Multiple-Meaning Words: Multiple-Meaning Words: Week 7

Context is king — that’s the lesson you need to internalize as you begin preparing for the vocabulary questions on the SAT. We have identified this pool of 200 words that cut across the disciplines and lend themselves well to context-dependent interpretation. As you learn this list on Vocabulary.com, you will have to rely on context clues in order to determine each word’s meaning in particular sentences. This is the same type of thinking you will need to develop in order to succeed on the SAT!

Following our Roadmap to the SAT? Head back to see what else you should be learning this week.
25 words 14882 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. affect
    have an influence upon
  2. desolate
    providing no shelter or sustenance
  3. term
    a limited period of time during which something lasts
  4. transparent
    able to be seen through with clarity
  5. venture
    an undertaking with an uncertain outcome
  6. sheer
    so thin as to transmit light
  7. acute
    ending in a sharp point
  8. bearing
    characteristic way of holding one's body
  9. concentration
    the spatial property of being crowded together
  10. difference
    the quality of being unlike or dissimilar
  11. formula
    a group of symbols that make a mathematical statement
  12. insensible
    barely able to be perceived
  13. launch
    propel with force
  14. mass
    the property of a body that causes it to have weight
  15. ripe
    fully developed or matured and ready to be eaten or used
  16. clap
    strike one's hands together
  17. bleak
    unpleasantly cold and damp
  18. cross
    a marking that consists of lines that intersect each other
  19. fortune
    your overall circumstances or condition in life
  20. nasty
    offensive or even (of persons) malicious
  21. precipitate
    bring about abruptly
  22. shaft
    a long rod or pole, especially the body of a weapon
  23. smother
    deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing
  24. bolt
    a screw that screws into a nut to form a fastener
  25. response
    the speech act of continuing a conversational exchange
Created on Fri Dec 11 10:15:57 EST 2015 (updated Thu Jun 24 14:18:30 EDT 2021)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.