Barron's Gre Vocab 1

Front 1

accretion

Back 1

The growth in size of increase in amount

Sea floor spreading is a process in which the new crust in the ocean is continually generated by igneous processes at the crest of the mid-ocean ridges causing a steady accretion of the crust.

Front 2

aggregate

Back 2

amounting to a whole

The aggregate wealth of a country includes private as well as public resources and possesions.

Front 3

ambrosia

Back 3

something delicious; the food of the gods

The combination of flavors n the moroccan backed eggplant was pure ambrosia

Front 4

anomalous

Back 4

Irregula; diviating fromt the norm

The psychologist discouted the anomalous behavior of the soldier, saying it was merely a short-term effect of the stress of battle.

Front 5

apposite

Back 5

strikingly appropriate or relevant

The writer searched two dictionaries and a thesaurus before finding the perfectly apposite word he was looking for.

Front 6

atavism

Back 6

In biology the reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence

Some morden political theories reject nationalism as a tribal atavism.

Front 7

bacchanalian

Back 7

pertaining to riutous or drunken festivity; pertaining to revelry

for some people New Year's Eve is an occasion for bacchanalian

Front 8

burgeon

Back 8

to flourish

After world war II the increased speed of industrialization and the burgeoning world population resulted in such an increased speed of pollution.

Front 9

cantankerous

Back 9

irritable, ill-humoured

Many of us have in our mind the stereotype of the cantankerous old man who is constantly complaining about something or other.

Front 10

catalyst

Back 10

Something causing change

Among the catalysts of the romantic movement were the libertarian ideals of the French Revolution.

Front 11

chicanery

Back 11

trickery; fraud

The governor ordered an audit to investigate alleged financial chicanery.

Front 12

coda

Back 12

Concluding part of a literary or musical composition; something that summarizes or concludes

The coda of the danish composer Per Norgard's Sixth Symphony seems to return to the serene souds of the opening.

Front 13

compumction

Back 13

uneasiness caused by guilt

They feel no compunction over being violent to women, children, and one another.

Front 14

conscript

Back 14

person complusorily erolled for millitary service

The position of NOW is that having male-only conscripts violates the principle of gender equality.

Front 15

converge

Back 15

To approach; come together; tend to meet

Although the People's Republic of China and India are rivals in many ways, in certain areas their interests converge

Front 16

cozen

Back 16

To mislead by trick or fraud ; deceive

The writer HLM pointed out that a common strategy of politicians is to cozen the people by exaggeration the seriousness of a problem.

Front 17

deference

Back 17

respect; regard for another's wish

There was a movement to condemn slavery among some of the writers of the Declaration of Independence, but despite many misgivings, the proposal was dropped in deference to the objections of a number of people.

Front 18

discretion

Back 18

Quality ofshowing self-restraint in speech or actions; circumspection;freedom to act on one's own

In 19th century Britain gentlemen were expected to behave with discretion.

Front 19

dissolution

Back 19

disintegration; debauchery

some Philosophers maintain that the dissolution of the body does not mean the destruction of the mind.

Front 20

doggerel

Back 20

poor verse

In his book Poetic Meter and Poetic Form, the literary critic paul Fussell quotes this bit of doggerel from a U.S. Army Latrine during World war II.

Front 21

epistemology

Back 21

branch of philosophy that examines the nature of knowledge

A major question in epistemology is whether the mind can ever gain objective knowledge.

Front 22

explicate

Back 22

The explain; intercept; clarify

The literary exam requires students to explicate three poems they studied in class and one they have not studied.

Front 23

factotum

Back 23

a person who does all sort of work; a a handyman

The character M aspires to become more than merely a factotum in the house of Lady Olivia.

Front 24

fetter

Back 24

to bind; confine

The poet William Blake believed that each person creates "Mind-forged manacles," fettering his or her natural instincts and spirit.

Front 25

Flourish

Back 25

an embellishment or ornamentation

The sophists often gave interminable speeches full of rhetorical flourishes.

Front 26

gambol

Back 26

to frolic; leap playfully

The children gamboled on the lawn while their parents ate lunch

Front 27

inconoclastic

Back 27

Attacking cherished traditions

The linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky has been described as gleefully iconoclastic.