SAT Verbal Prep

pusillanimous	lacking courage”The pusillanimous lion was not much help to the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Dorothy.”
malady	disorder or disease of the body”The singer’s malady caused her to give up her recording career.”
reparation	making of amends for a wrongdoing”Some people believe reparations should be made to the ancestors of slaves.”
taunt	to challenge in a sarcastic or insulting way”A bully will often taunt another student to get the victim to attack first.”
exasperate	annoy; bother”The fly exasperated the diners by flying around their food.”
buttress	architectural support arch”The Cathedral at Notre Dame has many flying buttresses.”
acrimony	bitterness; harshness”The couple’s acrimonious relationship ended in divorce.”
admonish	to gently warn”The teacher admonished the texters to pay attention to the lesson.”
assiduous	hard-working; attentive to detail”Assiduous planning made for an exceptionally impressive project.”
felicity	the state of being happy”The winner’s felicity was obvious by the smile on her face.”
maudlin	tearfully emotional”The mother became maudlin upon hearing of her child’s deadly disease.”
nascent	emerging”The singer’s nascent talent was evident in her first album.”
ignominious	shameful”Her ignominious actions embarrassed the whole country.”
guile	trickery”Winning a war sometimes takes clever guile and surprise attacks.”
placate	soothe”We will try to placate your fear of the unknown.”
altruism	unselfish giving”The altruism of the Red Cross is well-known.”
sobriquet	nickname”What is the sobriquet you call your best friend?”
denigrate	defame”Political ads often denigrate the opponent’s record.”
brusque	blunt, often rudely to the point”Arnold gave a brusque reply to my request for him to stop smoking.”
itinerant	traveling”The itinerant salesman put hundreds of miles on his car every day.”
laudatory	praising”The teacher wrote laudatory comments on all of the papers that exceeded the standards.”
obdurate	stubborn”The obdurate animal was hard to work with on the set.”
pernicious	very harmful”The pernicious disease almost wiped out the entire population of France.”
natatorium	enclosed aquatic building”The Olympic-size pool was the centerpiece of the natatorium.”
truculent	vicious”The mother began a truculent attack on the intruders, killing three of the hyenas.”
vis-a-vis	face to face”We sat vis-a-vis during the competition.”
reticent	quiet”In hospital zones, drivers are asked to be as reticent as possible.”
arid	dry”The Sahara Desert is one of the most arid regions on Earth.”
helve	handle”Derrick attached the helve to the shaft.”
flatulence	excessive gas”Flatulence in the classroom is often met with abhorrence.”
expeditious	efficient”The expeditious handling of the delivery allowed us extra time to plan the meeting.”
laconic	concise”The laconic speaker took only a few minutes of our time.”
laconic	concise”The laconic speaker took only a few minutes of our time.”
serendipity	accidental fortune”By serendipity, she located the treasure with no map or compass.”
culminate	reach the highest point”The long round of talks culminated with an agreement not to strike.”
hierarchy	organizational structure”It is sometimes hard to rise up in the hierarchy of an established corporation.”
minutiae	tiny details”Please, just cover the main points and avoid the minutiae.”
rhetoric	persuasive use of “At first we thought he meant what he said, but it turns out it was only rhetoric.”
incontrovertible	indisputable”The video was incontrovertible proof that the police used brutality during the arrest.”
torpor	laziness”The hot and humid weather brought torpor to the crowd.”
disparity	difference”The disparity in their ages caused people to wonder why they loved each other.”
ebullience	enthusiasm”The crowd’s ebullience intensified with every goal scored.”
egregious	conspicuously “Not sterilizing surgical equipment would be an egregious error before an operation.”
mollify	calm”A kind word will often mollify an upset child.”
spurious.	false”Claiming the team was undefeated, when actually they had lost the first game of the season, was a spurious remark.”
clandestine	secretive”Clandestine maneuvers can be spoiled by an information leak.”
disingenuous	not straightforward”It was hard to trust Michelle because most of her answers were disingenuous.”
surreptitiously	secretly”Matt drank the cough syrup surreptitiously; he did not want anyone to know he was sick.”
wily	clever”The wily coyote devised all sorts of elaborate traps to catch the roadrunner.”
solvent	able to pay the bills”After years of losing money, the restaurant finally solved its financial problems and became solvent.”
venerated	highly respected”Once venerated, Jefferson’s reputation was tarnished by recent revelations.”
copious	plentiful”She had taken copious notes during class, using up five large notebooks.”
conflagration	widespread fire”It took three hours and a million gallons of water to extinguish the conflagration.”
pervasive	widespread”In this part of town, graffiti is pervasive – it’s everywhere!”
prodigious	enormous”The shattered vase required a prodigious amount of glue to repair.”
replete	filled”After two hours of trick-or-treating, Dee’s bag was replete with Halloween candy.”
candor	sincerity”It is refreshing to hear Candice’s candor.”
subjugate	subdue, control”They tried to subjugate the belligerent child, but she broke free and bit the principal.”
tortuous	twisting, winding “The Audi roadster handled the tortuous road as if it were nothing.”
unassailable	not open to doubt”By finding his cheat sheet, we now have unassailable proof that he did not pass the test on his own.”
diffident	hesitant”She began the climb diffidently, but by the time she reached the first plateau she grew comfortable and quickened her pace.”
contrite	sorrowful”We do not feel contrite about ridding our attic of squirrels and messy birds.”
burgeoned	grew quickly”The population of large cities in the South burgeoned when hurricane refugees moved in.”
atrophy	decrease in size and strength”When you don’t exercise, your muscles atrophy.”
stringent	strict, and not open to be relaxed”They say teachers shouldn’t smile until Christmas, meaning that they should start off with stringent rules and relax them later.”
cacophony	displeasing and harsh”What is sweet euphony to us is often cacophony to our parents.”
levity	humor”Sometimes a bad situation can be mitigated with a little levity to lighten things up.”
resolute	firmly determined”Dexter was resolute in his actions.”
subjective	opinionated”In a trial, your spouse is not required to testify because subjective responses are expected.”
rancor	bitterness”Margaret had a feeling of rancor when she found out her lover had been lying to her.”
tawdry	showy, but cheap”The star’s look was tawdry.”
whet	excited”Film previews/trailers are meant to whet your feelings to see the whole movie.”
evanescent	fleeting”The flash from a camera is evanescent, although the effects on your eyes may linger.”
abeyance	a state of temporary”Although the disease was in abeyance, we feared it would soon devastate his weak body.”
canons	rules”It was the church’s canons that no minister could marry.”
supplant	replace”Someone will sooner or later supplant our president.”
ostracize	exclude from favor”In socially primitive cultures, people are often ostracized for their race, creed, or beliefs.”
nocturnal	pertaining to the night”The nocturnal actions of the owl necessitate extremely keen vision.”
veracious	truthful “Veracious people are likely to be more trusted than those who deceive.”
voracious	greedy”The voracious king wanted everything he touched to turn to gold.”
pauper	extremely poor person”The paupers of Europe had no money, no influence, and no hope.”
vitriolic	chemically or verbally burning”Her vitriolic comments made the children cry.”
blithe	cheerful”The blithe clown made everyone happy at the party.”
zenith	high point”The zenith of Michael Jackson’s career was the period following the album Thriller.”
enervate	physically wear out”After the grueling test, the majority of the students were enervated and needed a break.”
apocryphal	fictitious”The Last Samurai is a great apocryphal film, yet it also involved realistic principles of the samurai.”
didactic	instructive”Because the game was didactic, it helped us to learn the lesson.”
fickle	changeable”One sex is always accusing the other of being fickle.”
quixotic	extremely idealistic”Pretending you’re a knight is one thing, but attacking windmills that you call dragons is a bit quixotic.”
insipid	uninteresting “Once a recording artist puts out an insipid album, it’s hard to get his or her audience back.”
laud	praise”Titus chose to laud his newborn baby boy by bragging about him to his friends.”
ambivalent	uncertain “His brother is ambivalent about going to college.”
omnipotent	all-powerful “Many Greek Gods are omnipotent.”
temerity	reckless behavior”When driving a car, one should avoid temerity.”
rue	regret “People usually rue the day they drop out of school.”
prerogative	privilege”The prerogative of the citizens is to chose their leaders.”
fallacies	incorrect ideas “His website introduced too many fallacies.”
auspicious	favorable “Our team got off to an auspicious start by scoring seven runs in the first inning.”
gullible	easily fooled “The gullible man bought a used nail for ten dollars.”
parochial	narrow”The four year old had a parochial grasp on how the world works.”
defer	yield”It is probably wise to defer to the principal if it obvious she is not going to change her mind.”
disseminate	spread”I hope my idea disseminates to everyone at Central High.”