The GRE Verbal Reasoning Test: Challenge Words: Challenge, List 5

This list of challenge words features some of the hardest words that you will encounter in the Verbal Reasoning section of the GRE. These are words that typically appear less frequently across different academic disciplines, so you are less likely to have encountered them before. Master these difficult words and watch your GRE score soar!
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. accrued
    periodically accumulated over time
    Flush with government payments and, in many cases, savings accrued from working at home and from stock-market gains, people in rich countries were sitting on larger piles of cash and spending a lot of it. Seattle Times (Dec 17, 2021)
  2. antediluvian
    so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period
    One newspaperman described the megalosaurus, the greatest of the “antediluvian monsters,” as a scaly dragon with the “head of a gryphon” and an “eye as big as a cheese-cake.” New York Times (Dec 1, 2017)
  3. bombastic
    ostentatiously lofty in style
    But rather than try to rival those artists with bombastic, big-scale pictures of tremendous mountains, terrific storms and exotic climes, he favored a comparatively modest scale and relatively peaceful, close-to-home subjects. New York Times (Aug 15, 2013)
  4. boorish
    ill-mannered and coarse in behavior or appearance
    “To begin with, I could teach these boorish ogres how to eat properly.” Ella Enchanted
  5. bucolic
    idyllically rustic
    She walked in the direction of the song, following it till she found a small, bucolic waterfall that fed into a turquoise pond. Beauty Queens
  6. denouement
    the outcome of a complex sequence of events
    Once upon a time fans didn’t want their favorite series to end; now audiences clamor for a denouement they can debate forever. New York Times (Aug 11, 2013)
  7. diatribe
    thunderous verbal attack
    He burned most of his professional bridges with angry calls and late-night diatribes to his editors and publishers. Washington Post (Aug 2, 2016)
  8. entomologist
    a scientist who studies insects
    “The greatest single factor in preventing insects from overwhelming the rest of the world is the internecine warfare which they carry out among themselves,” said the entomologist Robert Metcalf. Silent Spring
  9. heterodox
    characterized by departure from accepted standards
    But giving heterodox views a hearing only works if the people seeking advice are themselves open-minded thinkers, willing to put in the hard work of understanding opposing views and assessing the evidence. Seattle Times (Mar 13, 2018)
  10. igneous
    produced by the action of fire or intense heat
    As lava cools, it crystallizes into igneous rock, freezing electrons within iron-bearing minerals into patterns that could reveal a magnetic field’s traits, such as its orientation. Washington Post (Nov 23, 2022)
  11. impinge
    infringe upon
    State legislators did not look kindly on government regulations they felt would impinge on personal freedoms. A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age
  12. limn
    make a portrait of
    So here, in limning her portrait, must I paint her as she was, a girl of little more than my own age now. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party
  13. microcosm
    a miniature model of something
    The physics that works for falling bodies and pirouetting ice skaters down here in the microcosm of the Earth makes galaxies up there in the macrocosm of the universe. Cosmos
  14. nexus
    the means of connection between things linked in series
    She was the nexus of all the connections his brain made—the wheel's hub. An Abundance of Katherines
  15. overweening
    presumptuously arrogant
    “His overweening arrogance was breathtaking at times. All his staff were treated like servants and everybody treated him like a prince. If he said it was raining outside, it was definitely raining.” The Guardian (Jan 26, 2019)
  16. paean
    a formal expression of praise
    Beethoven originally intended the “Eroica” as a paean to Napoleon, but when Napoleon crowned himself emperor, the composer recast the work as a portrait of an idealized hero who would fight tyranny. New York Times (Mar 16, 2012)
  17. paucity
    an insufficient quantity or number
    The other major obstacle to the development of food production in Australia was the paucity of domesticable wild plants. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
  18. sextant
    an instrument for measuring angular distance
    Before we left the relative safety of earth orbit, we wanted to make sure that our navigational equipment was working properly, and that meant using our sextant to sight on two stars. Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story
  19. vendetta
    a blood feud between members of opposing parties
    Quarrels, murders, feuds, forays, vendettas, assassinations, tortures and abominations, all these were in their repertory of human accomplishments; but they did not go to war. The Left Hand of Darkness
  20. vivisection
    the act of operating on living animals
    An ambitious self-promoter, he revelled in anatomical demonstrations on animals, including gruesome public vivisections of live Barbary macaques to demonstrate the function of nerves. Nature (Aug 19, 2018)
Created on Wed Nov 30 17:35:56 EST 2022 (updated Thu Jan 12 15:08:15 EST 2023)

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