Enhance Your SAT Vocabulary: Essential Words for Success

1. SAT Vocabulary Taken from Cracking the SAT 2012

2. Candid – completely honest, straightforward • Conjecture – inference, guesswork • Effusive – showing excessive emotion, overflowing • Euphemism – a mild, indirect, or vague term substituting for a harsh, blunt, or offensive term • Extrapolate – to infer or estimate by extending or projecting known information • Incoherent – lacking cohesion or connection • Insinuate – to imply or communicate stealthily • Loquacious – very talkative • Lucid – easily understood, clear • Rhetoric – the art of using language effectively and persuasively Relating to speaking – List 1

3. acumen – quickness, accuracy, and keenness of judgment or insight • ascertain – to find out, as through investigation or experimentation • astute – shrewd, clever • circumspect – careful, prudent, discreet • disseminate – to scatter widely • pedantic – excessively concerned with book learning and formal rules • pragmatic – practical • prolific – very productive, producing great qualities • prospectus – formal proposal • rudimentary – basic, elementary Learning – List 2

4. Erudition – deep, extensive learning • Precocious – exhibiting unusually early intellectual aptitude or maturity • Abstruse – difficult to understand • Callous – emotionally hardened; unfeeling • Convoluted – intricate; complex • Disaffected – having lost faith or loyalty; discontent • Enigma – a puzzle, mystery, or riddle • Inscrutable – impenetrable • Reticent – inclined to keep silent, reserved • Staid - unemotional, serious List 3

5. arcane – known or understood by only a few • assimilate – to absorb or become absorbed; to make or become similar • autonomy – independence, self-determination • cosmopolitan – worldly, widely sophisticated • derivative – something that comes from another source • gaffe – a clumsy social error, a faux pas • idiosyncrasy – characteristic peculiar to an individual or group • insular – isolated, narrow or provincial • orthodox – adhering to the traditional and established, especially in religion • potentate – one who has the power and position to rule over others, monarch List 4

6. castigate – to scold, rebuke, or harshly criticize • censure – to issue official blame • denounce – to condemn openly • reclusive – seeking or preferring seclusion or isolation • relinquish – to retire from, give up or abandon • vituperative – marked by harshly abusive condemnation • circumscribe – to draw a circle around, to restrict • contiguous – sharing an edge or boundary, touching • conciliatory – appeasing, soothing, showing willingness to reconcile • credible – capable of being believed, plausible List 5

7. exonerate – to free from blame • indict – to officially charge with wrongdoing or a crime • litigious – prone to engage in lawsuits • partisan – devoted to or biased in support of a party, group, or cause • parity – equality, as in amount, status, or value • rectitude – moral uprightness, righteousness • remiss – lax in attending to duty, negligent • repudiate – to reject the validity or authority of • sanctimonious – feigning piety or righteousness • scrupulous – principled, having a strong sense of right and wrong List 6

8. solicitous – concerned • substantiate – to support with proof or evidence, verify • veracity – adherence to the truth, truthfulness • vindicate – to free from blame • cajole – to urge with repeated appeals, teasing, or flattery • sycophant – insincere • altruism – unselfish concern for the welfare of others, selflessness • eminent – distinguished, prominent • empathy – identification with and understanding of another’s situation • extol – to praise highly List 7

9. magnanimous – courageously or generously noble in mind and heart • philanthropic – humanitarian, benevolent, relating to monetary generosity • reciprocate – to mutually take or give, to respond in kind • defunct – no longer existing or functioning • eradicate – to get rid of as if by tearing it up by the roots • quell – to put down forcibly, suppress • raze – to level to the ground, demolish • squelch – to crush as if by trampling, squash • supplant – to usurp the place of • stymie – to thwart or stump List 8

10. abase – to lower in rank, prestige, or esteem • deride – to mock contemptuously • derogatory – insulting or intended to insult • disparage – to speak of negatively • effrontery – brazen boldness • ignominy – great personal dishonor or humiliation • mar – to damage • vex – to annoy or bother • vindictive – disposed to seek revenge • bombastic – given to pompous speech or writing List 9

11. exorbitant – exceeding all bounds, as of custom or fairness • exuberant – full of unrestrained enthusiasm or joy • embellish – to ornament or decorate, to exaggerate • flagrant – extremely or deliberately shocking or noticeable • gratuitous – given freely • lavish –extravagant • ornate – elaborately decorated • redundant – needlessly repetitive • ubiquitous – being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time • vicarious – felt or undergone as if one were taking part in the experience or feelings of another List 10