The GRE Verbal Reasoning Test: Challenge Words: Challenge, List 11

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!
20 words 192 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. apothegm
    a short pithy instructive saying
    One of my father’s favorite apothegms was that “you can’t argue with success.” Wall Street Journal (Dec 8, 2015)
  2. argot
    a characteristic language of a particular group
    It has an attentive ear for the language and mores of its different eras and the professional argot of its characters. New York Times (Mar 13, 2017)
  3. canard
    a deliberately misleading fabrication
    Then there’s the old canard about how Europeans supposedly get along better with each other than Americans, which is fascinating until you learn—from any European you ask—that it simply isn’t true. Golf Digest (Nov 5, 2019)
  4. denigrate
    attack the good name and reputation of someone
    Inventors thereby have a financial incentive to denigrate or ignore previous work. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
  5. desiccated
    thoroughly dried out
    In the wake of the reapers’ scythes the black land showed again through the stubble, no longer moist and rich but bone-hard, desiccated, and beginning to crack in all directions under the burning sun. The Golden Goblet
  6. desuetude
    a state of inactivity or disuse
    Its exposed brick walls and wood-and-steel-beam floors, and signature rows of old sewing machines suggest nothing so much as an East London warehouse fallen into desuetude. New York Times (Jun 8, 2010)
  7. distrait
    having the attention diverted especially because of anxiety
    As he was distrait and wanted to talk to somebody, he sent for Simon Chester, who came at once, breathless with hurrying and upset by the unexpected summons.  Stoker, Bram
  8. expository
    serving to expound or set forth
    The dutiful expository business of explaining origins has been taken care of, and the hero can suffer, fight and explore the dilemmas of his dual nature. New York Times (Jun 11, 2010)
  9. intransigence
    stubborn refusal to compromise or change
    It is not the lack of political will to build housing, but the inflexible intransigence of planning policy that is the obstacle to change. The Guardian (Jan 28, 2013)
  10. juggernaut
    a massive inexorable force
    He saw a great juggernaut of stars form in the sky and threaten to roll over and crush him. Fahrenheit 451
  11. malinger
    avoid responsibilities and duties, often by faking illness
    Usually Mr. Birkway would let people go to the bathroom or to the nurse, but this time he said, “Let’s not malinger!” Walk Two Moons
  12. megalomania
    a psychological state characterized by delusions of grandeur
    His narcissism, his megalomania, his delicate yet illimitable ego, would have it no other way. Washington Post (Nov 15, 2022)
  13. mettlesome
    having a proud, courageous, and unbroken spirit
    The weather does its best to massacre his New Yorkers, tormenting them with frigid winters and suffocating summers; their response to the vital challenge is to show off the mettlesome resilience of the human animal. The Guardian (Mar 16, 2013)
  14. occlude
    block passage through
    It is made up of a blood clot that occludes an artery in the brain. Seattle Times (Nov 29, 2010)
  15. plasticity
    the property of being physically malleable
    Because the stiffening of the heart starts in late-middle age, it’s best to start training before age 65, while the heart retains plasticity and the ability to remodel itself. Washington Post (Oct 18, 2019)
  16. riposte
    a quick reply to a question or remark
    Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Man”, which was published in 1791, is a direct riposte to Burke; indeed, Paine’s tract is subtitled, “Being An Answer to Mr Burke’s Attack on the French Revolution”. Economist (Jul 3, 2014)
  17. salacious
    suggestive of or tending to moral looseness
    He wiggled his eyebrows at me, his crooked grin clearly salacious. October Sky
  18. thespian
    a theatrical performer
    On the big screen, he has frequently co-starred with other thespians who have at one point in their careers played Hamlet or appeared in stage productions or screen versions of the classic play. Los Angeles Times (Aug 26, 2015)
  19. truculence
    stubborn and defiant aggressiveness
    Our cranky nation, with its constant surplus of truculence, could benefit from a smidgen of Thomas Jefferson’s live-and-let-live spirit. Washington Post (Jun 29, 2022)
  20. vituperative
    marked by harshly abusive criticism
    A generation ago, the WTO drew huge, vituperative, even violent protests — notably from anti-globalists and anarchists who detested its closed-door secrecy and elites-decide-all image. Seattle Times (Jun 10, 2022)
Created on Wed Nov 30 17:58:34 EST 2022 (updated Thu Jan 12 15:07:44 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.