Vocabulary Study: GRE Words

2008-05 Note: This word list was compiled mostly in the 1990s. At the time, the list is just for personal use, without accurate record of the source or exact format. You can often find the exact source on the web by searching for the usage quoted.

compunction

compunction follows my concscience like a remora.

Xah Lee

snub

Universities Snub Napster Ban Request

News headline ~2001.

amity

The comforting ethos of the [Star Trek] series was expressed not merely in the amity of the crew...

“Trekking Onward” (1994-11-28) By Richard Zoglin. Time Mag. Source

nettlesome

...[some companies] are teaming up with local partners to build plants in China and circumvent the country's nettlesome trade barriers.

edict

One edict for Star Trek [script]: The crew of the Enterprise always gets along.

Time Mag ~1990s

jeremiad

A tale of sorrow, disappointment, or complaint; a doleful story; a dolorous tirade. See also: Jeremiad. Also of interest: obloquy, philippic. Syn include: tirade, diatribes, fulmination, harangue.

cognate

Once upon a time, riddles were respectable. Their antiquity and function can be guessed at from the word's origin in the Old English raedan, ‘a story or interpretation’, which is cognate with words meaning ‘counsel, opinion, conjecture’ and is also the origin of our modern word read.

web essay.

maladroit

Plenty of maladroit decisions were made.

interlocutor

He leans toward his interlocutor conspiratorially. [to whisper]

flout

... plenty of people drive luxury cars and flout the rules

time mag, 2001-07-23

You can flout convention and you can flout authority, but you cannot use flaunt for flout.

source forgotten. Some writing on the words flaunt and flout

speciousness

the mob were sold by the politician's specious arguments.

enmity

hostility, antagonism, animosity, rancor, antipathy, animus.

covenant

pledge, vow, bond, convention, pact, compact, bargain.

egregious

flagrant, glaring, gross, rank.

burly

Time heals emotional wounds, but apparently so do burly chauffeurs. Right after in the midst of her tiringly raucous breakup with husband Tom, Roseanne Arnold hired a 240-lb. driver and bodyguard.

Time Mag

indefatigable

He [John Dewey] is a man of the highest character, liberal in outlook, generous and kind in personal relations, indefatigable in work.

“The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell: 1903-1959”.

maritime

nautical, marine, naval

behest

...experiments done at the behest of IBM.

repertoire

a performance routine

renunciation

renounced smoking