GRE vocabulary list 03: 44 high-frequency words

Stems that signal a swelled head draw from the first half of this cluster; stems that signal respect or yielding draw from the back. The polarity is the whole trick.

Hubrisnoun

Excessive pride or self-confidence that leads to a fall.

Example: “The CEO’s hubris convinced him the market could never turn against the company.”

Synonyms: arrogance, pride, overconfidence, presumption

Haughtyadjective

Arrogantly superior and disdainful.

Example: “The haughty maître d’ looked through anyone not wearing a tailored jacket.”

Synonyms: arrogant, aloof, disdainful, supercilious

Pompousadjective

Affectedly grand, solemn, or self-important.

Example: “The pompous official delivered a ten-minute introduction for a two-minute speech.”

Synonyms: self-important, grandiose, bombastic, pretentious

Superciliousadjective

Behaving as though one considers oneself superior to others.

Example: “Her supercilious glance suggested the question was beneath her.”

Synonyms: haughty, disdainful, arrogant, patronizing

Obsequiousadjective

Obedient or attentive to an excessive, servile degree.

Example: “The obsequious assistant laughed a beat too long at every one of the boss’s jokes.”

Synonyms: sycophantic, servile, fawning, groveling

Deferencenoun

Respectful submission to the judgment or wishes of another.

Example: “Out of deference to the senior researcher, the team held its questions until the end.”

Synonyms: respect, regard, compliance, yielding

A cluster that earns its keep on reading-comprehension passages about deception, spin, and honest testimony. Several are verbs that describe how someone avoids a straight answer.

Candidadjective

Truthful and straightforward; frank.

Example: “Her candid appraisal of the manuscript helped the author more than any praise had.”

Synonyms: frank, forthright, open, honest

Dissembleverb

To conceal one’s true motives, feelings, or beliefs.

Example: “He could dissemble so smoothly that no one guessed he planned to resign.”

Synonyms: dissimulate, feign, pretend, mask

Prevaricateverb

To speak or act in an evasive, noncommittal way.

Example: “Asked for a firm date, the contractor prevaricated until the client lost patience.”

Synonyms: equivocate, evade, hedge, shilly-shally

Equivocateverb

To use ambiguous language to conceal the truth or avoid commitment.

Example: “The politician equivocated until the interview simply ran out of time.”

Synonyms: prevaricate, hedge, evade, waffle

Mendaciousadjective

Not telling the truth; lying.

Example: “The mendacious witness contradicted three of his own earlier statements.”

Synonyms: dishonest, deceitful, lying, untruthful

Apocryphaladjective

Of doubtful authenticity, though widely circulated as true.

Example: “The apocryphal tale of the founder’s overnight success grew taller each year.”

Synonyms: dubious, fictitious, spurious, unsubstantiated

Another polarity pair. Passages about decay, obsolescence, or revival reach for the first half; passages about invention and freshness reach for the second.

Archaicadjective

Very old or old-fashioned.

Example: “The software still relied on archaic punch-card logic inherited from the seventies.”

Synonyms: antiquated, obsolete, dated, old

Antiquatedadjective

Old-fashioned or outdated.

Example: “The antiquated payroll system crashed whenever more than ten people clocked in.”

Synonyms: outdated, obsolete, archaic, old-fashioned

Obsoleteadjective

No longer produced or used; out of date.

Example: “The replacement parts were obsolete, so the team rebuilt the unit from scratch.”

Synonyms: outdated, superseded, disused, archaic

Anachronismnoun

A thing belonging to a period other than the one in which it exists.

Example: “The rotary phone in the hallway was a charming anachronism.”

Synonyms: misplacement, misdating, relic, fossil

Noveladjective

New and not resembling something formerly known.

Example: “The novel approach cut production costs without sacrificing quality.”

Synonyms: new, original, innovative, fresh

Innovativeadjective

Featuring new methods or ideas.

Example: “The firm built its reputation on innovative packaging that halved shipping weight.”

Synonyms: groundbreaking, pioneering, inventive, original

Overlaps lightly with the praise cluster in list 02, but these words describe the act of giving itself rather than the worthiness of the recipient. Useful for passages about charity, patronage, and philanthropy.

Altruisticadjective

Showing selfless concern for the well-being of others.

Example: “Her altruistic motives became clear once people learned she had funded the shelter anonymously.”

Synonyms: selfless, benevolent, generous, charitable

Benevolentadjective

Well meaning and kindly.

Example: “The benevolent neighbor shoveled every driveway on the block before sunrise.”

Synonyms: kindly, charitable, generous, benign

Benefactornoun

A person who gives money or other help to a person or cause.

Example: “The library’s anonymous benefactor had quietly funded its entire children’s wing.”

Synonyms: patron, sponsor, donor, contributor

Patronagenoun

Support given by a patron; financial or other backing.

Example: “Under the duke’s patronage, the young composer staged three operas in a single year.”

Synonyms: sponsorship, backing, support, funding

Largessenoun

Generosity in bestowing money or gifts.

Example: “The mogul’s largesse transformed the struggling conservatory almost overnight.”

Synonyms: bounty, generosity, liberality, munificence

A tight near-synonym cluster for passages about standards, editing, science, or craft. The differences are small but real, mostly a matter of whether the word emphasizes rules, effort, or attention to detail.

Stringentadjective

Demanding strict attention to rules or standards.

Example: “The lab follows stringent safety protocols before any sample leaves the building.”

Synonyms: strict, rigorous, exacting, tight

Exactingadjective

Making great demands on skill, attention, or resources.

Example: “Restoring the fresco was exacting work that allowed no second tries.”

Synonyms: demanding, rigorous, meticulous, painstaking

Fastidiousadjective

Very attentive to accuracy and detail.

Example: “The fastidious editor caught a stray comma on page three hundred.”

Synonyms: meticulous, exacting, particular, scrupulous

Meticulousadjective

Showing great attention to detail; careful and precise.

Example: “Her meticulous notes let the team reconstruct the experiment months later.”

Synonyms: painstaking, careful, fastidious, thorough

Rigorousadjective

Extremely thorough and careful; strictly applied.

Example: “The new model survived a rigorous peer review before publication.”

Synonyms: stringent, exacting, thorough, scrupulous

All six mean to make a bad thing less bad. The trap is that some fix the cause and some only soothe the symptom, a distinction the GRE enjoys testing.

Mitigateverb

To make less severe or serious.

Example: “Better drainage helped mitigate the flood damage in the low-lying streets.”

Synonyms: alleviate, reduce, lessen, ease

Ameliorateverb

To make something bad better or more tolerable.

Example: “A new tutoring program helped ameliorate the school’s failing pass rates.”

Synonyms: improve, mitigate, better, relieve

Alleviateverb

To make suffering or a problem less severe.

Example: “A warm compress can alleviate the worst of a tension headache.”

Synonyms: ease, relieve, mitigate, soothe

Assuageverb

To make an unpleasant feeling less intense.

Example: “A sincere apology did little to assuage her sense of betrayal.”

Synonyms: soothe, appease, mollify, relieve

Mollifyverb

To appease the anger or anxiety of someone.

Example: “The manager offered a full refund to mollify the furious customer.”

Synonyms: pacify, appease, placate, soothe

Palliateverb

To allay the severity of without removing the cause.

Example: “The ointment palliates the rash but does not cure the allergy behind it.”

Synonyms: alleviate, mitigate, soothe, ease

For passages about spectacle, vanity, and style. The first three carry a note of disapproval; the last two are compliments about flair.

Ostentatiousadjective

Characterized by vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress.

Example: “The ostentatious gold trim on the car drew stares at every stoplight.”

Synonyms: showy, pretentious, flamboyant, flashy

Flauntverb

To display something ostentatiously, often to provoke envy.

Example: “He flaunted his promotion at every reunion for the next decade.”

Synonyms: show off, display, exhibit, parade

Grandstandverb

To behave in a showy, ostentatious way to impress an audience.

Example: “The senator grandstanded for the cameras instead of answering the question.”

Synonyms: showboat, posture, show off, bluster

Panachenoun

Flamboyant confidence of style or manner.

Example: “She resigned with panache, leaving a single handwritten note and a bowl of mints.”

Synonyms: flair, style, dash, elan

Flairnoun

A natural aptitude or stylish originality.

Example: “The decorator had a flair for making small rooms feel expansive.”

Synonyms: panache, style, aptitude, talent

A compact cluster for anything the author calls hard to grasp. These cluster tightly; the distinguishing signal is usually whether the obscurity is deliberate (cryptic, enigmatic) or merely specialized (esoteric, recondite).

Abstruseadjective

Difficult to understand; obscure.

Example: “The abstruse footnote sent most readers to a dictionary before the second paragraph.”

Synonyms: obscure, recondite, esoteric, arcane

Esotericadjective

Intended for or understood by only a small number of specialists.

Example: “The debate soon drifted into esoteric points only the two professors could follow.”

Synonyms: obscure, arcane, abstruse, rarefied

Crypticadjective

Having a meaning that is mysterious or obscure.

Example: “Her cryptic reply, “Soon enough,” left the whole table guessing.”

Synonyms: enigmatic, mysterious, obscure, puzzling

Enigmaticadjective

Difficult to interpret or understand; mysterious.

Example: “The painting’s enigmatic smile has occupied critics for centuries.”

Synonyms: cryptic, mysterious, inscrutable, obscure

Reconditeadjective

Little known; obscure.

Example: “His lectures wandered into recondite corners of medieval tax law that fascinated no one but him.”

Synonyms: obscure, abstruse, esoteric, arcane