The GRE Verbal Reasoning Test: Warm-up Words: Warm-up, List 12

This list of warm-up words features common words on the test that you're probably familiar with. Brush up on these words first to make sure that you start off strong while taking the GRE.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. alchemy
    a pseudoscientific forerunner of chemistry in medieval times
    The transmutation of the elements was pursued in medieval laboratories in a quest called alchemy. Cosmos
  2. artless
    characterized by an inability to mask your feelings
    These days, the woman was suspicious of almost everyone who came to her door, but these two girls, with their artless faces, made her feel hopeful for the first time in weeks. Huntress
  3. buttress
    make stronger or defensible
    She would buttress her argument with recommendations from Dr. Cuevas, which later, when he was asked point-blank, turned out to have been made up. The House of the Spirits: A Novel
  4. carnal
    of or relating to the body or flesh
    An excellent carnal writer fashions not a robot, but what feels like a breathing, tasting avatar the reader can climb inside, thus wearing the writer’s hands and standing inside her shoes. The New Yorker (Oct 11, 2015)
  5. caucus
    a closed political meeting
    Members of both parties cast their votes at precinct-level meetings—caucuses—in the middle of winter, and the whole nation paid attention. Becoming
  6. cognizant
    having or showing knowledge or understanding or realization
    Since our first moment here, my parents have been painfully cognizant of the camera in the common room of our Mercury Home that captures every second of our lives. Internment
  7. connoisseur
    an expert able to appreciate a field
    The palace would send only an expert—a true connoisseur—to handle the task of commissioning work. A Single Shard
  8. dormant
    inactive but capable of becoming active
    Mosquitoes that had lain dormant through the long drought now hatched and rose from the forest floor in clouds so thick they filled our mouths and nostrils. The Poisonwood Bible
  9. elegy
    a mournful poem; a lament for the dead
    Written as a tribute, it became, after King’s assassination, an elegy. New York Times (May 25, 2018)
  10. fusion
    the act of melding or melting together
    We pass thoughts around, from mind to mind, so compulsively and with such speed that the brains of mankind often appear, functionally, to be undergoing fusion. The Lives of a Cell
  11. grouse
    complain
    “It’s taking forever,” groused a man, checking his watch. The Smartest Kid in the Universe
  12. litigation
    a legal proceeding in a court
    At the end of three days of intense litigation, the judge adjourned the proceedings in the late afternoon. Just Mercy
  13. magnanimity
    nobility and generosity of spirit
    And the credit for that magnanimity goes to the kind of politics Gandhi practised, of non-violence – without anger at a people, but only towards an idea. The Guardian (Mar 9, 2018)
  14. pedantic
    marked by a narrow focus on or display of learning
    The voice that had spoken it was a Scholar’s, precise and pedantic and lazily arrogant, very much a Jordan College voice. The Golden Compass
  15. presumptuous
    going beyond what is appropriate, permitted, or courteous
    I wanted to ask why he was there, but it would have been presumptuous to do so. The Ugly One
  16. propitiate
    make peace with
    To propitiate the North, they fixed the pre-Independence elections in favor of the North and wrote a new constitution that gave the North control of the central government. Half of a Yellow Sun
  17. proscribe
    command against
    In 2010, a law was passed in the UK proscribing “shining a light at an aircraft in flight so as to dazzle or distract the pilot”. The Guardian (Feb 15, 2016)
  18. pungent
    strong and sharp to the sense of taste or smell
    The pungent fumes of kerosene smoke mixed with the aroma of curry and nutmeg from the kitchen. Purple Hibiscus
  19. relegate
    assign to a lower position
    Many of the forms of discrimination that relegated African Americans to an inferior caste during Jim Crow continue to apply to huge segments of the black population today—provided they are first labeled felons. The New Jim Crow
  20. soliloquy
    speech you make to yourself
    Amidst her long soliloquies of relating everything you just said to herself, I wither away, uninspired to contribute additional words, as they would become invalidated and unheard anyhow. Washington Post (Jan 16, 2020)
Created on Wed Nov 30 14:34:39 EST 2022 (updated Thu Jan 12 15:00:30 EST 2023)

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