecedented period of prosperity.

Front 23

disjointed

Back 23

lacking order or coherence; dislocated
The techniques of telling a story through a disjointed narrative is a technique best left to masters of the modern novel such as James Joyce.

Front 24

distill

Back 24

extract the essential elements
In his book Men of Ideas: some Creators of Contemporary Philosophy, Byran Magee manages to distill the essence of leading thinkers such as WVQ.

Front 25

dross

Back 25

waste; worthless matter; trivial matter
One of the ways the dross among blogs on the internet are filtered out from the worthwhile ones is through links good blogs provide to other good blogs.

Front 26

elegy

Back 26

poem or song expressing lamentation
Adonais is a pastoral elegy writer.

Front 27

endemic

Back 27

inherent; belonging to an area
Malaria, once endemic to the area, has now been largely eradicated.

Front 28

equivocate

Back 28

to intentionally use vague language
The businessperson has earned a reputation as someone who never equivocates and can be trusted to do exactly what he promises.

Front 29

eulogy

Back 29

high praise, especially of a person who has recently died
After the death of Abraham Lincoln, Many eulogy of him appeared in newspapers throughout America.

Front 30

exhort

Back 30

urge by strong appeals
In 1943 U.S. General George Patton exhorted American troops about to invade Hitler's Europe, saying that victory was assured because American soldiers were more virile and courageous than their German counterparts.

Front 31

extemporaneous

Back 31

unrehearsed
I enjoyed the speaker's extemporaneous remarks more than her prepared speech.

Front 32

fatuous

Back 32

foolishly self-centered
The student could not understand why no one took seriously his fatuous comments.

Front 33

filibuster

Back 33

use of obstructive tactics in a legislature to block passage of law
The senator threatened that his filibuster would include a full reading of his eight-volume autobiography.

Front 34

foment

Back 34

to incite; arouse
The government accused the newspaper of fomenting unrest in the country.

Front 35

froward

Back 35

stubbornly contrary; obstinately disobedient
The teacher had no choice but to send the froward child to the vice-pricipal for disciplining.

Front 36

geniality

Back 36

cheerfulness; kindness; sociability
Hosts of television talk shows are generally people who possesses a great deal of geniality.

Front 37

guise

Back 37

outward appearance; false appearance; pretense
In Greek mythology, the god Zeus often appeared to mortal women to whom he was attracted to in strange guises.

Front 38

hirsute

Back 38

covered with hair
One of the most obvious differences between humans and closely related species such as chimpanzees is that latter are hirsute, while the former have relatively little hair.

Front 39

imbroglio

Back 39

complicated situation; an entanglement
The plot of many of Somerset Maugham's stories consists of an unraveling of an imbroglio in which the main character finds himself.

Front 40

implacable

Back 40

inflexible; incapable of being pleased
Once an implacable foe of capitalism, the people's republic of china in recent years seems, in practice if not in principle, to have embraced it.