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SAT Vocabulary 002: All 120 Words
Every word in this quiz with its definition, pronunciation, and the completed SAT-style passage. Tap a word to open its flashcard.
Show all 120 words
| Word | Definition | In context |
|---|---|---|
| abate | to become less intense or widespread \ə-ˈbāt\ | Residents were told to stay indoors until the storm began to abate; by evening the winds had dropped from 120 to 30 kilometers per hour. |
| aberration | a departure from what is normal or expected \ˌa-bə-ˈrā-shən\ | The team’s loss was an aberration rather than a sign of decline: they had won their previous forty games and won the next twenty as well. |
| acclaim | enthusiastic public praise \ə-ˈklām\ | The novel won wide acclaim when it was published: critics called it a masterpiece, and it topped bestseller lists for a year. |
| accolade | an award or expression of praise \ˈa-kə-ˌlād\ | The Nobel Prize remains the highest accolade in chemistry, and many winners say that receiving it changed their careers overnight. |
| accommodate | to provide room for; to adjust to fit someone’s needs \ə-ˈkä-mə-ˌdāt\ | The new library was designed to accommodate more than 2,000 readers at once, with reading rooms on every floor. |
| acquiesce | to accept something reluctantly but without protest \ˌa-kwē-ˈes\ | Although the council members disliked the king’s new tax, they had no army to resist him, so they decided to acquiesce and collect it. |
| acute | severe or intense; sharp and perceptive \ə-ˈkyüt\ | Owls have an acute sense of hearing: they can locate a mouse moving under a foot of snow in complete darkness. |
| adamant | refusing to change one’s mind \ˈa-də-mənt\ | The mayor remained adamant that the park would not be sold, rejecting three offers from developers despite pressure from the council. |
| adept | very skilled or proficient \ə-ˈdept\ | The violinist was so adept at improvising that she could create an entirely new melody on the spot whenever the audience called out a theme. |
| adhere | to stick to; to follow a rule or belief closely \əd-ˈhir\ | For the results to be valid, every lab in the study had to adhere to the same procedure, measuring samples at exactly the same temperature. |
| advent | the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event \ˈad-ˌvent\ | Before the advent of the railroad, a trip from New York to Chicago took weeks; afterward, it took less than two days. |
| adverse | harmful or unfavorable \ad-ˈvərs\ | The medicine was withdrawn after doctors reported adverse effects, including dizziness and dangerously low blood pressure. |
| adversity | difficulties or misfortune \ad-ˈvər-sə-tē\ | The memoir tells how the author overcame adversity: she lost her home in a fire, worked two jobs, and still finished medical school. |
| aesthetic | concerned with beauty or artistic taste \es-ˈthe-tik\ | The architect chose curved wooden beams for aesthetic reasons rather than practical ones: steel would have been cheaper, but she wanted the hall to look warm and graceful. |
| affinity | a natural liking for or attraction to something \ə-ˈfi-nə-tē\ | From early childhood, the poet felt a strong affinity for the sea; nearly every poem she wrote mentions waves, tides, or ships. |
| affirm | to state as true; to support or confirm \ə-ˈfərm\ | The Supreme Court’s ruling affirmed the lower court’s decision, agreeing that the law was constitutional. |
| affluent | having a great deal of money; wealthy \ˈa-(ˌ)flü-ənt\ | Although the town is now affluent, with large houses and luxury shops, a century ago most of its residents were poor fishermen. |
| alacrity | cheerful readiness or eagerness \ə-ˈla-krə-tē\ | When the teacher asked for volunteers to care for the class rabbit, the children raised their hands with such alacrity that several nearly fell off their chairs. |
| allocate | to distribute resources for a particular purpose \ˈa-lə-ˌkāt\ | The city council voted to allocate half of the new budget to repairing schools and the rest to public transportation. |
| aloof | distant and cool; not friendly or involved \ə-ˈlüf\ | At parties the new neighbor seemed aloof, standing alone by the window and answering questions with a single word. |
| altruistic | showing selfless concern for others \ˌal-trü-ˈis-tik\ | Some vampire bats display altruistic behavior: a well-fed bat will share its meal with a hungry neighbor, even one that is not related to it. |
| amass | to gather or collect a large amount over time \ə-ˈmas\ | Over fifty years, the librarian managed to amass more than 40,000 rare books, which she later donated to the university. |
| ameliorate | to make something bad or unsatisfactory better \ə-ˈmēl-yə-ˌrāt\ | The new bus lanes were introduced to ameliorate the city’s traffic problems, and commute times have since fallen by fifteen percent. |
| amenable | open and responsive to suggestion; easily persuaded \ə-ˈmē-nə-bəl\ | Because the manager was amenable to new ideas, employees felt comfortable suggesting changes, and many of their proposals were adopted. |
| amend | to make minor changes in order to improve \ə-ˈmend\ | Since 1789, Congress has voted to amend the U.S. Constitution only twenty-seven times, adding changes such as the right of women to vote. |
| ample | enough or more than enough; plentiful \ˈam-pəl\ | The study’s conclusions are supported by ample evidence: more than 200 experiments across ten countries produced the same results. |
| anachronistic | belonging to a period other than the one portrayed \ə-ˌna-krə-ˈnis-tik\ | Viewers laughed at the film about ancient Rome when they noticed an anachronistic detail: one soldier was clearly wearing a wristwatch. |
| analogy | a comparison between two things that explains one by the other \ə-ˈna-lə-jē\ | To explain how the heart works, the teacher used an analogy, comparing it to a pump that pushes water through the pipes of a house. |
| anecdote | a short, interesting story about a real incident or person \ˈa-nik-ˌdōt\ | The speaker opened her talk with a funny anecdote about the day her grandfather tried to teach a goat to ride a bicycle. |
| antagonism | active hostility or opposition \an-ˈta-gə-ˌni-zəm\ | The long antagonism between the two families began with a dispute over land and lasted for three generations. |
| anticipate | to expect or predict and prepare for \an-ˈti-sə-ˌpāt\ | The organizers did not anticipate such a large crowd; they had printed 500 programs, but more than 3,000 people arrived. |
| antithetical | directly opposed or contrary \ˌan-tə-ˈthe-ti-kəl\ | The general argued that censorship was antithetical to the values of a free republic, since a free people must be able to read and debate any idea. |
| apathetic | showing no interest, enthusiasm, or concern \ˌa-pə-ˈthe-tik\ | Only 12 percent of eligible voters took part in the local election, leading officials to worry that young residents had become apathetic about city government. |
| apex | the top or highest point \ˈā-ˌpeks\ | The empire reached its apex around 117 CE, when its territory stretched from Britain to the Persian Gulf; after that, it slowly began to shrink. |
| apprehensive | anxious that something bad will happen \ˌa-pri-ˈhen(t)-siv\ | Before her first performance, the young pianist felt apprehensive: her hands shook, and she kept imagining that she would forget the music. |
| aptitude | a natural ability to do something \ˈap-tə-ˌtüd\ | Even as a child, the future engineer showed an aptitude for mechanics, taking apart clocks and radios and reassembling them perfectly. |
| arduous | involving or requiring great effort; difficult and tiring \ˈär-jə-wəs\ | The pioneers’ journey west was arduous: for five months they walked beside their wagons, crossing rivers, deserts, and mountains. |
| articulate | able to express ideas clearly and effectively \är-ˈti-kyə-lət\ | The young activist was remarkably articulate: in a two-minute speech, she explained a complicated issue so clearly that the entire audience understood. |
| artifact | an object made by a human being, especially one of historical interest \ˈär-ti-ˌfakt\ | Among the artifacts found at the site were clay pots, bronze tools, and a carved bone flute that is about 9,000 years old. |
| ascribe | to regard something as caused by or belonging to someone or something \ə-ˈskrīb\ | Early sailors ascribed the glowing waves to sea spirits, but scientists now know that the light comes from tiny organisms called dinoflagellates. |
| assert | to state a fact or belief confidently and forcefully \ə-ˈsərt\ | In her paper, the economist asserts that small businesses create most new jobs, and she supports this claim with data from forty countries. |
| assiduous | showing great care and persistence \ə-ˈsi-jə-wəs\ | Thanks to her assiduous observation, recording the behavior of the same chimpanzees every day for years, Jane Goodall made discoveries that others had missed. |
| assimilate | to absorb and integrate information or people \ə-ˈsi-mə-ˌlāt\ | New employees are given a full week of training to help them assimilate the large amount of information they need about the company’s systems. |
| astute | having an ability to judge situations accurately and to profit from them \ə-ˈst(y)üt\ | An astute investor, she sold her shares just weeks before the market crashed, having noticed warning signs that most analysts ignored. |
| attrition | a gradual reduction in number or strength \ə-ˈtri-shən\ | The company did not fire anyone; instead, it reduced its staff through attrition, simply not replacing workers who retired or left. |
| audacious | showing a willingness to take bold risks \ȯ-ˈdā-shəs\ | Amelia Earhart’s plan to fly solo across the Atlantic was considered audacious in 1932; no woman had done it before, and many experienced pilots had died trying. |
| austere | severe or strict; plain and without decoration \ȯ-ˈstir\ | Unlike the richly decorated palaces of the time, the monastery was austere: bare stone walls, wooden benches, and no ornaments of any kind. |
| banal | so lacking in originality as to be boring \bə-ˈnal\ | Critics found the play’s dialogue banal: characters spoke only in tired clichés such as "time flies" and "love conquers all." |
| belligerent | hostile and aggressive \bə-ˈlij-rənt\ | The customer grew belligerent, shouting at the staff and refusing to leave, until security guards had to escort him out. |
| benevolent | well meaning and kind \bə-ˈnev-lənt\ | The benevolent factory owner built free schools and clinics for his workers’ families, which was rare in the 1800s. |
| benign | gentle and harmless; not dangerous \bi-ˈnīn\ | Doctors were relieved to find that the tumor was benign; it was not cancer and would not spread to other parts of the body. |
| bias | prejudice for or against something, especially in an unfair way \ˈbī-əs\ | To avoid bias, the scientists did not know which patients received the real drug and which received the placebo until the study ended. |
| blatant | done openly and unashamedly; very obvious \ˈblā-tᵊnt\ | The referee was criticized for missing such a blatant foul: the player had clearly grabbed his opponent’s shirt in front of thousands of fans. |
| bleak | bare and unwelcoming; not hopeful or encouraging \ˈblēk\ | The novel opens on a bleak winter landscape: gray skies, frozen fields, and not a single tree or house in sight. |
| brazen | bold and without shame \ˈbrā-zᵊn\ | In a brazen robbery, the thieves entered the museum in daylight, took the painting from the wall, and walked out the front door. |
| breadth | wide range or extent \ˈbredth\ | Leonardo da Vinci was famous for the breadth of his interests, which included painting, anatomy, engineering, music, and botany. |
| buttress | to support or strengthen \ˈbə-trəs\ | The lawyer used phone records and security video to buttress her argument that the defendant was at home on the night of the crime. |
| callous | showing an insensitive disregard for others \ˈka-ləs\ | The landlord’s callous response shocked the tenants: when told that a family’s heater was broken in January, he said it was "not his problem." |
| capitalize | to take advantage of; to make use of \ˈka-pə-tᵊl-ˌīz\ | The team was quick to capitalize on its opponent’s mistakes, scoring twice within minutes after two careless passes. |
| capricious | given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior \kə-ˈpri-shəs\ | Mountain weather is notoriously capricious: a sunny morning can turn into a snowstorm by noon, so climbers must always carry warm clothing. |
| cede | to give up power or territory \ˈsēd\ | After losing the war, the country was forced to cede its northern provinces to its neighbor, losing nearly a third of its land. |
| circumspect | wary and unwilling to take risks \ˈsər-kəm-ˌspekt\ | Diplomats must be circumspect when speaking in public, since a single careless word can damage relations between two nations. |
| cite | to quote or refer to as evidence \ˈsīt\ | Researchers must cite every source they use, listing the authors and dates so that readers can check the original studies. |
| clandestine | kept secret or done secretively \klan-ˈdes-tən\ | During the war, the resistance held clandestine meetings in cellars at night, using code names so that no one could be identified. |
| coerce | to persuade someone by using force or threats \kō-ˈərs\ | Historians say the confession was not voluntary: officials had tried to coerce the prisoner by threatening his family. |
| cogent | clear, logical, and convincing \ˈkō-jənt\ | The student’s essay presented such a cogent argument, supported by careful data and clear reasoning, that even skeptical judges were persuaded. |
| coherent | logical and consistent; forming a unified whole \kō-ˈhir-ənt\ | The first draft jumped randomly between topics, but after revision the essay was coherent, with each paragraph leading naturally to the next. |
| cohesive | united and working together effectively \kō-ˈhē-siv\ | Although the players came from eight different countries, the coach turned them into a cohesive team that communicated well and trusted one another. |
| collaborative | produced or done by two or more parties working together \kə-ˈla-bə-rə-tiv\ | The mapping of the human genome was a collaborative effort involving thousands of scientists from twenty institutions in six countries. |
| commend | to praise formally or officially \kə-ˈmend\ | The fire chief publicly commended the two teenagers who had pulled a neighbor from a burning house before firefighters arrived. |
| commensurate | corresponding in size or degree; in proportion \kə-ˈmen(t)s-rət\ | Workers argued that their pay should be commensurate with their experience, so that someone with twenty years in the job would earn more than a beginner. |
| compel | to force or require someone to do something \kəm-ˈpel\ | A sudden storm compelled the explorers to abandon their attempt to reach the summit only 200 meters from the top. |
| complement | to add to something in a way that improves it \ˈkäm-plə-ˌment\ | The museum chose soft lighting to complement the paintings, bringing out their colors without creating glare. |
| complicit | involved with others in wrongdoing \kəm-ˈpli-sət\ | The report concluded that several managers were complicit in the fraud: although they did not steal the money, they knew about it and hid the evidence. |
| comply | to act according to a rule or request \kəm-ˈplī\ | Factories that fail to comply with the new pollution limits will be fined and may be forced to close. |
| conciliatory | intended to make peace or reduce anger \kən-ˈsi-lē-ə-ˌtȯr-ē\ | After weeks of angry exchanges, the president adopted a more conciliatory tone, praising her rival’s service and inviting him to discuss their differences. |
| concise | giving information clearly in few words \kən-ˈsīs\ | The editor asked the author to make the introduction more concise, cutting it from five pages to a single paragraph without losing any key points. |
| conclusive | serving to prove a case; ending doubt \kən-ˈklü-siv\ | Earlier studies suggested a link, but the new DNA evidence was conclusive: it proved beyond doubt that the two species were closely related. |
| concur | to agree \kən-ˈkər\ | Several independent panels have examined the data, and they all concur that the bridge is safe for traffic. |
| condescending | showing that one feels superior to others \ˌkän-di-ˈsen-diŋ\ | The tour guide’s condescending manner annoyed the visitors; he explained simple things slowly, as if they were small children. |
| condone | to accept or allow behavior that is wrong \kən-ˈdōn\ | The principal made it clear that the school would not condone cheating; any student caught copying answers would fail the course. |
| confer | to grant a title or honor; to discuss \kən-ˈfər\ | In 1903, the university decided to confer an honorary degree on Marie Curie in recognition of her research. |
| confound | to surprise or confuse, especially by acting against expectations \kən-ˈfau̇nd\ | The tiny bird continues to confound researchers: although it weighs less than a coin, it flies nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico. |
| consistent | unchanging over time; in agreement with \kən-ˈsis-tənt\ | The new measurements were consistent with earlier findings, showing the same pattern of rising temperatures recorded in the 1990s. |
| consolidate | to make stronger; to combine into a single unit \kən-ˈsä-lə-ˌdāt\ | After winning the battle, the king moved quickly to consolidate his power, combining the small territories he controlled into a single, united kingdom. |
| conspire | to make secret plans to do something harmful \kən-ˈspī(-ə)r\ | In 44 BCE, more than sixty senators conspired to kill Julius Caesar, meeting secretly for weeks before the attack. |
| constrain | to limit or restrict \kən-ˈstrān\ | The size of an island can constrain the growth of animals living there; with little food, many island species evolve to be smaller than their mainland relatives. |
| construe | to interpret a word or action in a particular way \kən-ˈstrü\ | His silence during the meeting was construed as agreement, although he later said he had simply been too tired to argue. |
| contemporary | living or occurring at the same time; modern \kən-ˈtem-pə-ˌrer-ē\ | Historians rely on contemporary accounts, such as letters and diaries written during the war itself, rather than memories recorded decades later. |
| contempt | the feeling that someone or something is worthless \kən-ˈtem(p)t\ | The proud duke treated the servants with contempt, refusing to learn their names and speaking to them only to give orders. |
| contend | to argue or claim; to struggle against \kən-ˈtend\ | Some astronomers contend that a ninth planet exists beyond Neptune, pointing to the strange orbits of several distant objects as evidence. |
| contradict | to say or show the opposite of \ˌkän-trə-ˈdikt\ | The new fossil seemed to contradict the accepted timeline, since it showed that birds existed millions of years earlier than scientists had believed. |
| contrite | feeling or expressing remorse \kən-ˈtrīt\ | The boy was genuinely contrite after breaking the window; he apologized, offered to pay with his savings, and helped clean up the glass. |
| conundrum | a confusing and difficult problem \kə-ˈnən-drəm\ | The mysterious lights over the lake posed a conundrum for scientists: they appeared every summer, but no one could explain what caused them. |
| conventional | based on what is generally done; ordinary \kən-ˈven(t)-shnəl\ | Unlike conventional cars, which burn gasoline, the new model runs entirely on electricity stored in batteries. |
| convey | to communicate or make known; to carry \kən-ˈvā\ | Without using a single word, the dancer managed to convey deep grief through slow, heavy movements of her arms. |
| conviction | a firmly held belief \kən-ˈvik-shən\ | Gandhi spoke with such conviction about nonviolence that millions of people followed his example, even when they were attacked. |
| copious | abundant; in large amounts \ˈkō-pē-əs\ | The student took copious notes during the lecture, filling twelve pages with diagrams and details. |
| cordial | warm and friendly \ˈkȯr-jəl\ | Although the two countries had once been enemies, their leaders’ meeting was cordial: they shook hands, shared a meal, and joked about football. |
| correlation | a connection in which two things change together \ˌkȯr-ə-ˈlā-shən\ | Researchers found a strong correlation between hours of sleep and test scores: students who slept more tended to score higher. |
| corrosive | tending to damage gradually \kə-ˈrō-siv\ | Salt from winter roads is highly corrosive; over time it eats away at the metal of cars and bridges, causing rust. |
| covert | not openly acknowledged or displayed; secret \ˈkō-vərt\ | During the Cold War, both sides ran covert operations, sending spies abroad under false identities. |
| credence | belief in or acceptance of something as true \ˈkrē-dᵊn(t)s\ | The discovery of similar fossils on both continents gave credence to the idea that Africa and South America were once joined. |
| credulous | too ready to believe things \ˈkre-jə-ləs\ | The con artist targeted credulous tourists, convincing them that a fake "ancient coin" was worth thousands of dollars. |
| criterion | a standard by which something is judged \krī-ˈtir-ē-ən\ | For the scholarship, the most important criterion is not grades but community service: applicants must have volunteered at least 100 hours. |
| cryptic | having a meaning that is mysterious or obscure \ˈkrip-tik\ | The detective puzzled over the cryptic note left at the scene, which read only "The owl knows the hour." |
| culminate | to reach a climax or point of highest development \ˈkəl-mə-ˌnāt\ | Years of protests culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, when crowds finally crossed freely between East and West. |
| culpable | deserving blame \ˈkəl-pə-bəl\ | The investigation found the company culpable for the oil spill, since managers had ignored repeated warnings about the damaged pipe. |
| cultivate | to develop or improve by effort; to grow crops \ˈkəl-tə-ˌvāt\ | Reading widely is one of the best ways to cultivate a rich vocabulary, since it exposes you to thousands of words in context. |
| cumbersome | large or heavy and therefore difficult to carry or use \ˈkəm-bər-səm\ | Early computers were cumbersome machines that filled entire rooms and weighed several tons. |
| dearth | a scarcity or lack of something \ˈdərth\ | The town suffers from a dearth of doctors: only two serve a population of 30,000. |
| debunk | to expose the falseness of an idea or belief \dē-ˈbəŋk\ | Scientists set out to debunk the popular myth that people use only ten percent of their brains, showing with brain scans that almost all regions are active. |
| decipher | to convert a code into normal language; to interpret \di-ˈsī-fər\ | The Rosetta Stone, which carries the same text in three scripts, finally allowed scholars to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs in the 1820s. |
| decry | to publicly denounce \di-ˈkrī\ | Environmental groups decried the plan to drill in the wildlife refuge, calling it a threat to caribou and migrating birds. |
| deduce | to arrive at a conclusion by reasoning \di-ˈdüs\ | From the shape of the dinosaur’s teeth, paleontologists can deduce that it ate mostly fish. |
| deem | to regard or consider in a specified way \ˈdēm\ | The bridge was closed after inspectors deemed it unsafe; cracks had appeared in two of its main supports. |
| defer | to postpone; to yield to someone’s judgment \di-ˈfər\ | Because the expert knew far more about the subject, the committee chose to defer to her judgment and approved her recommendation. |
| deficit | the amount by which something is too small; a shortfall \ˈde-fə-sət\ | Because the city spent $3 million more than it collected in taxes, it faced a large budget deficit. |
| definitive | final and authoritative; the most reliable \di-ˈfi-nə-tiv\ | Her biography of Lincoln is considered definitive: it took twenty years to write and draws on every surviving letter he wrote. |
| deft | quick and skillful \ˈdeft\ | With a few deft cuts of her scissors, the paper artist turned a plain sheet into an intricate snowflake. |
About SAT Vocabulary 002
The Digital SAT Reading and Writing section includes Words in Context questions that test whether you can choose the most logical and precise word for a short academic passage about science, history, social studies, or literature. This free quiz collects 120 high-frequency SAT words and puts each one in a realistic passage, so you learn not just the dictionary meaning but also how the word is used.
The words include adjectives such as plausible, meticulous, ambivalent, and ubiquitous; verbs such as corroborate, mitigate, undermine, and supplant; and nouns such as catalyst, consensus, and precedent. Many wrong choices are themselves SAT words, so every question helps you review several words at once.
- Two question types: Words in Context (SAT style) and Definition Match.
- Explanations for every choice: why the answer fits the clues, and why each of the other choices does not.
- Retry Missed Words: practice only the words you got wrong.
- Flashcards: the word, its pronunciation, and an example on the front; definition, synonyms, the SAT passage, and a word tip on the back.
- Search: find any SAT word, definition, or passage across all SAT quizzes.
- Games: answer with a combo for a pachinko-style bonus, earn a perfect score to fly a dragon, or pilot a biplane in the SAT Aerobatic Flight game.