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.
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