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harsh, jarring, discordant sould; dissonance
The cacophony coming from the construction site next door made it impossible to concentrate on the test. |
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to sponge, beg, or mooch
He was always cadging change from me, which added up to a lot of money over time, so eventally I presented him with a loan statement and started charging interest. |
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to inveigle, coax, wheedle, sweet-talk
Even though I resove not to give in, my dog is always able to cajole an extra dog biscuit out of me just by looking at me with his big brown eyes. |
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to slander, make a false accusation
Tom calumniated his rival by accusing him of having been unfaithful, but it backfired because when the truth came out, Tom ended up looking petty and deceitful. |
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slander, aspersion
Whenever she was afraid someone would discover her own incompetence, she would resort to calumnies and claim everyone ese was doing a bad job. |
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an established set of principles or code of laws, often religious in nature.
She was forever violating the canons of polite conversation by asking questions that were far too personal for the circumstances. |
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| following status of the standard literary classics has been challenged by the emergence of the work of feminist and third-world scholars, among others. |
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inclined to change one's mind impulsively; erratic; unpredictable.
Lee's capricious behavior this weekend shouldn't have come as much of a shock; it's not as if he's usually all that stable and predictable. |
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of basic importance or consequence; primary
His cardinal error was in failing to bribe his sister; otherwise his parents might never have found out about the party and grounded him. |
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an insertion mark (^) used by editors and proofreaders
The manuscript was littered with carets indicating all the missing letters the proofreaders had found. |
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severe criticism or punishment
Harriet's expression as she slunk out of the room indicated that the castigation she had received was even worse than expected, and that we were probably in for a similar tongue-lashing. |
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burning or stinging; causing corrosion.
Even washing her hands repeatedly couldn't stop the stinging of the caustic bleach she had used on her clothes. |
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to criticize severely; to officiallly rebuke
a judgement invoving condemnation; the act of blaming or condemning.
The chairman's misdeeds were only made public and held up to censure once it became certain that the board members could not be implicated. |
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wary; cautious; sparing
Claudette was chary with her praise lest it go to Fredrick's head. |
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to chastise or correct; subdue
The "time out" seems to have become a common parental means of chastening younger children, womewhat similar to being forced to sit in the corner wearing a dunce cap, but without the element of public humiliation. |
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one blindly devoted to a group of which one is a member
She was such a party chauvinist; her blind devotion made her refuse to acknowledge the changes unerway that would lead to the party's downfall.
A male chauvinist believes in the inferiority of women to men. This term is often followed by the word pig. |
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trickery or subterfuge
Berndard's reputation for legal chicanery made judges and prosecutors distrust him, but his clients had a hard time seeing past his successes. |
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boorish, vulgar, loutish; difficult and intractable
Underneath Mr. Oleander's churlish exterior, there's a nice guy hiding somewhere; it's just hard to tell because he is so rude most of the time. |
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to come together; to fuse or unite
It took a major internal crisis for the rival factions to coalesce around a singe goal. |
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concluding sectaion to a a musical or literary piece, something that concludes or completes.
The presentation of the lifetime achievement award was fitting coda both to the evening and to his years of work with thte organization. |
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appealing forcibly to the mind or reason; convincing.
I'll only let you borrow the Ferrari if you can give me a cogent reason for why you need to drive more than one hundred miles per hour. |
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matching, corresponding, or proportionate in degree, size, amount or other property.
Only if the tam won the national championship would the fans feel the team's performance was commensurate with its potential. |
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the willingness to comply with the wishes of others
A "yes man" is characterized by his complaisance. |
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an informed and astute judge in matters of taste; expert
An internationally recognized connoisseur of wines, Natasha was often hired as a consultant for private collectors. |
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| Having or showing shrewdness and discernment, especially with respect to one's own concerns. |
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pompous, self-important
This is one of those words with multiple definitions. The primary definitions are: logically following, importatn, but on the GRE it is more likely to be used as we've defined it here.
Although he thought himself a respected and well-liked man, hes consequential air was intensely annoying to those around him. He seemed to think he was the best thing since sliced bread |
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to scorn or despise
I contemn their attempts to curry favor; nothing is more contemptible than a sycophant |
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argumentative; quarrelsome; causing controversy or disagreement.
Sometimes Lydia's contentious nature really drove me crazy; it seemed as if she argued with everything I said simple out of habit or some sort of strange pleasure. |
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sharing a border; touching; adjacent.
The kitchen and dining roo in our house are contiquous, making it easier to carry food and plates from one to the other. |
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regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness
Wayne was hardly contrite for the practical joke he pulled; even though he said he was sorry, the twinkle in his eye and barely suppressed grin seemed to indicate otherwise. |
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complex or complicated
Cyntia's convoluted response to the question made her listeners think she was concealing something;
it was as if she hoped they would forget the question as they tried to follow her asnwer. |
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capable of being set right, correctable, reparable
Stuttering is often a highly corrigible speech impediment, which can be corrected through speech therapy. |
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to approve of or tolerate.
Her refusal to countenance any of what she called "backtalk" made her an unpopular babysitter, but even the children had to admit that things were less chaotic when she was around. |
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| Countenance can also be a noun, in which case it means |
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to deceive, beguile, hoodwink
The corrupt televangelist cozened millions of dollars out of his viewers by convincing them that he would perform miracles to make them all win the lottery. |
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contemptibly fainthearted, pusillanimous, lacking any courage
Steve lived in craven fear of being found out as a fraud. |
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tending to believe too readily; gullible
Nathan was so credulous that he believed us when we told him that naugahyde comes from horse-like creatures called naugas, who eat plastic. glass. |
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deserving blame.
Pat could hardly be thought culpable for spilling the cranberry juice on the floor, since he wasn't even in the room at the time. |
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an attitude or quality of belief that all people are motiveated by selfishness
Tricia's cynicism was matched only by her own selfishness; she believed no one else was altruistic because she never was herself. |
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