The GRE Verbal Reasoning Test: Intermediate Words: Intermediate, List 4

This list of intermediate words features a mixture of easier and more difficult words that you may be less familiar with. Study these words and watch your GRE score grow.
20 words 325 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. adamant
    impervious to pleas, persuasion, requests, or reason
    I don’t know what she was scared of but she was adamant that she wouldn’t go, in the way little children are adamant that there might be something hiding in the closet in the dark. How I Live Now
  2. ameliorate
    make better
    Working indoors in cooler environments helps ameliorate some of the problems, of course, but the physiological effects of heat don't immediately disappear the moment a student walks into some full blast AC. Salon (Aug 28, 2022)
  3. assuage
    provide physical relief, as from pain
    Calm medical explanations did nothing to assuage the son’s anxiety. Scientific American (Jun 29, 2020)
  4. complaisant
    showing a cheerful willingness to do favors for others
    These cases are quite different from the phoney stories planted by studio flacks from time immemorial, dependent on co-operative artists and a complaisant press. The Guardian (Nov 7, 2016)
  5. concave
    curving inward
    His belly was concave, and his skin pressed against his rib cage. Healer of the Water Monster
  6. denizen
    a person who inhabits a particular place
    The cheerful din that had filled the city earlier was gone, and the few denizens still outside shop fronts did not wave or cheer as the warriors passed. Beasts of Prey
  7. digression
    a message that departs from the main subject
    I was so tired that I rambled a bit, but he was patient with my digressions. The Secret History
  8. extirpate
    destroy completely, as if down to the roots
    We remove one biological reserve here, we extirpate a series of species there, we pollute, we fragment, we introduce invasive species, all to the point of eventual catastrophe. Washington Post (Mar 1, 2019)
  9. foment
    try to stir up
    Lander’s rhetoric inflamed passions; he fomented rebellion; he was too uppity to allow to run free. The Underground Railroad: A Novel
  10. hieroglyphic
    a writing system using picture symbols
    And these schematic birds, which are divided neatly into three elements indicating leg, body and neck-head, also reflect the closeness in the Egyptian mind of image making to writing that would eventually result in hieroglyphics. New York Times (Apr 12, 2012)
  11. imprecation
    a slanderous accusation
    To the supplications of reason they eventually added the insult of imprecation, calling him a young cur and a scoundrel and, moreover, a fool. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves
  12. limpid
    transparently clear; easily understandable
    His prose is as clear and limpid as water, his ear finely attuned to the timbre of the period though mercifully free from archaisms, his characters drawn with subtlety and wit. The Guardian (Mar 23, 2013)
  13. miscreant
    a person without moral scruples
    For a movie about ethics that repeatedly emphasizes “morality,” “The Truth About Lies” doesn’t judge assorted miscreants who tell their tales of being caught lying and facing the consequences. New York Times (May 21, 2015)
  14. obdurate
    stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing
    “If, in spite of all your efforts,” the cable to the ambassador read, “Diem remains obdurate and refuses, then we must face the possibility that Diem himself cannot be preserved.” Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam
  15. presage
    indicate by signs
    “Remember,” Noggle says, “unusual celestial events often presage important political changes, so with a new king on the horizon, it’s important for us to observe the signs carefully.” The Cruel Prince
  16. recluse
    one who lives in solitude
    History writes Emily Dickinson as a recluse who only published about 10 of her hundreds of poems while she was alive and rarely if ever left her room. Salon (Dec 18, 2021)
  17. refractory
    stubbornly resistant to authority or control
    Then in the Clarkston area of Washington the insects became refractory — they were harder to kill than in the orchards of the Wenatchee and Yakima valleys and elsewhere. Silent Spring
  18. specious
    plausible but false
    People would be better informed as advances in psychology, widely taught in schools, would leave them "immune from specious appeals to sentiment and illogical reasoning". BBC (Dec 26, 2014)
  19. substantive
    having a firm basis in reality and therefore important
    Without better data, we can’t have a substantive discussion about which interventions are most effective and consistent with our values. Scientific American (Apr 28, 2022)
  20. vortex
    a powerful circular current of water
    There is storm-music, and the fisherman drowns, sucked to the bottom of the sea in the vortex of the whirlpool. The God of Small Things
Created on Wed Nov 30 14:58:19 EST 2022 (updated Thu Jan 12 15:04:25 EST 2023)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.