The GRE Verbal Reasoning Test: Challenge Words: Challenge, List 2

This list of challenge words features some of the hardest words that you will encounter in the Verbal Reasoning section of the GRE. These are words that typically appear less frequently across different academic disciplines, so you are less likely to have encountered them before. Master these difficult words and watch your GRE score soar!
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. abscond
    run away, often taking something or somebody along
    In 1995, the leader of a commercial expedition absconded with tens of thousands of dollars of his clients’ money before the trip even got off the ground. Into Thin Air
  2. catalyst
    something that causes an important event to happen
    Hearing about Rosa Parks and her protest showed me that there is hope for me and all the students in Ms. G’s classes to truly be catalysts for change. The Freedom Writers Diary
  3. churlish
    having a bad disposition; surly
    Mom is a lovely person who seemed not to see her child was often churlish and badly behaved. Washington Post (Oct 24, 2019)
  4. delineated
    represented accurately or precisely
    The external real world of San Francisco past and present is delineated with great precision, but in a mode that is at the opposite extreme from documentary. Salon (Sep 8, 2018)
  5. egotistical
    having an inflated idea of one's own importance
    McCarthy was an egotistical man who regarded the fear of Communism that arose in the late 1940s and 1950s as the opportunity to gain what he most desperately wanted: power and publicity. 1919 The Year That Changed America
  6. equivocate
    be deliberately ambiguous or unclear
    She refused to equivocate on the issue of school desegregation, and in the Hispanic community she became an important, heroic voice. Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream
  7. existential
    relating to or dealing with the state of being
    Wealthy nations have set aside money for small island countries that face the existential threat of rising sea levels. The Guardian (Dec 31, 2015)
  8. fetid
    offensively malodorous
    It was a nauseating smell, both fetid and sickly sweet, thick in the dusk as it filled Koffi's lungs. Beasts of Prey
  9. hermetic
    completely sealed or airtight
    My reaction to this horrifying web of over-information was to search for the cleanest, simplest, safest bassinet I could find, preferably with some sort of hermetic seal on top to prevent barrettes from falling in. Salon (Mar 8, 2014)
  10. introspection
    contemplation of your own thoughts and desires and conduct
    But introspection gives us far more insight into the ways of other humans than into those of dinosaurs. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
  11. lucre
    informal terms for money
    If you've just hit the jackpot in the casino, there are plenty of ways to unload the lucre here. Seattle Times (Apr 22, 2010)
  12. multifarious
    having many aspects
    My grandfather, accustomed to the multifarious conjugations of ancient Greek verbs, had found English, for all its incoherence, a relatively simple tongue to master. Middlesex: A Novel
  13. patois
    a regional dialect of a language
    The melodic, swooping movement of her Jamaican patois was quickly replaced by the more stable cadences of American English. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
  14. prevaricate
    be deliberately ambiguous or unclear
    Politicians lie, pivot away from questions they don't want to answer and prevaricate. Salon (Oct 27, 2020)
  15. recalcitrant
    stubbornly resistant to authority or control
    Like a recalcitrant child, however, color in art refuses to be governed by any rules. History of Art, Volume 1
  16. sinecure
    a job that involves minimal duties
    Just about everyone else has aged out of the hard work of partisan politics and policy scrutiny, and into the easier sinecures of public life. The New Yorker (Jun 17, 2016)
  17. stratified
    arranged in a sequence of grades or ranks
    Like medieval Italian city-states, Nudzahui principalities were rigidly stratified, with the king and a small group of kinspeople and noble advisers gobbling up much of the wealth and land. 1491
  18. supine
    apathetic or weak; offering no resistance
    But the extensive dampness made Gregor sick and he lay supine, embittered and immobile on the couch. The Metamorphosis
  19. theocracy
    a political unit governed by a deity
    His followers, as expositors of God’s word, arrogated immense powers to themselves; in 1979 one of them, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, turned Iran into a theocracy. Economist (Jul 23, 2015)
  20. vapid
    lacking significance or liveliness or spirit or zest
    “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand how a person can say they hate nature. It’s like saying you hate happiness or laughter. Or fun. I don’t get how someone could be so freaking vapid.” I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
Created on Wed Nov 30 17:26:22 EST 2022 (updated Thu Jan 12 15:08:01 EST 2023)

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