The GRE Verbal Reasoning Test: Challenge Words: Challenge, List 12

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. avuncular
    resembling an uncle in kindness or indulgence
    “Afternoon, young man,” he said, with an avuncular chuckle, as he passed Shadow. American Gods
  2. beatification
    a formal declaration that someone is worthy of veneration
    Pope Francis has created a new category for beatification, the level immediately below sainthood, in the Catholic Church: those who give their lives for others. Salon (Aug 8, 2017)
  3. bifurcation
    a separation into two branches
    One of the surgeons has started offering a “tongue bifurcation” procedure wherein the tongue is split down the middle, creating a lizardlike appearance for patients who are interested in body modification. New York Times (Mar 22, 2022)
  4. cacophonous
    having an unpleasant sound
    The combined sound of bells tolling and sirens wailing seemed not just a cacophonous way to ring in the new year, but a sound that symbolized a new era in our freedom struggle. Long Walk to Freedom
  5. emollient
    having a softening or soothing effect especially to the skin
    People who use emollient creams to treat dry and itchy skin conditions are being warned they can build up in fabrics and cause them to catch fire more easily. BBC (Dec 18, 2018)
  6. epistemology
    the philosophical theory of knowledge
    The central task of such an epistemology is not to explain why we have been successful in our pursuit of scientific knowledge; there is no good answer to that question. The Invention of Science
  7. ethnocentric
    centered on a specific ethnic group, usually one's own
    This was an ethnocentric culture that took an unfavorable view of outsiders. New York Times (May 20, 2011)
  8. etiology
    the cause of a disease
    The etiology of cancer is complicated, and we shouldn't expect a "magic pill" to be discovered anytime soon. Scientific American (Feb 23, 2020)
  9. impermeable
    preventing especially liquids to pass or diffuse through
    When it rains, water soaks into the soil, through compacted dirt and rock, until it is blocked by an impermeable surface. Scientific American (Jul 20, 2015)
  10. ineluctable
    impossible to avoid or evade
    Sequences are repeated, and the patterns become recognizable: the ineluctable and inescapable games of power, the fear and the hope of those caught up in a world beyond their control. New York Times (Apr 29, 2016)
  11. insularity
    lack of openness to new ideas; narrow-mindedness
    At the same time, it highlights the insularity of too much contemporary writing, in which we are asked to see the world, again and again, through an individual's eyes as opposed to a collective frame. Los Angeles Times (Jan 16, 2015)
  12. juxtaposed
    placed side by side often for comparison
    The contrast was palpable, the lustrous and vibrant green of new ferns, and shaggy mosses, holly and laurel juxtaposed with the blackened hillsides. New York Times (Jul 19, 2013)
  13. misogynist
    a misanthrope who dislikes women in particular
    I defend a woman's right to cover her hair if she chooses but the face is central to human interaction and so the ideologues who promote its covering are simply misogynists. The Guardian (Mar 20, 2010)
  14. neologism
    a newly invented word or phrase
    One of the best neologisms to bubble up during the Internet era is “moasting,” a verb that combines the words moaning and boasting. New York Times (Jan 11, 2011)
  15. perigee
    the nearest point in an orbit around the Earth
    A supermoon is a full moon that occurs when the moon is at perigee, its closest point to Earth in its orbit. New York Times (Aug 11, 2022)
  16. poseur
    a person who habitually pretends to be something he is not
    Which ones were the real artists and which ones were the poseurs? Hole in My Life
  17. schematic
    represented in simplified or symbolic form
    We know of countless later instances of magic which require only the crudest and most schematic kind of representation, such as two crossed sticks for a human figure. History of Art, Volume 1
  18. somatic
    characteristic of the body as opposed to the mind or spirit
    “We’ll be giving work on body structure and centering,” he said, as well as on grounding, balancing and “many other applicable things from somatic work.” New York Times (Aug 24, 2022)
  19. subsume
    contain or include
    But the works on this excellent recording are prime examples of how Brahms the “progressive,” as Schoenberg called him, subsumed ancient forms and methods to look forward, even in sadness. New York Times (Dec 18, 2014)
  20. tumid
    ostentatiously lofty in style
    If blank verse be not tumid and gorgeous, it is crippled prose; and familiar images, in laboured language, have nothing to recommend them but absurd novelty, which, wanting the attractions of nature, cannot please long. Johnson, Samuel
Created on Wed Nov 30 18:09:49 EST 2022 (updated Thu Jan 12 15:07:52 EST 2023)

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