Barron's SAT Hot Prospects Word List

Betty R. (United States of America)
173 words 153 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. abate
    become less in amount or intensity
  2. accolade
    a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction
  3. acquiesce
    agree or express agreement
  4. acrid
    strong and sharp, as a taste or smell
  5. acrimony
    a rough and bitter manner
  6. aggregate
    gather in a mass, sum, or whole
  7. amorphous
    having no definite form or distinct shape
  8. anachronistic
    chronologically misplaced
  9. anomaly
    deviation from the normal or common order, form, or rule
  10. antediluvian
    of or relating to the period before the biblical flood
  11. antipathy
    a feeling of intense dislike
  12. apocryphal
    being of questionable authenticity
  13. arable
    capable of being farmed productively
  14. ardent
    characterized by intense emotion
  15. assiduous
    marked by care and persistent effort
  16. assuage
    provide physical relief, as from pain
  17. atrophy
    a decrease in size of an organ caused by disease or disuse
  18. audacious
    disposed to venture or take risks
  19. avarice
    reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth
  20. avert
    turn away or aside
  21. beguile
    attract; cause to be enamored
  22. bequeath
    leave or give, especially by will after one's death
  23. bleak
    unpleasantly cold and damp
  24. blighted
    affected by something that prevents growth or prosperity
  25. bombastic
    ostentatiously lofty in style
  26. buttress
    a support usually of stone or brick
  27. cacophonous
    having an unpleasant sound
  28. carping
    persistent petty and unjustified criticism
  29. certitude
    complete assurance or confidence
  30. charlatan
    a flamboyant deceiver
  31. circumlocution
    an indirect way of expressing something
  32. cliche
    a trite or obvious remark
  33. coalesce
    fuse or cause to come together
  34. colloquial
    characteristic of informal spoken language or conversation
  35. combustible
    capable of igniting and burning
  36. complementary
    serving to fill out, enhance, or supply what is lacking
  37. confluence
    a place where things merge or flow together
  38. conjecture
    believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds
  39. converge
    be adjacent or come together
  40. corrode
    cause to deteriorate due to water, air, or an acid
  41. corrugated
    shaped into alternating parallel grooves and ridges
  42. culpable
    deserving blame or censure as being wrong or injurious
  43. debilitate
    make weak
  44. debunk
    expose while ridiculing
  45. dehydrate
    remove water from
  46. deleterious
    harmful to living things
  47. depose
    force to leave an office
  48. desiccate
    lacking vitality or spirit; lifeless
  49. diffidence
    lack of self-assurance
  50. dilatory
    wasting time
  51. discourse
    an extended communication dealing with some particular topic
  52. discrepancy
    a difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions
  53. disquiet
    a feeling of mild anxiety about possible developments
  54. distend
    cause to expand as if by internal pressure
  55. dupe
    fool or hoax
  56. ebullient
    joyously unrestrained
  57. edify
    make understand
  58. efface
    remove by or as if by rubbing or erasing
  59. effervesce
    become bubbly or frothy or foaming
  60. elegy
    a mournful poem; a lament for the dead
  61. elicit
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
  62. elucidate
    make clear and comprehensible
  63. emaciated
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
  64. emend
    make corrections to
  65. equanimity
    steadiness of mind under stress
  66. equitable
    fair to all parties as dictated by reason and conscience
  67. evanescent
    short-lived; tending to vanish or disappear
  68. excerpt
    a passage selected from a larger work
  69. fallow
    left unplowed and unseeded during a growing season
  70. falter
    move hesitatingly, as if about to give way
  71. fathom
    come to understand
  72. fell
    cause to go down by or as if by delivering a blow
  73. fitful
    occurring in spells and often abruptly
  74. florid
    elaborately or excessively ornamented
  75. foolhardy
    marked by defiant disregard for danger or consequences
  76. glacial
    relating to or derived from a slowly moving mass of ice
  77. hackneyed
    repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
  78. hyperbole
    extravagant exaggeration
  79. iconoclastic
    characterized by attack on established beliefs
  80. ignominy
    a state of dishonor
  81. illicit
    contrary to accepted morality or convention
  82. impecunious
    not having enough money to pay for necessities
  83. impregnable
    incapable of being attacked or tampered with
  84. incidental
    minor or casual or subordinate in significance or nature
  85. incontrovertible
    impossible to deny or disprove
  86. indefatigable
    showing sustained enthusiasm with unflagging vitality
  87. indolent
    disinclined to work or exertion
  88. ineffable
    defying expression or description
  89. inexorable
    impossible to prevent, resist, or stop
  90. insolvent
    unable to meet or discharge financial obligations
  91. insuperable
    incapable of being surpassed or excelled
  92. intractable
    difficult to manage or mold
  93. irreproachable
    free of guilt; not subject to blame
  94. jocular
    characterized by jokes and good humor
  95. labyrinth
    complex system of paths in which it is easy to get lost
  96. laconic
    brief and to the point
  97. laggard
    someone who takes more time than necessary
  98. lampoon
    ridicule with satire
  99. lassitude
    a feeling of lack of interest or energy
  100. lithe
    moving and bending with ease
  101. lurid
    glaringly vivid and graphic; marked by sensationalism
  102. luxuriant
    produced or growing in extreme abundance
  103. meander
    move or cause to move in a winding or curving course
  104. mercenary
    serving for wages in a foreign army
  105. mercurial
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
  106. mirth
    great merriment
  107. misanthrope
    someone who dislikes people in general
  108. misnomer
    an incorrect or unsuitable name
  109. mollify
    cause to be more favorably inclined
  110. mosaic
    design made of small pieces of colored stone or glass
  111. munificent
    given or giving freely, generously, or without restriction
  112. nefarious
    extremely wicked
  113. nuance
    a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude
  114. obdurate
    stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing
  115. odious
    extremely repulsive or unpleasant
  116. ornate
    marked by complexity and richness of detail
  117. pariah
    a person who is rejected from society or home
  118. parody
    a composition that imitates or misrepresents a style
  119. parsimony
    extreme stinginess
  120. paucity
    an insufficient quantity or number
  121. penury
    a state of extreme poverty or destitution
  122. perfunctory
    hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
  123. pernicious
    exceedingly harmful
  124. pitfall
    an unforeseen or unexpected or surprising difficulty
  125. pithy
    concise and full of meaning
  126. polemical
    of or involving dispute or controversy
  127. prattle
    speak about unimportant matters rapidly and incessantly
  128. precarious
    not secure; beset with difficulties
  129. profligate
    recklessly wasteful
  130. quagmire
    a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
  131. quell
    suppress or crush completely
  132. querulous
    habitually complaining
  133. quiescent
    being quiet or still or inactive
  134. rant
    talk at length in a noisy, excited, or angry manner
  135. rarefy
    lessen the density or solidity of
  136. raucous
    unpleasantly loud and harsh
  137. ravenous
    extremely hungry
  138. raze
    tear down so as to make flat with the ground
  139. recant
    formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief
  140. remission
    an abatement in intensity or degree
  141. replete
    filled to satisfaction with food or drink
  142. repugnant
    offensive to the mind
  143. rescind
    cancel officially
  144. respite
    a pause from doing something
  145. resplendent
    having great beauty
  146. savory
    pleasing to the sense of taste
  147. sedentary
    requiring sitting or little activity
  148. soporific
    inducing sleep
  149. spurious
    plausible but false
  150. spurn
    reject with contempt
  151. steadfast
    marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable
  152. stolid
    having or revealing little emotion or sensibility
  153. strident
    unpleasantly loud and harsh
  154. stupefy
    make someone dazed or foolish
  155. supplant
    take the place or move into the position of
  156. surfeit
    indulge (one's appetite) to satiety
  157. swagger
    walk with a lofty proud gait
  158. tantamount
    being essentially equal to something
  159. tenacity
    persistent determination
  160. terrestrial
    of or relating to or characteristic of the planet Earth
  161. threadbare
    thin and tattered with age
  162. tirade
    a speech of violent denunciation
  163. torpor
    a state of motor and mental inactivity
  164. trepidation
    a feeling of alarm or dread
  165. trifling
    not worth considering
  166. truncate
    make shorter as if by cutting off
  167. unkempt
    not properly maintained or cared for
  168. unprecedented
    novel; having no earlier occurrence
  169. vaporize
    turn into gas
  170. viable
    capable of life or normal growth and development
  171. virulent
    extremely poisonous or injurious; producing venom
  172. voluble
    marked by a ready flow of speech
  173. witticism
    a message whose ingenuity has the power to evoke laughter
Created on Wed Sep 04 13:03:14 EDT 2013 (updated Thu Sep 05 05:29:49 EDT 2013)

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