Sat Vocab Unit 1-10

Front 1

accolate

Back 1

N. award of merit
In the world of public relations, a "Clio" is the highest accolate an advertising campaign can receive.

Front 2

affix

Back 2

V. add on; fasten; attach
First the registrar had to affix her signature to the license; then she had to affix her official seal.

Front 3

aloft

Back 3

ADV. upward
The salor climbed aloft into the rigging.

Front 4

altruistic

Back 4

ADJ. unselfishly generous; concerned for others
The star received no fee for appearing at the benefit; it was purely altruistic act.

Front 5

ancillary

Back 5

ADJ. serving as an aid or accessory; auxiliary
In an ancillary capacity Doctor Watson was helpful.

Front 6

anticlimax

Back 6

N. letdown in thought or emotion
After the fine performance in the first act, the rest of the play was an anticlimax.

Front 7

antipathy

Back 7

N. aversion; dislike
Tom's extreme antipathy for disputes keeps him from getting into arguments with his temperamental wife.

Front 8

aplomb

Back 8

N. poise; assurance
Gwen's aplomb in handling potentially embarrassing moments was legendary around the office.

Front 9

apocryphal

Back 9

ADJ. untrue; made up
To impress his friends, Tom invented apocryphal tales of his adventures in the big city.

Front 10

append

Back 10

V. attach
I shall append this chart to my report.

Front 11

appropriate

Back 11

V. acquire; take possession of for one's own use; set aside for a special purpose
The ranchers appropriated lands that had originally been intended for Indian use.

Front 12

aria

Back 12

N. operatic solo
At her Metropolitan Opera audition, Marian Anderson san an aria from the opera Norma.

Front 13

ascendancy

Back 13

N. controlling influence
President Marcos failed to maintain his ascendancy over the Philippines.

Front 14

assail

Back 14

V. assualt
He was assailed with questions after his lecture.

Front 15

assuage

Back 15

V. ease or lessen (pain)
Jilted by Jane, Dick tried to assuage his heartache by indulging in ice cream.

Front 16

astute

Back 16

ADJ. wise; shrewd; keen
As tutor, she made astute observations about how to take multiple-choice tests.

Front 17

attribute

Back 17

N. essential quality
His outstanding attribute was his kindness.

Front 18

avarice

Back 18

N. greediness for wealth
King Midas is a perfect example of avarice, for he was so greedy that he wished everthing he touched would turn to gold.

Front 19

avert

Back 19

V. prevent; turn aside
"Watch out!" she cried, hoping to avert an accident.

Front 20

babble

Back 20

V. chatter idly
The little girl babbled about her dolls and pets.

Front 21

balk

Back 21

V. foil or thwart; stop short; refuse to go on
When the warden learned that several inmates were planning to escape, he took steps to balk their attempt.

Front 22

bane

Back 22

N. cause of ruin; curse
Lucy's little brother was the bane of her existence.

Front 23

begrudge

Back 23

V. resent
I begrudge every minute I have to sepnd attending meetings; they're a complete waste of time.

Front 24

beguile

Back 24

V. mislead or delude; cheat; pass time
With flattery and big talk of easy money, the con men beguiled Kyle into betting his allowance on the shell game.

Front 25

belie

Back 25

V. contradict; give a false impression of
His coarse, hard-bitten exterior belied his underlying sensitivity.

Front 26

bland

Back 26

ADJ. soothing; mild; dull
Unless you want your stomach lining to be eaten away, stick to a bland diet.

Front 27

blandishment

Back 27

N. flattery
Despite the salesperson's blahdishments, the customer did not buy the outfit.

Front 28

blare

Back 28

N. loud, harsh roar; screech
I don't know which is worse: the steady blare of a teenager's boom box deafening your ears or a sudden blaze of flashbulbs dazzling your eyes.

Front 29

blithe

Back 29

ADJ. gay, joyous; carefree
Without a care in the world, Beth went her blithe, light-hearted way.

Front 30

boisterous

Back 30

ADJ. rough and noisy; rowdy; stormy
The unruly crowd of demonstrators became even more boisterous when the mayor tried to quiet them.

Front 31

boon

Back 31

N. blessing; benefit
The recent rains that filled our empty reservoirs were a bbon to the whole community.

Front 32

bountiful

Back 32

ADJ. abundant; graciously generous
THanks to the good harvest, we had a bountiful supply of food and we could be as bountiful as we liked in distributing food to the needy.

Front 33

brandish

Back 33

V. wave around; flourish
Alarmed, Doctor Watson widly brandished his gun until Holmes told him to put the thing away before he shot himself.

Front 34

brine

Back 34

N. salt water; seawater
If you pack a peck of peppers in brine, waht do you get?

Front 35

brusque

Back 35

ADJ. blunt; abrupt
Jill was offended by Jack's brusque reply; he had no right to be so impatient with her.

Front 36

bungle

Back 36

V. mismanage; blunder
Don't botch this assignment; if you bungle the job, you're fired!

Front 37

burgeon

Back 37

V. bloom; develop rapidly; flourish
From its start as a small Seattle coffeehouse, Starbucks seemed to burgeon almost overnight into a major national chain.

Front 38

bustle

Back 38

V. move about energetically; teem
David and the children bustled about hte house getting in each other's way as they tried to pack for the camping trip.

Front 39

buttress

Back 39

V. support or prop up
The government is considering price supports to buttress the declining economy.

Front 40

camaraderie

Back 40

N. good-fellowship
What Giinger loved best about her job was the sense of camaraderie she and her co-workers shared.

Front 41

candor

Back 41

N. frankness; open honesty
Jack can carry candor too far: when he told Jill his honest opinion of her, she nearly slapped his face.

Front 42

canine

Back 42

ADJ. related to dogs; dog-like
Some days the canine population of Berkeley seems almost to outnumber the human population.

Front 43

cant

Back 43

N. insincere, hypocritical speech
Shocked by news of the minister's extramarital lovve affairs, the worshippers dismissed his talk about the sacredness of marriage as mere cant.

Front 44

capricious

Back 44

ADJ. unpredictable; fickle
The storm was capricious: it changed course constantly.

Front 45

caricature

Back 45

N. distortion; burlesque
The caricatures he drew always emphasized a personal weakness of the people he burlesqued.

Front 46

castigation

Back 46

V. punishment, severe criticism
Sensitive to even mild criticism, Virginia Woolf could not bear the castigation that she met in certain reviews.

Front 47

catacomb

Back 47

N. subterranean cemetery; underground passway
Londoners refer to their catacomb-like subway system as the Underground.

Front 48

censure

Back 48

V. blame, criticize
Though I don't blame Tony for leaving Tina, I do censure him for failing to pay child support.

Front 49

cessation

Back 49

N. stopping
The airline workers threatened a cessation of all work if management fialed to meet their demands.

Front 50

chaff

Back 50

N. left overs; worthless
When you separate the wheat from the chaff, be sure you throw out the chaff.

Front 51

chagrin

Back 51

N. vexation caused by humiliation; disappointment
Embarrassed by his parents' shabby appearance, he felt their visit to his school would bring him nothing but chargrin.

Front 52

charlatan

Back 52

N. quack; pretender to knowledge
WHen they realized that Wizard didn't know how to get them back to Kansas, Dorothy and her friends were sure they'd been duped by his charlatan.

Front 53

chary

Back 53

ADJ. cautious; sparing or restrained about giving
A prudent, thrifty, New Englander, DeWitt was as chary of paying people unnecessary compliments.

Front 54

chasm

Back 54

N. opening; abyss
They could not see the bottom of the chasm.

Front 55

chastise

Back 55

V. punish physically; scold verbally
"Spare the rod and spoil the child," Miss Watson said, grabbing her birch wand and preceeding to chastise poor Huck thoroughly.

Front 56

chauvinist

Back 56

N. blindly devoted patriot
Chauvinists cannot recognize any faults in their country, no matter how flagrant they may be.

Front 57

chicanery

Back 57

N. trickery; deception
Those sneaky lawyers misrepresented what occurred, made up all sorts of implausible alternative scenarios to confuse the jurors, andi n general depended on chicanery to win the case.

Front 58

circumscribe

Back 58

V. limit; confine
Although I do not wish to circumscribe your activities, I must insist that you complete this assignment before you start anything else.

Front 59

clairvoyant

Back 59

ADJ., N. having foresight; fortune-teller
Cassandra's clairvoyant warning was not heeded by the Trojans.

Front 60

clemency

Back 60

N. disposition to be lenient; mildness, as of the weather
THe lawyer was pleased when the case was sent to Judge Smith's chambers because Smith was noted for her clemency toward first offenders.

Front 61

clique

Back 61

N. small exclusive group
Fitzgerald wished that he belonged to the clique of popular athletes and big men on campus who seemed to run Princeton's social life.

Front 62

cogitate

Back 62

V. think over
Cogitate on this problem; the solution will come.

Front 63

collusion

Back 63

N. conspiring in a fraudulent scheme
The swindlers were found guilty of collusion.

Front 64

comely

Back 64

ADJ. attractive; agreeable
I would rather have a poor but comely wife than a rich and homely one.

Front 65

commiserate

Back 65

V. feel or express pity or sympathy for
Her friends commiserated with the widow.

Front 66

complacent

Back 66

ADJ. self-satisfied; smug
Feeling complacent about his latest victories, he looked smugly at the row of trophies on his mantelpiece.

Front 67

composure

Back 67

N. mental calmness
Even the latest work crisis failed to shake her composure.

Front 68

concerted

Back 68

ADJ. mutually agreed on; done together
All the Girl Scouts made a concerted effort to raise funds for their annual outing.

Front 69

concoct

Back 69

V. prepare by combining; make up in concert
How did the inventive chef ever concoct such a strange dish?

Front 70

condescend

Back 70

V. act conscious of descending to a lower level
Though Jill was a star softball player in college, she condescended to her teammates when she played a pickup game at the local park.

Front 71

conflagration

Back 71

N. great fire
In the conflagration that followed the 1906 earthquake, much of San Francisco burned to the ground.

Front 72

connotation

Back 72

N. suggested or implied meaning of an expression
Foreigners frequently are unaware of the connotations of the words they use.

Front 73

consequence

Back 73

N. self-importance; pomposity
Convinced of his own importance, the actor struttled about hte dressing room with air of consequence.

Front 74

console

Back 74

V. lessen sadness or disappointment; give comfort
When her father died, Marius did his best to console Cosette.

Front 75

conspicuous

Back 75

ADJ. easily seen; noticeable
Janet was conspicuous both for her red hair and for her height.

Front 76

constituent

Back 76

N. part working for a whole
THe congressman received hundreds of letters from angry constituents after the Equal Rights Amendment failed to pass.

Front 77

contagion

Back 77

N. infection
Fearing contagion, the health authorities took reat steps to prevent the spread of the disease.

Front 78

contention

Back 78

N. claim; thesis
It is our contention that, if you follow our tactics, you will boost your score on the PSAT.