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Gmatsaiyan
Posts: 754
Updated on: 23 Nov 2018, 03:30
Originally posted by Gmatsaiyan on 21 Nov 2018, 23:57.
Last edited by Gmatsaiyan on 23 Nov 2018, 03:30, edited 1 time in total.
Last edited by Gmatsaiyan on 23 Nov 2018, 03:30, edited 1 time in total.
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Vocabulary List for the GMAT
The vocab list in this section contains words that have appeared in the Official Guide or other official GMAT materials in the Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning, and Sentence Correction sections, as well as words from other sources at the same reading level.
This list of words is from the Manhattan Guide 5th Edition, Foundation of Gmat verbal
1.Abate - Reduce or diminish.
Her stress over spending so much money on a house abated when the real estate broker told her about the property’s 15-year tax abatement.
2.Aberration, Anomaly - Something that stands out or is abnormal. Outlier is similar.
The election of a liberal candidate in the conservative county was an aberration (or anomaly), made possible only by the sudden death o f the conservative candidate two days before the election.
3.Acclaim - Great praise or approval.
4.Accord, Discord — Accord is agreement, and discord is disagreement.
Our management is in accord with regulatory agencies about tightening standards.
5.Acquisitiveness - Desire to acquire more, especially an excessive desire.
The firm did well in buying up its competitors as a means of growth, but its acquisitiveness ultimately resulted in problems related to growing too quickly.
6.Acreage - Land measured in acres.
Our property is large, but much o f the acreage is swampland not suitable for building.
7.Adhere to and Adherent - To adhere to is to stick to (literally, such as with glue, or metaphorically, such as to a plan or belief). An adherent is a person who sticks to a belief or cause.
The adherents of the plan wont admit that, in the long term, such a policy would bankrupt our state.
Employees who do not adhere to the policy will be subject to disciplinary action.
8.Ad-lib - 1) Make something up on the spot, give an unprepared speech; 2) Freely, as needed, according to desire.
We have ended our policy of rationing office supplies—pens may now be given to employees ad-lib.
9.Adopt - Take and make one’s own; vote to accept. You can adopt a child, of course, or a new policy.
To adopt a plan implies that you didn’t come up with it yourself.
10.Advent - Arrival.
Before the advent of the Internet, people often called reference librarians to look up information for them in the library’s reference section.
11.Adverse - Unfavorable, opposed.
A noisy environment is adverse to studying, and lack of sleep can have further adverse effects.
12.Agency - The ability to use power or influence.
Some global warming deniers acknowledge that the planet is heating up, but argue that human agency does not affect the climate.
13.Aggravate - Make worse.
Allowing your band to practice in our garage has greatly aggravated my headache.
14.Altogether - Completely, overall. Altogether is an adverb, and is one word. It is not the same as all
together, as in Let's sing all together.
It was an altogether stunning new design.
15.Ambivalent - 1) Uncertain, unable to decide; 2) Wanting to do two contradictory things at once.
The health care plan has been met with ambivalence from lawmakers who would like to pass the bill but find supporting it to be politically impossible.
16.Amortize - Gradually pay off a debt, or gradually write off an asset.
A mortgage is a common form of amortized debt—spreading the payments out over as long as 30 years is not uncommon.
17.Analogous - Corresponding in a particular way, making a good analogy.
Our situation is analogous to one in a case study I read in business school. Maybe what worked for that company will work for us.
18.Annex - To add on, or something that has been added on. An annex to a building is a part built later
and added on, or a new building that allows an organization to expand.
19Annihilate - Completely destroy.
20.Annul - Make void or null, cancel, abolish (usually of laws or other established rules). Most people associate this word with marriage—a marriage is annulled when a judge rules that it was invalid in the first place (because of fraud, mental incompetence, etc.), so it is as if it never happened.
Can we appreciate the art of a murderer? For many, the value of these paintings is annulled by the artist s crimes.
21.Anoint - The literal meaning is “rub or sprinkle oil on, especially as part o f a ceremony that makes something sacred.” The word is used metaphorically to refer to power or praise being given to someone who is thought very highly of. For instance:
After Principal Smitters raised test scores over 60% at her school, it was only a matter of time before she was anointed superintendant by a fawning school board.
22.Antithetical to - Totally opposed to; opposite.
The crimes o f our chairman are totally antithetical to what the Society for Ethical Leadership stands for.
23.Application - Act or result o f applying. O f course, you can have an application to business school,
but you can also say The attempted application ofAmerican-style democracy in Iraq may ultimately prove
unsuccessful.
24.Apprentice — A person who works for someone else in order to learn a trade (such as shoemaking, weaving, etc.) from that person. Mostly historical, but still exists in the U.S., in a few industries, such as contracting and electrical wiring.
25.Arbiter - Judge, umpire, person empowered to decide matters at hand. Arbitration is typically a formal process in which a professional arbitrator decides a matter outside of a court o f law.
Professional mediators arbitrate disputes.
The principal said, “As the final arbiter of what is and is not appropriate in the classroom, I demand that you take down that poster of the rapper Ice-T and his scantily clad wife Coco.”
26.Archaic - Characteristic o f an earlier period, ancient, primitive.
The schools archaic computer system predated even floppy disks—it stored records on tape drives!
Sometimes, when you look a word up the dictionary, certain definitions are marked “archaic”— unless you are a Shakespeare scholar, you can safely ignore those archaisms.
27.Aristocracy — A hereditary ruling class, nobility (or a form of government ruled by these people).
28.Artifact - Any object made by humans, especially those from an earlier time, such as those excavated by archaeologists.
The archaeologists dug up countless artifacts, from simple pottery shards and coins to complex written tablets.
The girls room was full of the artifacts of modern teenage life: Justin Bieber posters, Twilight books, and a laptop open to Facebook.
29.Ascribe to/ascription - To ascribe is to give credit; ascription is the noun form.
He ascribed his good grades to diligent studying.
The boys mother was amused by the ascription to his imaginary friend of all the powers he wished he had himself—being able to fly, having dozens of friends, and never having to eat his broccoli.
30.Assert - Affirm, claim, state, or express (that something is true).
31.Assimilation - The process by which a minority group adopts the customs and way o f life of a larger group, or the process by which any new thing being introduced begins to “blend in.” Words like Westernization or Americanization refer to the process of assimilation into Western culture, American culture, etc.
32.Attain - Achieve.
33.Attribute to - Give credit to.
34.Atypical - Not typical.
35.Backfire - To produce an unexpected and unwanted result. The literal meaning refers to an engine, gun, etc., exploding backwards or discharging gases, flame, debris, etc., backwards, thus possibly causing injury.
The company’s new efficiency measures backfired when workers protested and staged a walkout, thus stopping production completely.
36.Balance - The remaining part or leftover amount. This is related to the idea o f a bank balance—a balance is what you have left after deductions.
The publishing division accounted for 25% of the profits, and the film division for the balance.
This means that the film division provided 75% of the profits.
37.Baldly - Plainly, explicitly. (This is the same word as in “losing one’s hair.”) To say something baldly is
to be blunt. People are sometimes shocked or offended when things are said too bluntly or baldly.
An article in Mother Jones explained that Maine is not very diverse: “It is, to put it baldly, one of the whitest states in the union.”
38.Balloon - 1) Swell or puff out; 2) Increase rapidly. Also, in finance, a balloon payment is a single payment at the end o f a loan or mortgage term that is much larger than the other payments.
During the dot-com bubble, the university’s investments ballooned to three times’ their former value.
When he won the award, his chest ballooned with pride.
39.Befall - Happen to (used with something bad). The past tense is befell.
Disaster befell the company once again when the CEO was thrown from a horse.
40.Belie - Contradict or misrepresent.
The actress’s public persona as a perky “girl next door” belied her private penchant for abusing her assistants and demanding that her trailer be filled with ridiculous luxury goods.
The data belie the accepted theory—either we’ve made a mistake, or we have an amazing new discovery on our hands!
41.Benevolent - Expressing goodwill, helping others or charity.
42.Benign - 1) Harmless; 2) Kind or beneficial; 3) Not cancerous.
He was relieved when the biopsy results came back, informing him that the growth was benign.
He’s a benign fellow. I’m sure having him assigned to your team at work will be perfectly pleasant, without changing the way you do things.
43.Blight - Disease that kills plants rapidly, or any cause of decay or destruction (noun); ruin or cause to wither (verb).
Many potato farmers have fallen into poverty as a result o f blight killing their crops.
Gang violence is a blight on our school system, causing innocent students to fear even attending classes. In fact, violence has blighted our town.
44.Blunt - To dull, weaken, or make less effective.
The new therapy has severe side effects, but they can be blunted somewhat with anti-nausea
medication and painkillers.
45.Blur - To make blurry, unclear, indistinct.
In Japan, company titles are taken very seriously and roles are sharply defined, whereas in the U.S.—especially in smaller firms—roles are often blurred as everyone is expected to pitch in on a variety of projects.
46.Bogus - Fake, fraudulent.
The back of this bodybuilding magazine is just full of ads for bogus products—this one promises 22-inch biceps just from wearing magnetic armbands!
47.Bolster - Strengthen or support.
The general requested reinforcements to bolster the defensive line set up at the border.
Many people use alcohol to bolster their confidence before approaching an attractive person in a bar.
48.Broad - Wide, large; in the open (“in broad daylight”); obvious, clear; liberal, tolerant; covering a wide scope o f things. (“Broad” is also a mildly derogatory term for women, in case you’re confused—of course, no one would ever be called a broad on the GMAT.) The panel was given broad discretionary powers. (That pretty much means that the panel can do whatever they want.)
49.Brook - Suffer or tolerate. Often used with the word no. You could say The dictator will not brook dissent, but a more common usage would be The dictator will brook no dissent.
50.Buffer - Something that separates two groups, people, etc., who potentially do not get along. When the U.S. was controlled by England, the state of Georgia was colonized as a buffer between the English colonies and Spanish Florida. A breakwater of rocks would act as a buffer, protecting the beach against crashing waves.
51.Bureaucracy - 1) Government characterized by many bureaus and petty administrators; 2) Excessive, seemingly meaningless requirements.
Some nations have a worse reputation for bureaucracy than others— in order to get a Visa, he had to file papers with four different agencies, wait for hours in three different waiting rooms, and, weeks later, follow up with some petty bureaucrat who complained that the original application should ve been filed in triplicate.
Gmatsaiyan
Posts: 754
23 Nov 2018, 03:27
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Vocabulary List for the GMAT Part 3
Disclosure — Revealing, exposing the truth; something that has been revealed. Full disclosure is an expression meaning telling everything. In journalism, the expression is often used when a writer reveals a personal connection to the story. For instance, a news article might read, “MSNBC may have forced the departure o f popular anchor Keith Olbermann (full disclosure: I was employed as a fact-checker for MSNBC in 2004).”
Discount - Ignore, especially to ignore information because it is considered untrustworthy; to underestimate, minimize, regard with doubt. To discount an idea is to not count it as important.
After staying up all night to finish the presentation, he was understandably unhappy that his boss discounted his contribution, implying that she had done most of the work herself.
Discredit - Injure the reputation of, destroy credibility of or confidence in.
Congresswoman Huffman’s opponent tried to use her friendship with a certain radical extremist to discredit her, even though the Congresswoman hadn’t seen this so-called “extremist” since sixth-grade summer camp.
Discrepancy - Difference or inconsistency.
When there is a discrepancy between a store’s receipts and the amount of money in the register, the cashier’s behavior is generally called into question.
Discrete - Separate, distinct, detached, existing as individual parts. This is NOT the same word as discreet, which means subtle, secretive.
Be sure to use quotation marks and citations as appropriate in your paper in order to keep your ideas discrete from those of the experts you are quoting.
The advertising agency pitched us not on one campaign, but on three discrete ideas.
Discretionary - Subject to someone’s discretion, or judgment (generally good judgment). Discretionary funds can be spent on anything (for instance, a budget might contain a small amount for “extras”).
Begin at your discretion means Begin whenever you think is best.
Discriminating - Judicious, discerning, having good judgment or insight. Many people automatically think o f discriminating as bad, because they are thinking of racial discrimination. However, discriminating is simply telling things apart and can be an important skill— it is important to discriminate legitimate colleges from fraudulent diploma mills, for instance.
He is a man of discriminating tastes—all his suits are handmade in Italy, and I once saw him send back an entree when he complained that black truffle oil had been substituted for white.
The chef was astounded that he could tell.
You can tell a real Prada bag by the discriminating mark on the inside.
Disinterested - Unbiased, impartial; not interested. Don’t confuse with uninterested, which means not interested, bored, apathetic.
Let’s settle this argument once and for all! We’ll get a disinterested observer to judge who can sing the highest note!
Disparate - Distinct, different.
He chose the college for two disparate reasons: the strength of the computer science program, and the excellence o f the hip-hop dance squad.
Dispatch - Speed, promptness (noun); send off or deal with in a speedy way (verb).
So, you want to be a bike messenger? I need messengers who approach every delivery with alacrity, care, and dispatch—if the customers wanted their packages to arrive slowly, they’d use the post office.
Acting with all possible dispatch, emergency services dispatched a rescue squad to the scene.
Disperse - Scatter, spread widely, cause to vanish. Dispersal is the noun form.
Because the demonstrators didn’t have a permit, the police showed up with megaphones, demanding loudly that the crowd disperse. The eventual dispersal o f the crowd resulted in smaller protests at various points throughout the city.
Dismiss - Put aside or reject, especially after only a brief consideration; allow to disperse or leave; fire from a job. To dismiss biases (biases is the plural of bias) in science is to rule out possible prejudices that could have influenced results.
“Before I dismiss class,” said the teacher, “I want to remind you o f the importance of dismissing biases in your research by ruling out or adjusting for factors other than the variable you are testing that may have led to your results.”
Disseminate - Scatter, spread about, broadcast.
In the 1760s, revolutionary ideas were disseminated via pamphlets such as Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense.”
Divest - Deprive or strip of a rank, title, etc., or of clothing or gear; to sell off holdings (opposite of invest).
When she found out that the most profitable stock in her portfolio was that of a company that tested products on animals, she immediately divested by telling her broker to sell the stock.
Once his deception was exposed, he was divested of his position on the Board.
Dovetail - Join or fit together.
When the neuroscientist married an exercise physiologist, neither thought they’d end up working together, but when Dr. Marion Ansel received a grant to study how exercise improves brain function and Dr. Jim Ansel was assigned to her team, the two found that their careers dovetailed nicely.
Dubious — Doubtful, questionable, suspect.
This applicant’s resume is filled with dubious qualifications—this is a marketing position, and this resume is mostly about whitewater rafting.
Echelon - A level, rank, or grade; the people at that level. A stratum is the same idea (strata is the plural, as in rising through the upper strata/echelons of the firm).
Obtaining a job on Wall Street doesn’t guarantee access to the upper echelon o f executives, where multi-million dollar bonuses are the norm.
I’m not sure I’m cut out to analyze poetry; I find it hard to dig beyond the most accessible echelon o f meaning.
Eclectic - Selecting the best of everything or from many diverse sources.
Eclectic taste is helpful in being a DJ—crowds love to hear the latest hip-hop mixed with ‘80s classics and other unexpected genres of music.
Eclipse - 1) One thing covering up another, such as the sun hiding the moon or a person losing attention to a more famous or talented person; 2) To cover up, darken, or make less important.
Billy Ray Cyrus, who had a hit song, “Achy Breaky Heart,” in the ‘90s, has long since found his fame eclipsed by that of his daughter, Miley.
Effectively - O f course, effectively can just mean in a successful manner, as in He did the job effectively.
But it can also mean in effect, but not officially. For instance, when Woodrow Wilson was president of the United States, he was incapacitated by a stroke, and some people believe that Wilson’s wife, Edith, effectively served as president. That doesn’t mean she was any good at it (she wasn’t). Rather, it means that she was doing the job of the president without officially being the president.
He went on a two-week vacation without asking for time off or even telling anyone he was leaving, thus effectively resigning from his position.
Efficacy - The quality o f being able to produce the intended effect. Don’t confuse efficacy with efficiency.
Something efficacious gets the job done; something efficient gets the job done without wasting time or effort. Efficacy is frequently used in reference to medicines.
Extensive trials will be necessary to determine whether the drug’s efficacy outweighs the side
effects.
Egalitarian - Related to belief in the equality of all people.
It is very rare that someone turns down an offer to be knighted by the Queen of England; however, he was egalitarian enough to feel uncomfortable with the entire idea o f titles and royalty.
Egregious - Extraordinarily or conspicuously bad; glaring.
Your conduct is an egregious violation of our Honor Code—not only did you steal your roommate s paper off his computer and turn it in as your own, you also sold his work to a plagiarism website so other cheaters could purchase it!
Emancipate - Free from slavery or oppression. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation legally ended slavery in the U.S. In law, to emancipate a minor is to declare the child (generally a teenager) no longer under the control o f his or her parents.
Eminent - Prominent, distinguished, of high rank.
Emphasize - Give special force or attention to. This word often occurs in GMAT Reading
Comprehension answer choices. Hint: While the purpose of a particular sentence could be to emphasize a point that came before, the main idea o f an entire passage is never just to emphasize something.
Empirical - Coming from, based on, or able to be verified by experience or experimentation; not purely based on theory.
The Ancient Greeks philosophized about the nature of matter (concluding, for instance, that everything was made o f earth, water, air, and fire) without any empirical evidence— that is, the very idea of conducting experiments hadn’t been invented yet.
People always knew empirically that when you drop something, it falls to the ground; the theory of gravity later explained why.
Emulate - Copy in an attempt to equal or be better than.
The ardent Star Trek fan emulated Captain Kirk in every way possible—his brash and confident leadership might have gotten him somewhere, but the women he tried to impress weren’t so impressed.
Enigma — Puzzle, mystery, riddle; mysterious or contradictory person.
The enormous rock sculptures in Stonehenge, Scotland, are truly an enigma—were they created as part of a religious observance, in deference to a great ruler, or for some other reason?
Enjoy - O f course, enjoy means “receive pleasure from,” but it also means “benefit from.” Thus, it is not true that only people and animals can enjoy. For instance:
The college has long enjoyed the support of wealthy alumni.
Ensure vs. Insure - If you buy insurance for something, you have insured it. If you guarantee something, you have ensured it.
If you go past this security checkpoint, I cannot ensure your safety.
Enumerate - Count or list; specify one-by-one.
The Bill of Rights enumerates the basic rights held by every citizen of the United States.
Equitable - Fair, equal, just.
As the university president was a heavily biased towards the sciences, faculty in the liberal arts felt they had to fight to get an equitable share of funding for their departments.
Equivalence - The state of being equal or essentially equal.
Equivocal or Equivocate — Use unclear language to deceive or avoid committing to a position.
Not wanting to lose supporters, the politician equivocated on the issue, tossing out buzzwords related to each side while also claiming more study was needed.
Erratic - Inconsistent, wandering, having no fixed course.
When someone engages in erratic behavior, family members often suspect drugs or mental illness.
However, sometimes the person is just building a top-secret invention in the garage!
Erroneous - Mistaken, in error.
Hilda was completely unable to assemble her new desk chair after the instructions erroneously instructed her to screw the left armrest onto a small lever on the bottom o f the seat.
Erstwhile - Former, previous.
A novelist and erstwhile insurance salesman, he told us his story of the long road to literary success, before he was able to quit his day job.Escape velocity - The minimum velocity that an object must attain in order to completely escape a gravitational field.
Estimable - 1) Worthy o f esteem, admirable; 2) Able to be estimated.
As the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review, Barack Obama presented an estimable resume when he ran for president in 2008.
Riding a roller coaster is safer than driving on the highway, but there is still an estimable risk.
Ethos - The character, personality, or moral values specific to a person, group, time period, etc.
At the prep school, the young man happily settled into an ethos of hard work and rigorous athletic competition.
Exacerbate — Make worse (more violent, severe, etc.), inflame.
Allowing your band to practice in our garage has greatly exacerbated my headache.
Exacting - Very severe in making demands; requiring precise attention.
The boxing coach was exacting, analyzing Joeys footwork down to the millimeter and forcing him to repeat movements hundreds o f times until they were correct.
Execute — Put into effect, do, perform (to execute a process). Execute can also mean enforce, make legal,
carry out the terms of a legal agreement. To execute a will is to sign it in the presence of witnesses. To execute the terms o f a contract is to fulfill an obligation written in the contract.
Exhaustive - Comprehensive, thorough, exhausting a topic or subject, accounting for all possibilities; draining, tending to exhaust.
The consultant s report was an exhaustive treatment of all possible options and their likely consequences. In fact, it was so exhaustive that the manager joked that he would need to hire another consultant to read the first consultant s report.
Exotic - Foreign, intriguingly unusual or strange.
Expansionist - Wanting to expand, such as by conquering other countries.
Expedient - Suitable, proper; effective (sometimes while sacrificing ethics).
“I need this report by 2pm, and I don’t care what you have to do to make that happen,” said the boss. “I expect you to deal with it expediently.”
When invited to a wedding you cannot attend, it is expedient to send a gift
Explicit - Direct, clear, fully revealed. Explicit in the context of movies, music, etc., means depicting or describing sex or nudity, but explicit can be used for anything {explicit instructions is a common phrase).
The antonym of explicit is implicit or tacit, meaning “hinted at, implied.”
The goal of my motivational talk is to make explicit the connection between staying in school and avoiding a life o f crime.
Extraneous - Irrelevant; foreign, coming from without, not belonging.
This essay would be stronger if you removed extraneous information; this paragraph about the authors life doesn’t happen to be relevant to your thesis.
Maize, which originated in the New World, is extraneous to Europe.
Extrapolate - Conjecture about an unknown by projecting information about something known; predict by projecting past experience. In math and science, to extrapolate is to infer values in an unobserved interval from values in an observed interval. For instance, from the points (1,4) and (3, 8), you could extrapolate the point (5, 12), since it would be on the same line.
No, I’ve never been to Bryn Mawr, but I’ve visited several small, private womens colleges in the
Northeast, so I think I can extrapolate.
Facilitate - Make easier, help the progress of.
A good meeting facilitator lets everyone be heard while still keeping the meeting focused.
As a midwife, my goal is simply to facilitate a natural process.
Faction - A group (especially an exclusive group with strong beliefs, self-interest, bias, etc.) within a larger organization. This word is usually meant in a negative way (once people have joined factions, they are no longer willing to hear the issues and debate or compromise).
The opposition movement was once large enough to have a chance at succeeding, but it has since broken into numerous, squabbling factions, each too small to have much impact.
Faculty - An ability, often a mental ability. Most often used in the plural, as in A stroke can often deprive a person of important mental faculties. (Of course, faculty can also mean the teachers or professors o f an institution o f learning.)
Fading - Declining.
In the face o f fading public support for national health care, the Senator withdrew his support for the bill.Fashion - Manner or way.
The watchmaker works in a meticulous fashion, paying incredible attention to detail.
Fathom - Understand deeply.
I cannot even remotely fathom how you interpreted an invitation to sleep on my couch as permission to take my car on a six-hour joyride!
Finding - ' ‘The finding” (or “the findings”) refers to a discovery, report, result of an experiment, etc.
When the attorneys received the results of the DNA report, they were shocked by the finding that John Doe could not have committed the crime.
Fishy — Suspicious, unlikely, questionable, as in a fishy story. This expression probably arose because fish smell very bad when they start to spoil.
Fledgling - New or inexperienced. A fledgling is also a young bird that cannot fly yet.
The Society o f Engineers is available for career day presentations in elementary schools, where we hope to encourage fledgling talents in the applied sciences.
Fleeting - Passing quickly, transitory.
I had assumed our summer romance would be fleeting, so I was very surprised when you proposed marriage!
Foreshadow - Indicate or suggest beforehand.
You didn’t know this was a horror movie? I thought it was pretty clear that the childrens ghost story around the campfire was meant to foreshadow the horrible things that would happen to them years later as teenagers at a motel in the middle of the woods.
Forestall - Delay, hinder, prevent by taking action beforehand.
Our research has been forestalled by a lack of funding; were all just biding our time while we wait for the university to approve our grant proposal.
Glacial - Slow, cold, icy, unsympathetic. Glacial can also just mean “related to glaciers.”
Progress happened, but at a glacial pace everyone found frustrating.
He had wanted to appear on the reality singing competition his whole young life, but he was not encouraged by the judges’ glacial response to his audition.
Grade, Gradation - A gradation is a progression or process taking place gradually, in stages; to grade is to slant (the road grades steeply) or to blend (the dress’s fabric grades from blue to green).
The hills gradation was so gradual that even those on crutches were able to enjoy the nature trail.
The marshland grades into the water so gradually that it is difficult to tell the land from the bay.
Graft - Join together plant parts or skin so that two living things grow together (for instance, a skin graft for a burn victim); or the act of acquiring money or other benefits through illegal means, especially by abusing one’s power.
The part o f the book describing the financial crisis is good, but the “What You Can Do” section seems grafted on, almost as though written by a different author.
It’s not cool for your boss to pressure you into buying Girl Scout cookies from his daughter. If she were selling something larger, we’d call that graft.
Grandstand - Perform showily in an attempt to impress onlookers.
I was really passionate about the candidate when he spoke at our school, but now that I think about it, he was just grandstanding. I mean, who could disagree that young people are the future? And doing a cheer for the environment doesn’t actually signify a commitment to changing any public policies about it.
Guesswork - A set of guesses or estimates; work based on guesses or estimates.
Guile - Clever deceit, cunning, craftiness.
The game o f poker is all about guile, manipulating your own body language and patter to lead other players to erroneous conclusions about the cards you’re holding.
Hallmark - A mark o f indication o f quality, purity, genuineness, etc.; any distinguishing characteristic.
Fast-paced rhymes, an angry tenor, and personal attacks on celebrities are hallmarks of Eminem’s music.
Hallucination - A delusion, a false or mistaken idea; seeing, sensing, or hearing things that aren’t there, such as from a mental disorder.
Handpick — To pick by hand, to personally select.
The retiring CEO handpicked his successor.Hardly — Hardly can mean almost or probably not, or not at all. O f course, I can hardly see you means / can see you only a little bit. But in the following sentence, hardly means not:
The news could hardly have come at a worse time. (The meaning is The news came at the worst possible time.)
Hardy - Bold, brave, capable o f withstanding hardship, fatigue, cold, etc.
While the entire family enjoyed the trip to South America, only the hardier members even attempted to hike to the top o f Ecuador’s tallest volcano.
Hearken or Hark - Listen, pay attention to. The expression hearken back or hark back means to turn back to something earlier or return to a source.
The simple lifestyle and anachronistic dress of the Amish hearken back to an earlier era.
The nation’s first change o f leadership in decades is causing the people to hearken closely to what is happening in government.
Hedge - Avoid commitment by leaving provisions for withdrawal or changing one’s mind; protect a bet by also betting on the other side.
When the professor called on him to take a stand on the issue, he hedged for fear of offending her: “Well, there are valid points on both sides,” he said.
Hegemony -Domination, authority; influence by a one country over others socially, culturally, economically, etc.
The discovery o f oil by a previously poor nation disrupted the larger, richer nation’s hegemony in the region—suddenly, the hegemon had a competitor.
Heterogeneous - Different in type, incongruous; composed of different types of elements.
Homogeneous (of the same kind) is the opposite o f heterogeneous.
Rather than build the wall with plain brick, we used a heterogeneous mixture of stones—they are not only different colors, but a variety of sizes as well.
Hierarchy - A ranked series; a classification of people according to rank, ability, etc.; a ruling body.
The Eco-Action Coalition was led by a strict hierarchy — members followed orders from district leaders, district leaders from regional leaders, and regional leaders from the national head.
Holdings - Property, such as land, capital, and stock. The company liquidated its holdings means that the company sold off everything. O f course, the word hold has many meanings. In a holding pattern is an expression that means staying still, not changing.
Gmatsaiyan
Posts: 754
30 Nov 2018, 01:14
Kudos
Bookmarks
Host - A large amount. A host of problems means a lot of problems.
Hyperbole - Deliberate exaggeration for effect. Oh, come on. Saying “That movie was so bad it made me puke” was surely hyperbole. I strongly doubt that you actually vomited during or following The Back-up Plan.
Iconoclast — Attacker o f cherished beliefs or institutions. A lifelong iconoclast, Ayn Rand wrote a controversial book entitled The Virtue of Selfishness.
Imminent - Ready to occur, impending. In the face o f imminent war, the nation looked to Franklin D. Roosevelt for reassurance.
Immunity - The state o f not being susceptible to disease; exemption from a duty or liability; exemption from legal punishment. Diplomatic immunity is an example of immunity meaning exemption from legal punishment. For instance, every year, New York City loses millions of dollars from United Nations diplomats parking illegally and then not paying their parking tickets, since the diplomats are not subject to U.S. laws.
Impair - Make worse, weaken. Playing in a rock band without earplugs will almost certainly impair your hearing over time.
Impartial - Unbiased, fair. Disinterested\ dispassionate, and nonpartisan are all related to being fair and not having a bias or personal stake.
Judge Gonzales removed himself from the case because, having a personal connection to the school where the shooting took place, he did not think he could be appropriately impartial.
Impasse - Position or road from which there is no escape; deadlock, gridlock.
If the union wont budge on its demands and the transit authority wont raise salaries, then we are at an impasse.
Impede - Hold back, obstruct the progress of.
I didn’t realize business school would be entirely group work—sadly, there’s always at least one person in every group who impedes the group’s progress more than helps it.
Impinge on - Trespass on, violate.
Civil liberties experts argued that a school systems regulating what its students do on Facebook outside o f school is an impingement of their right to free speech.
Implode - Burst inward. Metaphorically, to collapse or break down.
The startup struggled for years before it simply imploded—the management team broke into factions, all the clients were scared off, and employees who hadn’t been paid in weeks began taking the office computers home with them in retribution.
Imply — Hint at, suggest, “say without saying.”
Impute - Credit, attribute; lay blame or responsibility for.
The ineffectual CEO was nevertheless a master of public relations—he made sure that all successes were imputed to him, and all o f the failures were imputed to others.
Inadvertently - Accidentally, carelessly, as a side effect.
In attempting to perfect his science project, he inadvertently blew a fuse and plunged his family’s home into darkness.
Inasmuch - Since, because. Usually inasmuch as.
Inasmuch as a whale is not a fish, it will not be covered in this biology course specifically about fish.
Incentive - Something that encourages greater action or effort, such as a reward.
A controversial program in a failing school system uses cash payments as an incentive for students to stay in school.
Incidentally - Not intentionally, accidentally. Incidentally can also mean by the way and is used to introduce information that is only slightly related. Incidentals can refer to expenses that are “on the side” (The company gives us $100 a day for meals and incidentals).
The environmental protection law was incidentally injurious to the rubber industry. I think we should move forward with the new office. Incidentally, there’s a great Mexican restaurant opening up right across the street from it!
Incinerate - Burn, reduce to ashes, cremate.
Inconsequential - Insignificant, unimportant. The sense here is that the thing is so small that it doesn’t even have consequences.
You wrote a bestselling book and got a stellar review in the New York Times—whatever your cousin has to say about it is simply inconsequential.
Incorporate - Combine, unite; form a legal corporation; embody, give physical form to.
When a business incorporates, it becomes a separate legal entity—for instance, the business can declare bankruptcy without the owners doing so.
Local legend has it that ghosts can incorporate on one night of the year and walk among the living.
Indeterminate - Not fixed or determined, indefinite; vague.
The results of the drug trial were indeterminate; further trials will be needed to ascertain whether the drug can be released.
The lottery can have an indeterminate number of winners— the prize is simply divided among them.
Indicative - Indicating, suggestive of. Usually used as indicative of
Your symptoms are indicative of the common cold.
Induce - Persuade or influence (a person to do something); bring about, cause to happen (to induce labor when a birth is not proceeding quickly enough).
Inert - Inactive; having little or no power to move.
All o f the missiles at the military museum are inert—they’re not going blow up.
When she saw her fathers inert body on the floor, she thought the worst, but fortunately, he was just practicing very slow yoga.
Inevitable - Not able to be avoided or escaped; certain.
Benjamin Franklin famously said that only two things in life are inevitable: “death and taxes.”
Inexplicable - Not able to be explained.
Inextricably - In a way such that one cannot untangle or escape something. If you are inextricably tied to something (such as your family), then you have so many different obligations and deep relationships that you could never leave, disobey, etc.
Infer - Conclude from evidence or premises. Remember, on the GMAT, infer means draw a DEFINITELY TRUE conclusion. It does NOT mean “assume”!Inform - Inspire, animate; give substance, essence, or context to; be the characteristic quality of. O f course, inform most commonly means “impart knowledge to”; thus, many students are confused when they see the word used in other ways on the GMAT.
Her work as an art historian is informed by a background in drama; where others see a static tableau, she sees a protagonist, a conflict, a denouement.
Ingenuity - Inventive skill, imagination, cleverness, especially in design.
Ingrained - Deep-rooted, forming part o f the very essence; worked into the fiber.
Religious observance had been ingrained in him since birth; he could not remember a time when he didn’t pray five times a day.
Inherent - Existing as a permanent, essential quality; intrinsic. (See the similar intrinsic in this list.)
New research seems to support the idea that humans have an inherent sense o f justice—even babies become upset at puppet shows depicting unfairness.
Initial - First, at the beginning. An initial deposit might be the money you put down to open a new bank account.
Inordinate - Excessive, not within proper limits, unrestrained.
Students taking practice computer-adaptive tests at home often take an inordinate number of breaks— remember, on the real thing, you cant stop just because you’re tired or hungry.
Instrumental — Serving as a means of doing something. Just as you might call a weapon an instrument of war, saying He was instrumental in the restructuring has the sense that the person was used as an instrument o f getting something done.
Insular - Pertaining to an island; detached, standing alone; narrow-minded (like the stereotype of people from small towns or places).
The young actress couldn’t wait to escape the insularity of her small town, where life revolved around high school football and Taco Bell was considered exotic international cuisine.
Interplay - Interaction, reciprocal relationship or influence.
Bilingual readers will enjoy the interplay of English and Spanish in many of the poems in this anthology of the work o f Mexican-American poets.
Intractable - Difficult to control, manage, or manipulate; hard to cure; stubborn.
That student is positively intractable! Last week, we talked about the importance of staying in your seat during the lesson—this week, she not only got up mid-class, but she actually scrambled on top of a bookcase and refused to come down!
Back injuries often result in intractable pain; despite treatment, patients never feel fully cured.
Intrepid - Fearless, brave, enduring in the face of adversity.
Intrepid explorers Lewis and Clark led the first U.S. expedition to the West Coast, facing bitter winters and rough terrain.
Intrinsic - Belonging to the essential nature of a thing. (See the similar inherent in this list.)
Despite all this high-tech safety equipment, skydiving is an intrinsically dangerous proposition.
Communication is intrinsic to a healthy relationship.
Inundate - Flood, cover with water, overwhelm.
As the city was inundated with water, the mayor feared that many evacuees would have nowhere to go.
I can t go out—I am inundated with homework!
Invaluable - Priceless; so valuable that the value cannot be measured.
Investiture - Investing; formally giving someone a right or title.
The former dean had her academic robes dry cleaned in preparation for her investiture as university president.
Involved - Complicated, intricate; confused or tangled.
The story is quite involved—are you sure you have time for it?
Invulnerable — Immune to attack; not vulnerable; impossible to damage, injure, etc.
Isotope - Forms o f the same chemical element, but with different numbers o f neutrons in the nucleus or different atomic weights. There are 275 isotopes of the 81 stable elements, plus 800 radioactive isotopes. Different isotopes of the same element have almost identical properties.
Jettison - Discard, cast off; throw items overboard in order to lighten a ship in an emergency.
We got so tired while hiking the Appalachian Trail that we jettisoned some o f our fancy camping supplies just so we could keep going.
Sadly, when school budgets are slashed, the first thing jettisoned is usually an art or music program.
Jumbo - Unusually large, supersized.
Juncture - Critical point in time, such as a crisis or a time when a decision is necessary; a place where two things are joined together.
We are at a critical juncture in the history of this organization: either we can remain a nonprofit, or we can register as a political action committee and try to expand our influence.
The little canoe started to sink when it split at the juncture between the old wood and the new material used to repair it.
Juxtapose - Place side-by-side (either physically or in a metaphorical way, such as to make a comparison).
If a Reading Comprehension answer choice says something like, “Juxtapose two theories,” ask yourself if the main purpose o f the entire passage was to compare two theories. (Hint: Probably not. Usually if an author introduces two competing ideas, only one of them turns out to be the main point of the passage.)
Making a decision between two engagement rings from two different stores was difficult, he noted—it would be much easier if he could juxtapose them and compare them directly.
Kinetic - Pertaining to motion.
Marisa told her mother what she had learned in science class: a ball sitting on a table has potential energy, but a ball falling towards the ground has kinetic energy.
Lackluster - Not shiny; dull, mediocre; lacking brilliance or vitality.
Many young people today are so accustomed to being praised by parents and adults that they are shocked when a lackluster effort in the workplace receives the indifference or mild disapproval it deserves.
Landmark - Object (such as a building) that stands out and can be used to navigate by; a very important place, event, etc.
The Civil Rights Act o f 1964 was a landmark in the battle for equality.
In Lebanon, many roads are unmarked, and people navigate by landmarks—for instance, “third house down from the water tower.”
Hyperbole - Deliberate exaggeration for effect. Oh, come on. Saying “That movie was so bad it made me puke” was surely hyperbole. I strongly doubt that you actually vomited during or following The Back-up Plan.
Iconoclast — Attacker o f cherished beliefs or institutions. A lifelong iconoclast, Ayn Rand wrote a controversial book entitled The Virtue of Selfishness.
Imminent - Ready to occur, impending. In the face o f imminent war, the nation looked to Franklin D. Roosevelt for reassurance.
Immunity - The state o f not being susceptible to disease; exemption from a duty or liability; exemption from legal punishment. Diplomatic immunity is an example of immunity meaning exemption from legal punishment. For instance, every year, New York City loses millions of dollars from United Nations diplomats parking illegally and then not paying their parking tickets, since the diplomats are not subject to U.S. laws.
Impair - Make worse, weaken. Playing in a rock band without earplugs will almost certainly impair your hearing over time.
Impartial - Unbiased, fair. Disinterested\ dispassionate, and nonpartisan are all related to being fair and not having a bias or personal stake.
Judge Gonzales removed himself from the case because, having a personal connection to the school where the shooting took place, he did not think he could be appropriately impartial.
Impasse - Position or road from which there is no escape; deadlock, gridlock.
If the union wont budge on its demands and the transit authority wont raise salaries, then we are at an impasse.
Impede - Hold back, obstruct the progress of.
I didn’t realize business school would be entirely group work—sadly, there’s always at least one person in every group who impedes the group’s progress more than helps it.
Impinge on - Trespass on, violate.
Civil liberties experts argued that a school systems regulating what its students do on Facebook outside o f school is an impingement of their right to free speech.
Implode - Burst inward. Metaphorically, to collapse or break down.
The startup struggled for years before it simply imploded—the management team broke into factions, all the clients were scared off, and employees who hadn’t been paid in weeks began taking the office computers home with them in retribution.
Imply — Hint at, suggest, “say without saying.”
Impute - Credit, attribute; lay blame or responsibility for.
The ineffectual CEO was nevertheless a master of public relations—he made sure that all successes were imputed to him, and all o f the failures were imputed to others.
Inadvertently - Accidentally, carelessly, as a side effect.
In attempting to perfect his science project, he inadvertently blew a fuse and plunged his family’s home into darkness.
Inasmuch - Since, because. Usually inasmuch as.
Inasmuch as a whale is not a fish, it will not be covered in this biology course specifically about fish.
Incentive - Something that encourages greater action or effort, such as a reward.
A controversial program in a failing school system uses cash payments as an incentive for students to stay in school.
Incidentally - Not intentionally, accidentally. Incidentally can also mean by the way and is used to introduce information that is only slightly related. Incidentals can refer to expenses that are “on the side” (The company gives us $100 a day for meals and incidentals).
The environmental protection law was incidentally injurious to the rubber industry. I think we should move forward with the new office. Incidentally, there’s a great Mexican restaurant opening up right across the street from it!
Incinerate - Burn, reduce to ashes, cremate.
Inconsequential - Insignificant, unimportant. The sense here is that the thing is so small that it doesn’t even have consequences.
You wrote a bestselling book and got a stellar review in the New York Times—whatever your cousin has to say about it is simply inconsequential.
Incorporate - Combine, unite; form a legal corporation; embody, give physical form to.
When a business incorporates, it becomes a separate legal entity—for instance, the business can declare bankruptcy without the owners doing so.
Local legend has it that ghosts can incorporate on one night of the year and walk among the living.
Indeterminate - Not fixed or determined, indefinite; vague.
The results of the drug trial were indeterminate; further trials will be needed to ascertain whether the drug can be released.
The lottery can have an indeterminate number of winners— the prize is simply divided among them.
Indicative - Indicating, suggestive of. Usually used as indicative of
Your symptoms are indicative of the common cold.
Induce - Persuade or influence (a person to do something); bring about, cause to happen (to induce labor when a birth is not proceeding quickly enough).
Inert - Inactive; having little or no power to move.
All o f the missiles at the military museum are inert—they’re not going blow up.
When she saw her fathers inert body on the floor, she thought the worst, but fortunately, he was just practicing very slow yoga.
Inevitable - Not able to be avoided or escaped; certain.
Benjamin Franklin famously said that only two things in life are inevitable: “death and taxes.”
Inexplicable - Not able to be explained.
Inextricably - In a way such that one cannot untangle or escape something. If you are inextricably tied to something (such as your family), then you have so many different obligations and deep relationships that you could never leave, disobey, etc.
Infer - Conclude from evidence or premises. Remember, on the GMAT, infer means draw a DEFINITELY TRUE conclusion. It does NOT mean “assume”!Inform - Inspire, animate; give substance, essence, or context to; be the characteristic quality of. O f course, inform most commonly means “impart knowledge to”; thus, many students are confused when they see the word used in other ways on the GMAT.
Her work as an art historian is informed by a background in drama; where others see a static tableau, she sees a protagonist, a conflict, a denouement.
Ingenuity - Inventive skill, imagination, cleverness, especially in design.
Ingrained - Deep-rooted, forming part o f the very essence; worked into the fiber.
Religious observance had been ingrained in him since birth; he could not remember a time when he didn’t pray five times a day.
Inherent - Existing as a permanent, essential quality; intrinsic. (See the similar intrinsic in this list.)
New research seems to support the idea that humans have an inherent sense o f justice—even babies become upset at puppet shows depicting unfairness.
Initial - First, at the beginning. An initial deposit might be the money you put down to open a new bank account.
Inordinate - Excessive, not within proper limits, unrestrained.
Students taking practice computer-adaptive tests at home often take an inordinate number of breaks— remember, on the real thing, you cant stop just because you’re tired or hungry.
Instrumental — Serving as a means of doing something. Just as you might call a weapon an instrument of war, saying He was instrumental in the restructuring has the sense that the person was used as an instrument o f getting something done.
Insular - Pertaining to an island; detached, standing alone; narrow-minded (like the stereotype of people from small towns or places).
The young actress couldn’t wait to escape the insularity of her small town, where life revolved around high school football and Taco Bell was considered exotic international cuisine.
Interplay - Interaction, reciprocal relationship or influence.
Bilingual readers will enjoy the interplay of English and Spanish in many of the poems in this anthology of the work o f Mexican-American poets.
Intractable - Difficult to control, manage, or manipulate; hard to cure; stubborn.
That student is positively intractable! Last week, we talked about the importance of staying in your seat during the lesson—this week, she not only got up mid-class, but she actually scrambled on top of a bookcase and refused to come down!
Back injuries often result in intractable pain; despite treatment, patients never feel fully cured.
Intrepid - Fearless, brave, enduring in the face of adversity.
Intrepid explorers Lewis and Clark led the first U.S. expedition to the West Coast, facing bitter winters and rough terrain.
Intrinsic - Belonging to the essential nature of a thing. (See the similar inherent in this list.)
Despite all this high-tech safety equipment, skydiving is an intrinsically dangerous proposition.
Communication is intrinsic to a healthy relationship.
Inundate - Flood, cover with water, overwhelm.
As the city was inundated with water, the mayor feared that many evacuees would have nowhere to go.
I can t go out—I am inundated with homework!
Invaluable - Priceless; so valuable that the value cannot be measured.
Investiture - Investing; formally giving someone a right or title.
The former dean had her academic robes dry cleaned in preparation for her investiture as university president.
Involved - Complicated, intricate; confused or tangled.
The story is quite involved—are you sure you have time for it?
Invulnerable — Immune to attack; not vulnerable; impossible to damage, injure, etc.
Isotope - Forms o f the same chemical element, but with different numbers o f neutrons in the nucleus or different atomic weights. There are 275 isotopes of the 81 stable elements, plus 800 radioactive isotopes. Different isotopes of the same element have almost identical properties.
Jettison - Discard, cast off; throw items overboard in order to lighten a ship in an emergency.
We got so tired while hiking the Appalachian Trail that we jettisoned some o f our fancy camping supplies just so we could keep going.
Sadly, when school budgets are slashed, the first thing jettisoned is usually an art or music program.
Jumbo - Unusually large, supersized.
Juncture - Critical point in time, such as a crisis or a time when a decision is necessary; a place where two things are joined together.
We are at a critical juncture in the history of this organization: either we can remain a nonprofit, or we can register as a political action committee and try to expand our influence.
The little canoe started to sink when it split at the juncture between the old wood and the new material used to repair it.
Juxtapose - Place side-by-side (either physically or in a metaphorical way, such as to make a comparison).
If a Reading Comprehension answer choice says something like, “Juxtapose two theories,” ask yourself if the main purpose o f the entire passage was to compare two theories. (Hint: Probably not. Usually if an author introduces two competing ideas, only one of them turns out to be the main point of the passage.)
Making a decision between two engagement rings from two different stores was difficult, he noted—it would be much easier if he could juxtapose them and compare them directly.
Kinetic - Pertaining to motion.
Marisa told her mother what she had learned in science class: a ball sitting on a table has potential energy, but a ball falling towards the ground has kinetic energy.
Lackluster - Not shiny; dull, mediocre; lacking brilliance or vitality.
Many young people today are so accustomed to being praised by parents and adults that they are shocked when a lackluster effort in the workplace receives the indifference or mild disapproval it deserves.
Landmark - Object (such as a building) that stands out and can be used to navigate by; a very important place, event, etc.
The Civil Rights Act o f 1964 was a landmark in the battle for equality.
In Lebanon, many roads are unmarked, and people navigate by landmarks—for instance, “third house down from the water tower.”
