Gre Viii

Front 1

portent

Back 1

omen or sign of something to come

Front 2

Inadvertent

Back 2

describes something unintentional or careless

Front 3

Visceral

Back 3

describes something that is instinctive or emotional.
intuitive, instinctive, emotional, etc. rather than intellectual.
An example of visceral is the negative feelings that dogs have for cats.

Front 4

Carte blanche

Back 4

means having the full authority and freedom to act as you want or do what you want without limits or restrictions.

Front 5

prophylactic

Back 5

preventive or protective; esp., preventing or guarding against disease, A contraceptive device, especially a condom.

Front 6

Constituent

Back 6

describes someone or something that is necessary in making something else whole.

Front 7

Fungible

Back 7

interchangeable

Front 8

Proxy

Back 8

stand-in for someone else, the authority to stand-in for or represent someone else, or a document giving permission for someone else to vote on your behalf.

Front 9

Contentious

Back 9

It comes from the word contend, which means to argue. If you are contentious, you like to argue.

Front 10

Auspicious

Back 10

means favorable.
Despite an auspicious beginning, Mike’s road trip became a series of mishaps, and he was soon stranded and broke next to his wrecked automobile.

Front 11

Enervate

Back 11

means to sap the energy from.
John preferred to avoid equatorial countries; the intense sun would always leave him enervated after he’d spent the day sightseeing.

Front 12

Equivocate

Back 12

speak vaguely, usually with the intention to mislead or deceive.

Front 13

unequivocal

Back 13

to state it in such a way that there is no room for doubt.

Front 14

Sedulous

Back 14

Sedulous describes someone who is diligent, hard working and persistent. (adjective)
An example of a person who might be described as sedulous about his health is someone who continually and carefully monitors what he eats and how much he exercises.

Front 15

Stem

Back 15

hold back or limit the flow or growth of something.

You can stem bleeding, you (can attempt to) stem the tide. Do not stem the flow of vocabulary coursing through your brains. Make sure to use these words whenever you can.
To stem the tide of applications, the prestigious Ivy requires that each applicant score at least 330 on the Revised GRE.

Front 16

Blinkered

Back 16

means to have a limited outlook or understanding.

In gambling, the addict is easily blinkered by past successes and/or past failures, forgetting that the outcome of any one game is independent of the games that preceded it.

Front 17

Check

Back 17

to stop its growth (similar to stem but with more of a focus on growth than flow). If something is left unchecked, then it grows freely.

Deserted for six months, the property began to look more like a jungle and less like a residence –weeds grew unchecked in the front yard.

Front 18

Checkered

Back 18

marked by disreputable happenings.

One by one, the presidential candidates dropped out of the race, their respective checkered pasts – from embezzlement to infidelity – sabotaging their campaigns.

Front 19

Involved

Back 19

complicated, and difficult to comprehend.
The physics lecture became so involved that the undergraduate’s eyes glazed over.

Front 20

Retiring

Back 20

to be shy, and have the inclination to retract from company.
Nelson always was the first to leave soirees-– rather than mill about with “fashionable” folk, he was retiring, and preferred the solitude of his garret.

Front 21

Expansive

Back 21

prone to talking in a sociable manner.

Front 22

Moment

Back 22

If something is of moment, it is significant and important (think of the word momentous).
Despite the initial hullabaloo, the play was of no great moment in Hampton’s writing career, and, within a few years, the public quickly forgot his foray into theater arts.

Front 23

Base

Back 23

having or showing little or no honor, courage, or decency; mean; ignoble; contemptible (LOW)

She was not so base as to begrudge the mendicant the unwanted crumbs from her dinner plate.

Front 24

Imbibe

Back 24

to drink, usually copiously. Figuratively, imbibe can refer to an intake of knowledge or information.

The professor was a fountain of erudition, and we imbibed his wisdom.

Front 25

Inundate

Back 25

synonym for deluge. Figuratively, to be inundated means to be overwhelmed by too many people or things.

Once inundated with 5,000 vocabulary words, GRE students now have to contend with somewhat fewer words.

Front 26

Scintillating

Back 26

gives off sparks, such as when photons collide. someone who is brilliant and lively.

Richard Feynman was renowned for his scintillating lectures—the arcana of quantum physics was made lucid as he wrote animatedly on the chalkboard.

Front 27

arcanum/arcana

Back 27

a secret; mystery

Front 28

Benighted

Back 28

a state of ignorance.
Far from being a period of utter benightedness, The Medieval Ages produced some inestimable works of theological speculation.

Front 29

Galvanize

Back 29

to excite to action or spur on.
At mile 23 of his first marathon, Kyle had all but given up, until he noticed his friends and family holding a banner that read, “Go Kyle”; galvanized, he broke into a gallop, finishing the last three miles in less than 20 minutes.

Front 30

Hedge

Back 30

If you hedge your bets, you play safely. If you hedge a statement, you limit or qualify that statement. Finally, hedge can also mean to avoid making a direct statement, as in equivocating.