The GRE Verbal Reasoning Test: Intermediate Words: Intermediate, List 6

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.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. assiduously
    with care and persistence
    He found nothing noble in interpreting people’s maladies, assiduously translating the symptoms of so many swollen bones, countless cramps of bellies and bowels, spots on people’s palms that changed color, shape, or size. Interpreter of Maladies
  2. causal
    involving an entity that produces an effect
    Researchers increasingly are finding a causal relationship between heavy-duty truck emissions and respiratory ailments such as asthma. Scientific American (Jun 8, 2022)
  3. clairvoyant
    perceiving things beyond the natural range of the senses
    She was struck by a clairvoyant vision — a voice, really, that warned her of a fight that was about to occur over the price of the bananas. Washington Post (Oct 3, 2018)
  4. credence
    the mental attitude that something is believable
    Rumors surfaced that the series had been fixed, rumors that gained credence when just before the first game, the betting odds that had overwhelmingly favored the White Sox dropped to even. 1919 The Year That Changed America
  5. debauchery
    a wild gathering
    They decide that a night of debauchery before graduation will set things right but finding a suitably raucous party proves difficult. New York Times (Nov 18, 2019)
  6. defame
    charge falsely or with malicious intent
    It is a crime in Thailand to defame or insult the king, queen, heir or regent, with punishments of up to 15 years in prison under what are among the world's strictest "lese majeste" laws. Reuters (Sep 12, 2022)
  7. erudition
    profound scholarly knowledge
    This literary study of mankind’s transition from hunted to hunter connects the pursuit of prey to the pursuit of knowledge; Calasso’s encyclopedic erudition yields fascinating meditations on mythology and classical antiquity. New York Times (May 28, 2020)
  8. filibuster
    a tactic for delaying legislation by making long speeches
    The filibuster is well known for being a tool of segregationists trying to block various civil rights bills in the 1950s and 1960s. Washington Post (Aug 11, 2021)
  9. flout
    treat with contemptuous disregard
    There were rules that had to be followed, and people didn’t take it kindly when you flouted them. The Glass Castle
  10. gainsay
    take exception to
    When others spoke they seemed harsh and uncouth by contrast; and if they gainsaid the voice, anger was kindled in the hearts of those under the spell. The Two Towers
  11. garrulous
    full of trivial conversation
    He was garrulous and sociable and loved to be at the center of attention, but at the same time he was extraordinarily guarded about his private life. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
  12. harrowing
    causing extreme distress
    A cross-country journey was a harrowing ordeal, five days of clanging, rocking, and bumping in a confined space. Seabiscuit: An American Legend
  13. intangible
    lacking substance or reality
    But he felt like he’d left some part of himself in the courtyard below, something he hadn’t even known mattered, intangible as mist. Six of Crows
  14. miscellany
    a collection containing a variety of sorts of things
    They are impressionistic records, a constellation of bits that accumulate in an appealing miscellany of objects and concepts — the moon, the 1970s, winter sounds, manholes. New York Times (Jan 18, 2018)
  15. panegyric
    a formal expression of praise
    "You can't judge historical writings by the standards of our time. These writings were mostly panegyrics, written to glorify the leaders and rulers." BBC (Jun 8, 2022)
  16. paragon
    model of excellence or perfection of a kind
    He’s a paragon of excellence, the night-after-night dependability that made him a sensation on Broadway, where a person needs an entertainer’s soul and an athlete’s hustle to get by. The Guardian (Apr 23, 2020)
  17. precursor
    something indicating the approach of something or someone
    Its failure was a precursor to the falls that would later inevitably take place all over the country, on Wall Street in New York and State Street in Boston. Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream
  18. repine
    express discontent
    “But the wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation, that she could, upon the whole, have no cause to repine.” Pride and Prejudice
  19. satyr
    one of a class of woodland deities
    Over in the frozen meadow, a satyr skidded on his hooves as he chased after a redheaded tree nymph. The Titan's Curse
  20. untoward
    not in keeping with accepted standards of what is proper
    The only untoward incident he had was that someone once stepped on his newly polished shoes—on purpose, he said. Endgame
Created on Wed Nov 30 16:53:20 EST 2022 (updated Thu Jan 12 15:05:31 EST 2023)

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