A good vocabulary is crucial to acing Verbal section in GRE, CAT, SAT and other such exams. In this series of articles, we have compiled 1000 words that frequently feature in competitive exams.Spread over 25 lists of 40 words, these lists offer you a chance to learn the most essential English words.
Each word in the list is accompanied with its meaning and followed by a usage example. The words are categorized on three levels: 1, 2 and 3, according to the degree of difficulty. Go through the word lists and strengthen your vocabulary database.
Level 1: Let’s get warmed up
| Ascertain: Be careful or certain to do something; make certain of something |
| Try to ascertain what services the bank is offering before opening an account. |
| Charisma: A personal attractiveness or interestingness that enables you to influence others |
| He does not have the charisma to inspire people. |
| Decapitate: Cut the head of |
| The colonel ordered his men to decapitate the prisoners. |
| Derived: Obtain |
| He derives a lot of pleasure from gardening. |
| Emissary: Someone sent on a mission to represent the interests of someone else |
| The President sent a special emissary for the riot victims. |
| Rift: A gap between cloud masses |
| The sun shone through a rift in the clouds. |
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Level 2: Let’s take it up a notch
| Appalled: Struck with fear, dread, or consternation |
| We are all appalled that these stale items are still on sale. |
| Burgeoned: Grow and flourish |
| Online business is burgeoning these days. |
| Dearth: An acute insufficiency |
| They suffer from a dearth of resources and experienced men. |
| Disseminate: Cause to become widely known |
| It took years to disseminate information about Aids. |
| Dormant: Inactive but capable of becoming active |
| The hamster lapses into a dormant state in cold weather. |
| Factitious: Not produced by natural forces |
| Brokers created a fictitious demand for stocks. |
| Genocide: Systematic killing of a racial or cultural group |
| They have alleged that acts of genocide and torture have been carried out in their city. |
| Inquisitive: Inquiring or appearing to inquire |
| The police are proverbially inquisitive. |
| Kingpin: The most important person in a group or undertaking |
| The pious old man was the kingpin behind the robberies. |
| Pillory: Expose to ridicule or public scorn |
| He resigned after being pilloried by the press. |
| Taut: Pulled or drawn tight |
| The clothes line is pulled taut and secured. |
| Yen: A yearning for something or to do something |
| The small child had a yen to learn cycling. |
Level 3: Time to be a master
| Bagatelle: A light piece of music for piano |
| That bagatelle is a delight to hear. |
| Callow: Young and inexperienced |
| Although he is 25, he still behaves like a callow youth in some ways. |
| Dolorous: Showing sorrow |
| The dolorous mourners followed the procession. |
| Encomium: A formal expression of praise |
| The piece is an encomium to God and his creation. |
| Hyperbole: Extravagant exaggeration |
| The debate was carried on with increasing rhetorical hyperbole. |
| Impudent: Marked by casual disrespect |
| The student was not allowed in the class for his impudent behaviour. |
| Internecine: within a group or organization |
| The fight amongst the staff has turned attention to the internecine strife here. |
| Livid: Anaemic looking from illness or emotion |
| His face was livid with shock on learning of the loss of her savings. |
| Martinet: Someone who demands exact conformity to rules and forms |
| He is a retired lieutenant and a bit of a martinet. |
| Munificent: Very generous |
| He gave a munificent donation to the old age home. |
| Nepotism: Favouritism shown to relatives or close friends by those in power |
| They protested at what they described as nepotism and corruption in the government. |
| Obloquy: State of disgrace resulting from public abuse |
| His political opinions have attracted obloquy. |
| Penchant: A strong liking |
| He had a penchant for playing jokes on people. |
| Potentate: A ruler who is unconstrained by law |
| The rich Eastern potentate took good care of his subjects. |
| Prerogative: A right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group |
| It is the principal’s prerogative to suspend any student. |
| Prevarication: A statement that deviates from or perverts the truth |
| After months of prevarication, a decision has been made. |
| Raconteur: A person skilled in telling anecdotes |
| He spoke eight languages and was a noted raconteur. |
| Ruminate: Reflect deeply on a subject |
| I had time to ruminate as I drove along on what to do next in life. |
| Sophistry: A deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone |
| She understood that the consolation being offered was mere sophistry. |
| Sullen: Showing a brooding ill humour |
| She worked with a sullen face throughout the day. |
| Termagant: A scolding nagging bad-tempered woman |
| The magic of money turned the termagant into a docile and attentive nurse. |
| Tyro: Someone new to a field or activity |
| He was still a tyro when he set out sailing. |
Vocabulary Preparation Series
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