Monday, 21 October 2013

Top 20 Most Common GRE Words

Top 20 Most Common GRE Words



Extant (adj.) – in existence.
Few documents antedating the advent of papyrus are extant today.

Ephemeral (adj). – short-lived
YouTube has made fame truly ephemeral. Just ask Rebecca Black.

Capricious (adj.) – unpredictable, whimsical
Because Martha was so capricious her friends felt they could not rely on her.

Corroborate (v.) – to confirm, make stronger
Three witnesses were able to corroborate Lucy’s alibi that she had been at the bowling alley at the time of the murder.

Loquacious (adj.) – talkative
Nancy was so loquacious her friends usually didn't like to watch a movie with her.

Esoteric (adj) – known to a select few
Many jazz artists once deemed esoteric have emerged due to the greater access users have to avant-garde music on-line.

Erudite (adj.) – scholarly
A Rhodes Scholar, Max was a true erudite, and a formidable opponent on Jeopardy.

Pragmatic (adj.) – practical
Edna never cared for abstract thinking and preferred the pragmatic world of business, in which every action, ideally, has an intended consequence.

Ambivalent (adj.) – having contradictory feelings
Erin was ambivalent about her freshman year in college; her classes were fascinating but she missed her high school friends.

Soporific (adj.) – inducing sleep
Professor’s Moore’s lectures were soporific to the point that students, before they nodded off in class, would usually quip, “It’s time for Professor Bore.”

Prolific (adj.) – producing or creating abundantly
Irving Berlin had one of the most prolific careers in song-writing history; dozens of his hundreds of tunes are familiar to us. Anyone dreaming of a “White Christmas?”

Auspicious (adj.) – favorable
The team’s run for the pennant started auspiciously with 24 wins. Two starting pitchers snapped their elbows mid-season, clearly an inauspicious sign.

Sanguine (adj.) – cheerful; optimistic
A Yale graduate with a 4.0, she was sanguine about finding a job right out of college.

Enervate (v.) – to weaken; drain the energy from
Sitting in the windowless room, the tropical humidity soaking through the walls, I was enervated before noon.

Magnanimous (adj.) – big-hearted; generous
Upon receiving his first Wall Street paycheck, Jerry was so magnanimous he not only bought his Mom a car, he bought his Dad one too.

Mercurial(adj.) – 1. Changing one’s personality often and unpredictably. 2. Animated, sprightly
One never knew exactly what the professor’s class would be like; he was so mercurial that many of his students thought of him as two different people.

Belligerent (adj.) – Inclined to fighting
After a few drinks Stevie was convivial; after two six-packs he became belligerent, challenging anyone around him to a head-butting contest.

Fastidious (adj.) – liking few things: hard to please, wanting always to be clean, neat
A fastidious eater, Herman would only eat the center of anything he touched. As a result, his plate was strewn with the remnants of his dinner, an eyesore for the hapless dinner guest.

Reticent (adj.) – tight lipped, not prone to saying much, reluctant
Paul was reticent and preferred observing others mannerisms.

Inculpate (adj.) – to charge with wrong-doing; accuse
To inculpate Eddy with the murder was absurd; he’d been bowling with Lucy.

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