GRE High-Frequency Vocabulary List
350+ genuinely hard GRE words organized by category, plus 60+ Latin and Greek roots, word families, and the 25 most-tested GRE words in a quick-reference box. Each entry includes part of speech, a precise definition, and a GRE-style example sentence.
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Why GRE vocabulary is harder than TOEFL or IELTS
Words native speakers don't know
The GRE tests rare, literary, and academic words — like recondite, pellucid, and turpitude — that many college-educated native English speakers have never encountered.
Precision is everything
Text Completion questions require knowing the exact shade of meaning between near-synonyms. Knowing that a word is 'negative' is not enough — you need the precise connotation.
Two correct answers in SE
Sentence Equivalence questions require selecting two words that produce sentences with the same meaning — demanding nuanced understanding of subtle distinctions between synonyms.
Tip: On the GRE, knowing a word's positive or negative charge is useful, but the test rewards knowing the exact meaning. Study words in context and pay attention to the tone of example sentences.
Why Vocabulary Matters: The Data
Vocabulary knowledge is the single most direct predictor of GRE Verbal performance. Here is what the research and exam structure show.
~3,500
Unique words tested across the GRE Verbal pool
ETS draws from approximately this many distinct word families in the question bank
+5 pts
Average Verbal improvement after learning 1,000+ words
Students who systematically learn 1,000 or more GRE words improve Verbal by ~5 points on average
~50%
Of Verbal questions are vocabulary-dependent
All Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions require precise vocabulary knowledge
170
Maximum Verbal score
GRE Verbal is scored 130–170; a score of 163+ puts you in the 90th percentile
~1 in 50
Native speakers who know all tested GRE words
Some GRE words are so rare that most educated native English speakers have never encountered them
3 months
Recommended focused study period for GRE vocabulary
Consistent daily review over 3 months, using spaced repetition, produces the strongest results
Source: ETS GRE General Test data; independent test prep research. Figures are approximate.
The 25 Most-Tested GRE Words
These words appear more frequently in GRE Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions than any others. If you learn only one list, learn this one.
equivocal
adjective
Open to more than one interpretation; ambiguous; uncertain.
enervate
verb
To drain energy or vitality; to weaken.
furtive
adjective
Attempting to avoid notice or attention; secretive.
loquacious
adjective
Tending to talk a great deal; talkative.
obdurate
adjective
Stubbornly refusing to change; hardened against persuasion.
torpid
adjective
Mentally or physically inactive; lethargic.
vacillate
verb
To waver between different opinions or actions; to be indecisive.
garrulous
adjective
Excessively talkative, especially on trivial matters.
prosaic
adjective
Lacking imagination or originality; dull; commonplace.
recalcitrant
adjective
Having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority.
sanguine
adjective
Optimistic, especially in a difficult situation.
laconic
adjective
Using very few words; brief and concise.
tendentious
adjective
Expressing a particular point of view; biased.
inimical
adjective
Tending to obstruct or harm; hostile.
diffident
adjective
Modest or shy because of lack of self-confidence.
recondite
adjective
Not known by many people; abstruse; obscure.
calumny
noun
The making of false and defamatory statements to damage a reputation; slander.
sycophant
noun
A person who flatters those in power to gain advantage.
turpitude
noun
Wickedness or depravity; morally reprehensible behavior.
belie
verb
To give a false impression of; to contradict.
pellucid
adjective
Easily understood; lucidly expressed; transparently clear.
probity
noun
The quality of having strong moral principles; complete honesty and integrity.
acrimony
noun
Bitterness or ill feeling in speech or manner.
verisimilitude
noun
The appearance of being true or real; convincing authenticity.
moribund
adjective
At the point of death; in terminal decline; lacking vitality.
Criticism & Praise
(30 words)| Word | Part of speech | Definition | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| encomium | noun | A formal speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly; a eulogy. | The outgoing dean received a lengthy encomium at the farewell ceremony, cataloguing every initiative she had led. |
| panegyric | noun | A public speech or published text in praise of someone or something; elaborate and fulsome praise. | The biographer's account crossed from objective history into panegyric, omitting every failure of its subject. |
| eulogy | noun | A speech or writing in praise of a person, especially one who has recently died. | His eulogy transformed a simple account of a life into a meditation on what it means to serve others. |
| laud | verb | To praise someone or something enthusiastically. | Critics lauded the debut novel as the most original work of fiction in a decade. |
| extol | verb | To praise enthusiastically; to glorify. | The advertisement extolled the product's benefits while disclosing its risks in near-illegible fine print. |
| lionize | verb | To treat someone as a celebrity or important person. | After winning the prize, she was lionized in the press for months before the novelty faded. |
| exalt | verb | To praise or regard highly; to raise in rank or power. | Early reviewers exalted the composer as a genius; later scholars were more measured in their assessment. |
| burnish | verb | To polish something; figuratively, to enhance or promote a reputation. | The senator's record of local legislation burnished his reputation before his national campaign. |
| censure | noun / verb | Express severe disapproval of, especially in a formal statement; official condemnation. | The professional body voted to censure the researcher for failing to disclose a significant conflict of interest. |
| castigate | verb | To reprimand or criticize someone or something severely. | The editorial castigated the administration for its slow response to the housing crisis. |
| lambaste | verb | To criticize someone or something harshly. | The review lambasted the film's screenplay as derivative and its characters as two-dimensional caricatures. |
| excoriate | verb | To criticize someone or something severely; literally, to strip off skin. | The inspector general's report excoriated the agency for years of negligence and cover-ups. |
| impugn | verb | To dispute the truth, validity, or honesty of; to call into question. | Defense counsel sought to impugn the witness's credibility by highlighting inconsistencies in her earlier statements. |
| inveigh | verb | To speak or write about something with great hostility; to rail against. | The pamphleteer inveighed against monopolies in language that would influence a generation of reformers. |
| denounce | verb | To publicly declare to be wrong or evil; to formally accuse. | Three former allies publicly denounced the policy, breaking ranks with the administration. |
| deprecate | verb | To express disapproval of; to belittle. | The founder deprecated her own contributions at every opportunity, insisting the success belonged to her team. |
| malign | verb / adjective | To say harmful and untrue things about; evil in nature or influence. | Rivals maligned him as reckless, but his bold decisions ultimately proved correct. |
| disparage | verb | To regard or represent as being of little worth; to belittle. | Careful not to disparage competitors directly, the advertisement instead focused entirely on its own product's merits. |
| vilify | verb | To speak or write about in an abusively disparaging manner. | The tabloids vilified the whistleblower before the public had access to the documents she had revealed. |
| calumny | noun | The making of false and defamatory statements in order to damage someone's reputation; slander. | The calumny spread by anonymous pamphlets forced the diplomat to resign before the allegations were disproved. |
| opprobrium | noun | Harsh criticism or censure; public disgrace arising from shameful conduct. | The bank's executives faced widespread opprobrium after the scale of the fraud became public. |
| obloquy | noun | Strong public condemnation; abusive or defamatory language. | Subjected to years of obloquy, the scientist lived to see her work vindicated by later research. |
| ignominy | noun | Public shame or disgrace. | The once-celebrated architect suffered the ignominy of watching his signature building demolished live on television. |
| kudos | noun | Praise and honor received for an achievement. | The team received considerable kudos for their transparency during the product recall. |
| pillory | verb / noun | To attack or ridicule publicly; historically, a wooden framework in which offenders were locked. | The satirist pilloried the governor with a cartoon series that ran for six months. |
| denigrate | verb | To criticize unfairly; to disparage; to blacken the reputation of. | The campaign attempted to denigrate the opponent's record by distorting statistics from her tenure. |
| decry | verb | To publicly denounce; to express strong disapproval of. | Civil liberties organizations decried the surveillance legislation as an unconstitutional overreach. |
| commend | verb | To praise formally or officially; to recommend as worthy. | The committee commended the researcher for her transparent disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. |
| revere | verb | To feel deep respect or admiration for something; to regard with awe. | The community revered the elder statesman as the conscience of the nation during its most turbulent period. |
| venerate | verb | To regard with great respect; to revere, especially something old or sacred. | Subsequent generations venerated the philosopher's work even as they revised its central arguments. |
Agreement & Contradiction
(20 words)| Word | Part of speech | Definition | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| acquiesce | verb | To accept something reluctantly but without protest; to comply. | After weeks of resistance, the board finally acquiesced to the shareholders' demand for an independent audit. |
| assent | noun / verb | The expression of approval or agreement; to agree or approve. | The proposal required the unanimous assent of all twelve committee members before it could proceed. |
| accede | verb | To agree to a demand, request, or treaty; to take up a post or position. | Under diplomatic pressure, the government acceded to the terms of the ceasefire agreement. |
| ratify | verb | To sign or give formal consent to a treaty, contract, or agreement. | The senate ratified the trade agreement after months of debate and more than forty proposed amendments. |
| sanction | noun / verb | Official permission or approval; a threatened penalty; to give official permission. | The ethics board sanctioned the study design, clearing the way for the trial to begin. |
| espouse | verb | To adopt or support a cause, belief, or way of life. | Although she espoused free-market principles early in her career, her later writing took a more interventionist view. |
| concur | verb | To be of the same opinion; to agree. | Both independent reviewers concurred that the data supported the authors' primary conclusion. |
| concede | verb | To admit that something is true after first denying it; to surrender possession of. | The expert conceded that the alternative interpretation was plausible, even though she did not find it convincing. |
| defer | verb | To submit to another's wishes, opinion, or governance; to put off to a later time. | On technical questions, the committee generally deferred to the specialist members rather than voting independently. |
| capitulate | verb | To cease to resist an opponent or an unwelcome demand; to surrender. | After holding out for three months, the city capitulated when its water supply was finally cut off. |
| contradict | verb | To deny the truth of a statement; to be in conflict with. | The new evidence contradicted the established timeline, requiring historians to revise their accounts. |
| gainsay | verb | To deny or contradict; to speak against or oppose. | Few scholars today would gainsay the importance of trade networks in shaping early civilizations. |
| repudiate | verb | To refuse to accept or be associated with; to deny the truth or validity of. | The scientist publicly repudiated the claims attributed to her, calling them distortions of her actual findings. |
| recant | verb | To say that one no longer holds a previous belief or statement; to withdraw formally. | Under sustained pressure, he finally recanted his published theory, though privately he never abandoned it. |
| abjure | verb | To solemnly renounce a belief, cause, or claim; to formally reject. | Under the terms of the agreement, both parties were required to abjure any future territorial claims. |
| equivocate | verb | To use ambiguous language so as to conceal the truth or avoid committing to a position. | When asked directly about the accounting discrepancy, the CFO began to equivocate, citing the need for further review. |
| vacillate | verb | To waver between different opinions or actions; to be indecisive. | The senator vacillated on the key vote for weeks, frustrating colleagues from both parties. |
| temporize | verb | To avoid committing oneself; to delay making a decision in order to gain time. | Rather than risk offending either faction, the administrator temporized until the crisis resolved itself. |
| prevaricate | verb | To speak or act evasively; to deliberately obscure or evade the truth. | When asked whether he had known about the findings earlier, the director began to prevaricate noticeably. |
| demur | verb | To raise doubts or objections; to pause before consenting. | She demurred when asked to sign the statement, requesting time to review its precise wording with a lawyer. |
Obscure Adjectives (High-Value GRE Words)
(30 words)| Word | Part of speech | Definition | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| recondite | adjective | Not known by many people; abstruse; dealing with obscure subject matter. | The professor's lecture on recondite aspects of medieval cartography drew only a handful of specialists. |
| abstruse | adjective | Difficult to understand; obscure; requiring special knowledge or effort to comprehend. | The monograph's abstruse methodology made it inaccessible to all but the most advanced researchers in the field. |
| pellucid | adjective | Easily understood; lucidly expressed; translucently clear. | Her pellucid explanation of quantum entanglement made a notoriously difficult topic accessible to laypeople. |
| perspicuous | adjective | Clearly expressed and easily understood; transparent. | The perspicuous summary at the end of each chapter made the dense theoretical text more navigable. |
| perspicacious | adjective | Having a ready insight into things; shrewd and discerning. | The perspicacious analyst identified the flaw in the model before the data were even collected. |
| tendentious | adjective | Expressing or promoting a particular cause or point of view; biased. | Critics accused the documentary of being tendentious, presenting only evidence that supported its predetermined conclusion. |
| meretricious | adjective | Apparently attractive but having no real value; falsely alluring. | The critic dismissed the film's spectacular visuals as meretricious, obscuring a shallow narrative. |
| captious | adjective | Inclined to find fault; raising objections for the sake of it. | The captious reviewer searched for minor errors rather than engaging with the argument's larger merits. |
| invidious | adjective | Likely to arouse resentment or anger because of unfair treatment; giving offense. | The manager was criticized for making invidious distinctions between employees of similar rank and experience. |
| tendentious | adjective | Promoting a particular point of view; having a strong bias in favor of a particular cause. | The analysis was tendentious: it cited studies supporting its thesis while ignoring contradictory evidence. |
| prolix | adjective | Using or containing too many words; tediously lengthy. | His prolix writing style, in which simple points required paragraphs to make, exhausted his editors. |
| lachrymose | adjective | Tearful or given to weeping; inducing tears. | The lachrymose farewell speech had half the audience reaching for their handkerchiefs. |
| sanguine | adjective | Optimistic, especially in a difficult situation; of a blood-red color. | Even after the initial trial failed, the research team remained sanguine that a modified approach would succeed. |
| lugubrious | adjective | Looking or sounding sad and dismal; mournful to an exaggerated degree. | The lugubrious expression on the actor's face was so overdone that the audience laughed instead of sympathized. |
| truculent | adjective | Eager or quick to argue or fight; aggressively defiant. | The truculent senator interrupted every speaker and refused to yield the floor. |
| pugnacious | adjective | Eager or quick to argue, quarrel, or fight. | The pugnacious commentator rarely finished an interview without provoking a heated exchange. |
| venal | adjective | Susceptible to bribery; corrupt; motivated by financial gain. | The venal magistrate accepted payments in exchange for favorable rulings in property disputes. |
| venial | adjective | Minor or pardonable; of a fault or offense, not grave. | The committee treated the procedural violation as a venial infraction rather than grounds for dismissal. |
| refractory | adjective | Stubborn or unmanageable; resistant to a process or stimulus. | The refractory patient refused every proposed treatment, insisting her symptoms required further diagnosis. |
| intractable | adjective | Hard to control or deal with; difficult to alleviate or resolve. | Chronic pain remains one of the most intractable problems in modern medicine. |
| recalcitrant | adjective | Having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline. | The recalcitrant witness refused to testify despite being served with a subpoena. |
| fractious | adjective | Easily irritated; difficult to control; causing trouble. | The fractious coalition collapsed after its two largest factions could not agree on a candidate. |
| pernicious | adjective | Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way. | The pernicious influence of misinformation erodes public trust in institutions over years, not days. |
| inimical | adjective | Tending to obstruct or harm; hostile. | Practices inimical to free competition were explicitly prohibited under the new regulatory framework. |
| nugatory | adjective | Of no value or importance; trifling or worthless. | The amendment's critics called it nugatory, pointing out it changed nothing in the law's practical operation. |
| risible | adjective | Such as to provoke laughter; absurdly inappropriate. | The proposal to solve the budget deficit by selling naming rights to government buildings struck most economists as risible. |
| vapid | adjective | Offering nothing that is stimulating or challenging; bland; inane. | The vapid celebrity interview revealed nothing of substance despite running for over an hour. |
| insipid | adjective | Lacking vigor or interest; dull; lacking flavor. | The insipid production drained all dramatic tension from source material that should have been riveting. |
| salutary | adjective | Producing good effects; beneficial. | The defeat had a salutary effect on the team, revealing weaknesses they had been reluctant to acknowledge. |
| salubrious | adjective | Health-giving; healthy; pleasant; agreeable. | The mountain climate was considered salubrious enough to attract patients recovering from respiratory illness. |
Verbs of Communication & Speech
(20 words)| Word | Part of speech | Definition | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| loquacious | adjective | Tending to talk a great deal; talkative. | The loquacious professor rarely reached the final slide; he was too busy elaborating on the first three. |
| garrulous | adjective | Excessively talkative, especially on trivial matters. | The garrulous witness digressed so often that the judge repeatedly had to ask him to answer the question. |
| taciturn | adjective | Reserved or uncommunicative in speech; saying little. | The taciturn engineer communicated exclusively through concise emails, never engaging in office small talk. |
| voluble | adjective | Speaking or spoken incessantly and fluently. | She was voluble on every subject except her own childhood, which she refused to discuss. |
| bloviate | verb | To talk at length in a pompous or boastful manner. | The after-dinner speaker bloviates for forty-five minutes without arriving at a discernible point. |
| pontificate | verb | To express one's opinions in a pompous and dogmatic way. | He pontificated about economic policy without acknowledging that experts widely disagreed with his position. |
| harangue | noun / verb | A lengthy and aggressive speech; to lecture someone in an aggressive way. | Rather than explain his grievances calmly, he launched into a thirty-minute harangue that cleared the room. |
| tirade | noun | A long, angry speech of criticism or accusation. | The manager's tirade after the product launch failure left the entire team demoralized for weeks. |
| glib | adjective | Fluent and voluble but insincere and shallow; slick. | His glib reassurances satisfied nobody who had read the report's underlying data. |
| circumlocution | noun | The use of many words where fewer would do, especially in a deliberate attempt to be vague. | His answer was a masterpiece of circumlocution — several paragraphs that said, essentially, nothing. |
| euphemism | noun | A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered too harsh. | The company used 'right-sizing' as a euphemism for a round of layoffs affecting three hundred employees. |
| invective | noun | Insulting, abusive, or highly critical language. | The senator's speech descended from policy critique into personal invective, losing supporters even among his allies. |
| persiflage | noun | Light and slightly contemptuous mockery or banter. | The diplomat's seemingly casual persiflage concealed a sharp intelligence that never missed a negotiating opportunity. |
| badinage | noun | Humorous or witty conversation; banter. | Their badinage at the dinner table was so entertaining that guests lingered for hours after the meal. |
| repartee | noun | Conversation or speech characterized by quick, witty comments or replies. | Her repartee at the press conference left journalists scrambling to capture the best lines for their leads. |
| innuendo | noun | An indirect or subtle reference, especially one made in a disparaging or accusatory manner. | The review was full of innuendo about the author's motives without making a single direct accusation. |
| loquacity | noun | The quality of talking much and at length; talkativeness. | His loquacity was exhausting in committee meetings, where he routinely extended thirty-minute discussions to two hours. |
| articulate | adjective / verb | Having or showing the ability to speak fluently; to express an idea clearly. | The most articulate candidates can explain complex policy in language that non-specialists immediately understand. |
| declaim | verb | To utter or deliver words in a rhetorical or impassioned way. | The student stood on the steps of the library and declaimed the poem from memory to surprised passersby. |
| adumbrate | verb | To report or describe something in outline; to foreshadow. | The opening lecture adumbrated the theoretical framework that the course would explore in detail over the semester. |
Character & Personality Traits
(30 words)| Word | Part of speech | Definition | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| probity | noun | The quality of having strong moral principles; complete honesty and integrity. | The judge's probity was unquestioned; she had never been accused of bias or impropriety in thirty years on the bench. |
| rectitude | noun | Morally correct behavior or thinking; righteousness. | Known for his personal rectitude, the senator was one of the few not touched by the corruption scandal. |
| scrupulous | adjective | Diligent, thorough, and careful about moral standards; attentive to detail. | Her scrupulous attention to proper citation set a standard that her graduate students found difficult to match. |
| veracious | adjective | Speaking or representing the truth; truthful. | The court valued the witness precisely because she was known to be scrupulously veracious. |
| ingenuous | adjective | Innocent and unsuspecting; free from deception or cunning. | Her ingenuous trust in strangers was both endearing and, at times, a source of vulnerability. |
| forthright | adjective | Direct and outspoken; straightforward. | His forthright criticism, though uncomfortable in the moment, was valued over the vague pleasantries of his predecessor. |
| magnanimous | adjective | Very generous or forgiving, especially toward a rival or less powerful person. | In a magnanimous gesture, the champion praised his opponent's skill before accepting the trophy. |
| munificent | adjective | Larger or more generous than is usual or necessary; lavishly generous. | The munificent donation from an anonymous alumna funded an entire new wing of the library. |
| sycophant | noun | A person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain advantage; a flatterer. | Surrounded by sycophants who praised every decision, the CEO lost touch with the company's real problems. |
| obsequious | adjective | Obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree. | His obsequious manner during the board meeting struck the directors as desperate rather than deferential. |
| imperious | adjective | Assuming power or authority without justification; arrogantly domineering. | Her imperious manner alienated colleagues who might otherwise have supported her proposals. |
| supercilious | adjective | Behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others; disdainful. | His supercilious dismissal of the junior researcher's idea proved costly when the idea was later validated. |
| inveterate | adjective | Having a habit or activity so firmly established that it is unlikely to change. | An inveterate gambler, he could not resist placing bets even after losing his savings. |
| intransigent | adjective | Unwilling or refusing to change one's views or to agree; stubborn. | The intransigent negotiator rejected every compromise proposal without offering any counter-terms. |
| querulous | adjective | Complaining in a petulant or whining manner. | The querulous passenger complained about everything from the seat width to the temperature of the cabin. |
| irascible | adjective | Having or showing a tendency to be easily angered. | The irascible director was famous for throwing scripts across the room when actors improvised. |
| cantankerous | adjective | Bad-tempered, argumentative, and uncooperative. | Despite being cantankerous in person, the novelist's letters reveal unexpected warmth and generosity. |
| stolid | adjective | Calm, dependable, and showing little emotion or animation. | The stolid general's unchanging expression throughout the crisis reassured his subordinates. |
| phlegmatic | adjective | Having an unemotional and stolidly calm disposition; not easily excited. | The phlegmatic negotiator's unruffled demeanor gave him a significant advantage at the bargaining table. |
| ebullient | adjective | Cheerful and full of energy; exuberantly enthusiastic. | The ebullient crowd greeted the returning champion with deafening applause and confetti. |
| equanimity | noun | Mental calmness and composure, especially in difficult situations. | She faced the devastating diagnosis with remarkable equanimity, focusing on what she could control. |
| obdurate | adjective | Stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course of action; hardened against persuasion. | Despite overwhelming evidence, the committee remained obdurate in its refusal to revise the policy. |
| diffident | adjective | Modest or shy because of a lack of self-confidence; restrained in manner. | Too diffident to promote his own work, he relied on colleagues to circulate his findings. |
| maudlin | adjective | Self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often excessively. | His maudlin toasts at the reunion grew longer and less coherent as the evening progressed. |
| choleric | adjective | Bad-tempered or irritable; easily angered. | His choleric outbursts during negotiations alienated potential partners who might otherwise have agreed. |
| misanthrope | noun | A person who dislikes and distrusts humankind. | She described herself as a misanthrope, though her dedication to public health work seemed to contradict this self-assessment. |
| philistine | noun / adjective | A person hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts. | He dismissed the art installation without a second glance, earning the philistine label from his more aesthetically inclined colleagues. |
| dilettante | noun | A person who cultivates an area of interest without real commitment or knowledge; an amateur. | He was dismissed as a dilettante in academic circles, despite having written three popular books on the subject. |
| sybarite | noun | A person devoted to luxury and sensuous pleasure. | A confirmed sybarite, he had no interest in the austere lifestyle his colleagues romanticized. |
| ascetic | noun / adjective | A person who practices severe self-discipline for religious or philosophical reasons; relating to such a practice. | The ascetic philosopher argued that desire itself, rather than its objects, was the source of suffering. |
Academic & Scholarly Words
(20 words)| Word | Part of speech | Definition | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| heuristic | noun / adjective | A problem-solving approach that uses a practical method not guaranteed to be optimal. | The team used a heuristic approach when the data were too sparse to support a formal statistical model. |
| sophistry | noun | The use of clever but false arguments, especially with the intention to deceive. | The debate coach warned students that sophistry might win arguments but would undermine their credibility. |
| dialectic | noun | The practice of arriving at truth through the exchange of logical arguments; a tension between opposing forces. | Hegel's dialectic — thesis, antithesis, synthesis — offered a framework for understanding historical change. |
| pedagogy | noun | The method and practice of teaching; the art or science of education. | The curriculum reform focused not only on content but on the pedagogy used to convey it. |
| epistemology | noun | The branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge and its scope and limits. | The philosopher's work in epistemology questioned whether direct knowledge of the external world was possible. |
| ontology | noun | The branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being and existence. | Questions in ontology concern the most fundamental categories of existence rather than particular empirical facts. |
| hermeneutics | noun | The theory and methodology of interpretation, especially of biblical texts and literary works. | Contemporary hermeneutics holds that every interpretation is shaped by the historical context of both text and reader. |
| exegesis | noun | Critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious one. | The professor devoted his career to the exegesis of early Christian texts, arguing that standard translations obscured key nuances. |
| polemic | noun / adjective | A strong verbal or written attack against someone or something; arguing strongly for or against a position. | The essay was less a balanced analysis than an open polemic against the dominant school of thought. |
| empiricism | noun | The theory that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience; reliance on evidence rather than theory. | British empiricism, represented by Hume and Locke, stood in contrast to the rationalism of Descartes. |
| axiom | noun | A statement regarded as self-evidently true; an established rule. | It is an axiom of competitive markets that firms producing at lower cost will eventually displace higher-cost rivals. |
| caveat | noun | A warning or qualification; a reservation about a statement. | The study's authors included an important caveat: its findings applied only to urban populations. |
| belie | verb | To give a false impression of; to fail to give a true impression of. | Her calm demeanor belied the anxiety she felt as the board meeting approached. |
| fallacious | adjective | Based on a mistaken belief; containing or based on a fallacy. | The argument was fallacious: it conflated correlation with causation in multiple places. |
| obfuscate | verb | To make obscure, unclear, or unintelligible; to confuse or bewilder. | The company's press release seemed designed to obfuscate rather than explain the accounting irregularities. |
| contrite | adjective | Feeling or expressing remorse at the recognition of one's wrongdoing. | The contrite official appeared before a press conference to apologize for what he called a serious lapse in judgment. |
| cogent | adjective | Clear, logical, and convincing. | The lawyer presented a cogent argument that dismantled the prosecution's timeline within minutes. |
| germane | adjective | Relevant to a subject under consideration. | The committee chair noted that the speaker's remarks, though interesting, were not germane to the motion under discussion. |
| apposite | adjective | Apt in the circumstances; appropriate. | The historian's choice of anecdote was particularly apposite, capturing the era's mood more vividly than statistics could. |
| tendentious | adjective | Expressing or promoting a particular cause; having a predisposed view. | A tendentious reading of the data led the researchers to overlook findings inconsistent with their hypothesis. |
Words About Change, Decline & Growth
(20 words)| Word | Part of speech | Definition | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| attenuate | verb | To reduce the force, effect, or value of something; to weaken. | Lead shielding attenuates radiation by absorbing gamma rays before they reach sensitive tissue. |
| enervate | verb | To cause someone to feel drained of energy or vitality; to weaken. | The months of repetitive litigation enervated even the most energetic members of the legal team. |
| debilitate | verb | To make someone very weak; to impair. | The infection debilitated him for weeks, preventing him from attending any public engagements. |
| vitiate | verb | To impair or weaken the effectiveness or quality of; to make faulty. | A single undisclosed conflict of interest vitiated the entire report's credibility. |
| ameliorate | verb | To make something bad or unsatisfactory better; to improve a situation. | New drainage infrastructure significantly ameliorated the flooding that had plagued the neighborhood for years. |
| mollify | verb | To appease the anger or anxiety of someone; to make less severe. | The manager's concession mollified the most vocal critics without conceding the central point. |
| assuage | verb | To make an unpleasant feeling less intense; to soothe. | No explanation could assuage the grief felt by families who had lost relatives in the disaster. |
| allay | verb | To diminish or put at rest fear, suspicion, or worry. | The minister's statement did little to allay public concern about the safety of the water supply. |
| abate | verb | To become less intense or widespread; to reduce in amount or degree. | The storm began to abate by mid-afternoon, allowing rescue teams to resume their search. |
| wane | verb | To decrease in vigor, power, or extent; to decline. | As his influence began to wane, former allies distanced themselves from the embattled minister. |
| abrogate | verb | To repeal or do away with a law, right, or formal agreement. | The new administration moved to abrogate the treaty within weeks of taking office. |
| burgeon | verb | To begin to grow or increase rapidly; to flourish. | The city's technology sector began to burgeon after the university established its engineering research campus. |
| proliferate | verb | To increase rapidly in numbers; to multiply. | Misinformation proliferated across social platforms faster than corrections could be distributed. |
| galvanize | verb | To shock or excite someone into taking action; to stimulate. | The documentary galvanized the environmental movement in a way that years of academic papers had not. |
| catalyze | verb | To cause or accelerate a reaction or event; to act as a catalyst. | The publication of the report catalyzed a national conversation about data privacy. |
| augment | verb | To make something greater by adding to it; to increase. | The university augmented the stipend for doctoral students to remain competitive with peer institutions. |
| buttress | verb / noun | To increase the strength of or justification for; a projecting support built against a wall. | The supplementary analysis buttressed the committee's main findings with additional empirical evidence. |
| promulgate | verb | To promote or make widely known; to put a law or decree into effect by public declaration. | The central bank promulgated new rules requiring greater transparency in derivative reporting. |
| engender | verb | To cause or give rise to a feeling, situation, or condition. | The transparency of the process engendered a level of public trust that had been absent under the previous administration. |
| mitigate | verb | To make less severe, serious, or painful; to lessen. | Regular physical exercise can mitigate the cognitive decline associated with aging. |
Rare but Frequently Tested GRE Words
(25 words)| Word | Part of speech | Definition | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| turpitude | noun | Wickedness or depravity; morally reprehensible behavior. | The board cited moral turpitude as grounds for revoking his license to practice. |
| unctuous | adjective | Excessively flattering or ingratiating; oily or greasy. | His unctuous compliments failed to disguise the fact that he was seeking a personal favor. |
| meretricious | adjective | Apparently attractive but having in reality no value or integrity; falsely alluring. | The meretricious gloss of the campaign's advertising concealed a complete absence of policy substance. |
| pellucid | adjective | Transparently clear; easily understood; translucently clear. | His pellucid prose made even advanced concepts in quantum mechanics comprehensible to a general reader. |
| sycophant | noun | A person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain advantage; a flatterer. | A leader surrounded entirely by sycophants soon loses the honest feedback needed to make sound decisions. |
| calumny | noun | The making of false and defamatory statements in order to damage someone's reputation. | The calumny spread through the press effectively destroyed his career before any court had heard the case. |
| lassitude | noun | Physical or mental weariness; lack of energy. | After three weeks of intensive fieldwork, the researchers returned to the laboratory in a state of complete lassitude. |
| turpitude | noun | Base or shameful wickedness; depravity. | The charges involved moral turpitude, which automatically triggered a review of his professional standing. |
| maladroit | adjective | Ineffective or bungling; clumsy. | His maladroit handling of the press conference transformed a minor controversy into a major crisis. |
| mendicant | noun / adjective | A beggar; living as a beggar; relating to a mendicant friar. | The order required its members to live as mendicants, depending entirely on the charity of communities they served. |
| moribund | adjective | At the point of death; in terminal decline; lacking vitality. | The industry was widely described as moribund before a wave of technological innovation transformed it. |
| noisome | adjective | Having a very unpleasant smell; harmful or noxious. | The noisome conditions in the factory became a public health scandal when a journalist published photographs. |
| nescience | noun | Lack of knowledge or awareness; ignorance. | His confident pronouncements on the subject betrayed a profound nescience of the relevant scientific literature. |
| querulous | adjective | Complaining in a petulant or whining manner. | The querulous tone of his letters suggested a man convinced that the world had conspired against him. |
| saturnine | adjective | Slow and gloomy in temperament; having a forbidding appearance. | His saturnine expression made it impossible to tell whether the news pleased or displeased him. |
| tendentious | adjective | Expressing a particular point of view; biased. | The editorial was so tendentious that it read more like a political pamphlet than a news analysis. |
| timorous | adjective | Showing or suffering from nervousness or a lack of confidence; easily frightened. | The timorous intern was reluctant to voice her objection, even when she saw a clear error in the calculations. |
| tutelary | adjective / noun | Serving as a protector, guardian, or patron; a protective deity or spirit. | The organization's founders saw themselves in a tutelary role toward the next generation of researchers. |
| verisimilitude | noun | The appearance of being true or real; the quality of seeming probable or likely. | The novel's careful historical detail gave it a verisimilitude that transported readers to another century. |
| vituperate | verb | To blame or insult someone using abusive or violent language. | He vituperated against the decision in a public letter that scandalized even those who agreed with his position. |
| winnow | verb | To remove chaff from grain by blowing air through it; to reduce by separating out what is inferior. | The editorial team winnowed the three hundred submissions to a shortlist of twelve. |
| wizen | verb / adjective | To shrivel or cause to shrivel; shriveled or wrinkled with age. | The wizened matriarch's sharp eyes observed everything from her chair in the corner of the room. |
| abeyance | noun | A state of temporary inactivity or suspension. | The project remained in abeyance for two years while the organization awaited regulatory approval. |
| acrimony | noun | Bitterness or ill feeling, especially in speech or manner. | The negotiations ended in acrimony, with both sides publicly accusing the other of bad faith. |
| anodyne | adjective / noun | Not likely to cause offense or disagreement; a painkilling drug or measure. | The committee's anodyne statement satisfied no one, pleasing neither those who wanted action nor those who opposed change. |
Commonly Confused Pairs
(20 words)| Word | Part of speech | Definition | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| affect (v.) vs. effect (n.) | verb / noun | Affect = to have an impact on (verb). Effect = result or outcome (noun). | The policy will affect thousands of families; the long-term effect on housing prices remains unknown. |
| elicit vs. illicit | verb / adjective | Elicit = to draw out a response or reaction. Illicit = not permitted by law or custom. | The investigator used open-ended questions to elicit testimony about the illicit transactions. |
| ingenuous vs. ingenious | adjective / adjective | Ingenuous = innocent, unsuspecting. Ingenious = clever, original, inventive. | The ingenious solution was proposed by an ingenuous intern who had not yet learned to doubt the obvious. |
| disinterested vs. uninterested | adjective / adjective | Disinterested = impartial, objective, having no personal stake. Uninterested = not interested, indifferent. | We need a disinterested arbitrator — someone without a stake in the outcome, not merely an uninterested one. |
| mitigate vs. militate | verb / verb | Mitigate = to lessen severity or reduce harm. Militate = to have force or effect against something. | Wearing a helmet mitigates head injury risk, but poor road design militates against safe cycling even with protection. |
| fortuitous vs. fortunate | adjective / adjective | Fortuitous = happening by chance, not necessarily lucky. Fortunate = lucky. | Their meeting was entirely fortuitous; whether it was also fortunate depends on how the deal turns out. |
| refute vs. rebut | verb / verb | Refute = to prove wrong conclusively. Rebut = to argue against without necessarily proving wrong. | He could rebut every argument but never fully refuted the central statistical claim. |
| enervate vs. invigorate | verb / verb | Enervate = to drain energy; to weaken. Invigorate = to give strength or energy; to animate. | The oppressive heat of the first week enervated the team; the cooler second week invigorated them. |
| venal vs. venial | adjective / adjective | Venal = susceptible to bribery; corrupt. Venial = minor, pardonable. | The magistrate's venal acceptance of payment was far beyond a venial lapse in professional judgment. |
| flaunt vs. flout | verb / verb | Flaunt = to show off ostentatiously. Flout = to openly disregard a rule or convention. | He flaunted his new title while continuing to flout the firm's expense policy. |
| precipitate vs. precipitous | adjective / adjective | Precipitate = hasty, rash, sudden. Precipitous = extremely steep; also used loosely for sudden drops. | The precipitate decision to merge, made without due diligence, led to a precipitous decline in the combined firm's share price. |
| specious vs. spurious | adjective / adjective | Specious = superficially plausible but actually wrong. Spurious = not genuine; false; based on false reasoning. | The specious argument sounded convincing to a lay audience; statisticians quickly identified its spurious basis. |
| diffident vs. reticent | adjective / adjective | Diffident = modest or shy because of lack of self-confidence. Reticent = not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily. | She was diffident about promoting her own work and reticent about her personal life even among close colleagues. |
| tortuous vs. torturous | adjective / adjective | Tortuous = full of twists and turns; complex. Torturous = involving or causing severe pain or suffering. | The tortuous negotiations were torturous for both teams, stretching over eighteen months without resolution. |
| enormity vs. enormousness | noun / noun | Enormity = extreme evil or wickedness; great seriousness. Enormousness = very large size. | The enormity of the betrayal eclipsed any discussion of the enormousness of the financial loss. |
| laconic vs. terse | adjective / adjective | Laconic = using very few words; characteristically brief. Terse = sparing of words, often abruptly curt. | His laconic answers were never rude; her terse replies left colleagues feeling dismissed. |
| compliment vs. complement | noun / noun | Compliment = an expression of praise or admiration. Complement = a thing that completes or goes well with something. | He paid her a genuine compliment: her analytical approach was the perfect complement to his creative instincts. |
| austere vs. spartan | adjective / adjective | Austere = severe in attitude or appearance; strict; morally rigid. Spartan = lacking comfort; plain. | Her austere personality matched her spartan office: a desk, one chair, and nothing on the walls. |
| oblivious vs. unaware | adjective / adjective | Oblivious = not conscious or aware, often when one should be. Unaware = simply having no knowledge of. | She was unaware of the new regulation, though longtime staff were oblivious to its implications even after reading it. |
| comprise vs. compose | verb / verb | Comprise = to consist of, to include (the whole comprises the parts). Compose = to make up (the parts compose the whole). | The committee comprises twelve members; five junior researchers compose the working group. |
GRE Word Families
Learning word families multiplies your vocabulary quickly. Once you know one form, you can often recognize the others. The GRE tests nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs from the same root — knowing all forms is an advantage.
mal- (bad, evil)
malign (v/adj)to say harmful things about; evil in nature
malevolent (adj)having or showing a wish to do evil
malicious (adj)intending to do harm; deliberately hurtful
malefactor (n)a person who commits a crime or misdemeanor
malodorous (adj)smelling unpleasant; having a bad odor
malfeasance (n)wrongdoing or misconduct, especially by a public official
ben-/bene- (good, well)
benevolent (adj)well meaning and kindly; generous
benefactor (n)a person who gives financial or other support
benign (adj)gentle and kind; not harmful
beneficent (adj)resulting in good; doing or producing good
benevolence (n)the quality of being well meaning and kind
beneficiary (n)a person who benefits from something
luc-/lum- (light)
lucid (adj)expressed clearly; easy to understand; mentally clear
pellucid (adj)easily understood; translucently clear
elucidate (v)to make something clear; to explain
luminous (adj)full of or shedding light; bright and shining
translucent (adj)allowing light to pass through; semi-transparent
illumine (v)to light up; to make clear or reveal
ver- (truth)
veracious (adj)speaking or representing the truth; truthful
verisimilitude (n)the appearance of being true or real
verify (v)to make sure or demonstrate that something is true
verdict (n)a decision on a disputed issue; formal judgment
aver (v)to state or assert to be the case; to affirm
verity (n)a true principle or belief; something that is true
greg- (group, herd)
egregious (adj)outstandingly bad; remarkably offensive
gregarious (adj)fond of company; sociable
aggregate (n/v)a whole formed by combining elements; to collect into a mass
segregate (v)to set apart from the rest; to separate
congregate (v)to gather into a crowd or mass; to assemble
desegregate (v)to end the policy of racial segregation in
fid- (faith, trust)
fidelity (n)faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief
perfidious (adj)deceitful and untrustworthy; guilty of betrayal
diffident (adj)modest or shy because of lack of self-confidence
fiduciary (adj/n)involving trust; a person with a legal duty of trust
confide (v)to tell someone about a secret or private matter
infidel (n)a person who does not believe in religion or a particular religion
cred- (believe, trust)
credulous (adj)having too great a readiness to believe things; gullible
incredulous (adj)unwilling or unable to believe something; skeptical
credible (adj)able to be believed; convincing
discredit (v)to harm the good reputation of; to cause to lose credibility
creed (n)a system of beliefs or principles
credential (n)a qualification, achievement, or aspect of experience that makes one suitable
path- (feeling, disease)
apathy (n)lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern
antipathy (n)a deep-seated feeling of aversion; dislike
empathy (n)the ability to understand and share the feelings of another
sympathy (n)feelings of pity and sorrow for someone's misfortune
pathological (adj)relating to or caused by a mental or physical disorder; compulsive
pathos (n)a quality that evokes pity or sadness; the expression of deep feeling
Latin & Greek Roots
Mastering 50–70 roots lets you decode hundreds of unfamiliar GRE words instantly. When you encounter perspicacious for the first time, recognizing spec- (see) and -acious (tending to) lets you infer “tending to see clearly.” Study roots alongside words for exponential vocabulary growth.
Strategy: When you see an unfamiliar GRE word, break it into prefix + root + suffix. Even a partial recognition often narrows the answer down to one or two choices.
| Root | Origin | Core Meaning | GRE-Relevant Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACR- | Latin/Greek | sharp, bitter | acrimony, acrid, acrimonious, acerbic |
| ALT- | Latin | high | altitude, exalt, altimeter, alto |
| AMBI- | Latin | both, around | ambiguous, ambivalent, ambidextrous, ambient |
| ANIM- | Latin | mind, life, spirit | animosity, magnanimous, unanimous, animate |
| ANTHRO- | Greek | human | anthropology, philanthropy, misanthrope, anthropomorphic |
| AUD- | Latin | hear | auditory, audacious, audience, inaudible |
| BEN-, BON- | Latin | good, well | benevolent, benefactor, bonus, boon, benign |
| BELL- | Latin | war | bellicose, belligerent, antebellum, rebel |
| CAP-, CEPT- | Latin | take, seize | capture, receptive, inception, precept, capable |
| CEDE-, CEED-, CESS- | Latin | go, yield | recede, concede, secession, precede, excess |
| CHRON- | Greek | time | chronology, anachronism, synchronize, chronic |
| COGN- | Latin | know | cognizant, incognito, recognize, cognitive, precognition |
| COR-, CORD- | Latin | heart | cordial, discord, concord, courage, accord |
| CRED- | Latin | believe, trust | credulous, incredulous, credible, creed, credential |
| CULP- | Latin | blame, guilt | culpable, exculpate, inculpate, mea culpa |
| DIC-, DICT- | Latin | say, tell | dictate, contradict, predict, verdict, edict |
| DOC-, DOCT- | Latin | teach | docile, doctrine, indoctrinate, document, doctor |
| DUB- | Latin | doubt | dubious, indubitable, dubitable |
| DUC-, DUCT- | Latin | lead | induce, seduce, deduce, abduct, conductor |
| EQU- | Latin | equal, fair | equitable, equivocal, equanimity, equilibrium |
| EUPH- | Greek | well, good (sound) | euphony, euphemism, euphoria, euphonious |
| FAC-, FECT- | Latin | make, do | facilitate, artifact, affect, defect, proficient |
| FID- | Latin | faith, trust | fidelity, perfidious, diffident, confide, fiduciary |
| FLECT-, FLEX- | Latin | bend | reflect, inflect, deflect, flexible, genuflect |
| GRAPH-, GRAM- | Greek | write, draw | graphic, telegraph, diagram, biography, epigram |
| GRE-, GREG- | Latin | group, herd | egregious, gregarious, segregate, congregate, aggregate |
| HER-, HES- | Latin | stick, cling | adhere, cohesive, inherent, adhesive, incoherent |
| HYPER- | Greek | over, above, excessive | hyperbole, hypercritical, hyperactive, hypersensitive |
| JECT- | Latin | throw | project, reject, inject, dejected, conjecture |
| JUD-, JUR- | Latin | judge, law | judicial, adjudicate, jurisprudence, perjure, injunction |
| LEG-, LIG-, LECT- | Latin | choose, read, gather | elegant, diligent, intelligent, neglect, select, lecture |
| LOG-, LOGUE- | Greek | word, reason, study | logic, analogy, prologue, neologism, monologue |
| LOQ-, LOCUT- | Latin | speak | loquacious, eloquent, colloquy, circumlocution, elocution |
| LUC-, LUX- | Latin | light | lucid, pellucid, elucidate, translucent, luminous |
| MAL-, MALE- | Latin | bad, evil | malevolent, malign, malicious, malefactor, malodorous |
| MIS-, MISO- | Greek | hate | misanthrope, misogyny, misology, misanthropy |
| MIT-, MISS- | Latin | send | transmit, omit, remit, missile, permission, emissary |
| MON-, MONO- | Latin/Greek | warn; alone, single | monitor, admonish, monologue, monotonous, monopoly |
| MUT- | Latin | change | mutation, immutable, transmute, permutation, commute |
| NOM-, NAM- | Greek/Latin | name, law | nomenclature, nominal, anonymous, autonomy, taxonomy |
| OMNI- | Latin | all | omniscient, omnipotent, omnivore, omnipresent |
| PATH- | Greek | feeling, disease | apathy, antipathy, empathy, pathology, sympathy |
| PED-, POD- | Greek/Latin | foot; child | pedantic, pediatrics, pedometer, podiatry, expedition |
| PHIL- | Greek | love | philosophy, philanthropy, philharmonic, bibliophile, philology |
| PLAC- | Latin | please, appease | placate, implacable, complacent, placid, placebo |
| POLY- | Greek | many | polysyllabic, polygraph, polymorphic, polyglot, polygon |
| POTEN-, POTENT- | Latin | power | potent, omnipotent, impotent, potential, plenipotentiary |
| PROB-, PROV- | Latin | test, prove, good | probe, probity, approve, reprove, probable, provenance |
| SCRIB-, SCRIPT- | Latin | write | describe, prescribe, proscribe, inscribe, transcript, conscript |
| SENT-, SENS- | Latin | feel, sense | sentient, dissent, assent, sensitive, sensory, sentinel |
| SEQU-, SECUT- | Latin | follow | sequence, consequence, non sequitur, obsequious, persecute |
| SIMIL-, SIMUL- | Latin | same, like | similar, simulate, assimilate, verisimilitude, simulacrum |
| SOLV-, SOLUT- | Latin | loosen, free | dissolve, absolve, resolute, irresolute, solvent |
| SON- | Latin | sound | sonorous, consonant, dissonance, resonant, unison |
| SPEC-, SPIC- | Latin | look, see | specious, perspicacious, conspicuous, retrospect, inspect |
| TANG-, TACT- | Latin | touch | tangible, intangible, tactile, contact, contiguous, intact |
| TEND-, TENS-, TENT- | Latin | stretch | tendentious, contentious, tension, distend, portend |
| TEN-, TAIN- | Latin | hold | tenacious, untenable, abstain, pertain, retentive |
| TRACT- | Latin | pull, draw | intractable, tractable, distract, extract, abstract, detract |
| TRANS- | Latin | across, change | transmute, transgress, transparent, transient, transition |
| TURB- | Latin | agitate, confuse | turbulent, perturb, disturb, imperturbable, turbid |
| VEN-, VENT- | Latin | come | convene, intervene, contravene, advent, circumvent |
| VER- | Latin | truth | veracious, verify, verisimilitude, verdict, aver |
| VERS-, VERT- | Latin | turn | aversion, subvert, divert, revert, introvert, versatile |
| VOC-, VOK- | Latin | call, voice | equivocate, revoke, invoke, evocative, vociferous, provoke |
| VOL- | Latin | wish, will | voluntary, benevolent, malevolent, volition, involuntary |
How to study GRE vocabulary effectively
Learn words in GRE-style sentences
Don't just memorize definitions — study words in the kinds of sentences the GRE uses. Academic, formal prose shows you the precise register in which each word appears on the exam.
Group words by connotation, not just meaning
For Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence, you often need to know whether a word is positive, negative, or neutral. Group your study list by emotional charge, not just alphabetically.
Use spaced repetition
Review new words at increasing intervals — after 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks. Spaced repetition software (like Anki) is highly effective for internalizing hundreds of words.
Know the full word family
Learn noun, verb, adjective, and adverb forms together: equivocate / equivocation / equivocal. This multiplies your usable vocabulary and helps on Reading Comprehension passages.
Study confused pairs deliberately
GRE questions sometimes hinge on pairs like venal/venial or tortuous/torturous. Keep a dedicated list of easily confused words and test yourself on them weekly.
Learn 5–10 new roots per week
Roots multiply your ability to decode unfamiliar words. Once you know that 'luc-' means light, you can handle pellucid, elucidate, and translucent without having studied them directly.
See these words in GRE-style questions
Browse authentic GRE sample questions — Text Completion, Sentence Equivalence, and Reading Comprehension — with full answer explanations.
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