THE MASTER WORD LIST
The more you study actual SAT critical reading questions, the more you realize one thing: the key to doing well on the critical reading portions of the SAT is a strong working vocabulary of college-level words. And the key to building that strong working vocabulary can be summed up in one word: READ.
Read widely, read deeply, read daily. If you do, your vocabulary will grow. If you don’t, it won’t.
Reading widely, however, may not always help you remember the words you read. You may have the words in your passive vocabulary and be able to recognize them when you see them in a context and yet be unable to define them clearly or think of synonyms for them. In addition, unless you have already begun to upgrade your reading to the college level, reading widely also may not acquaint you most efficiently with college-level words.
What are college-level words? In going through the preceding chapter, you have examined dozens of questions modeled on those on the SAT. Some of the words in these questions have been familiar to you; others have not. Still others have looked familiar but have turned out to be defined in unexpected ways.
One of the major changes in the SAT involves vocabulary. The SAT has eliminated vocabulary questions involving esoteric words like, for example, “esoteric.” Instead, vocabulary questions on the SAT involve common words used in uncommon ways, as well as words with multiple meanings whose specific meaning you can uncover by examining the context in which they occur.
Here is what the test-makers say about the new vocabulary questions: “These words and phrases are neither highly obscure nor specific to any one domain. They are words and phrases whose specific meaning and rhetorical purpose are derived in large part through the context in which they are used.” In other words, they are not technical jargon. They are words whose basic meaning you are likely to know, high-utility words likely to appear in many types of reading.
For this reason, in revising our Master Word List, we have eliminated many college-level vocabulary words that are unlikely to appear as question words on the SAT and that are also unlikely to crop up in the reading passages you will find on the test. However, we have retained college-level vocabulary words that are likely to occur in the sorts of reading passages you will encounter. Even though these words will not be tested in the vocabulary-in-context questions on the test, they are important words, words you need to know on this SAT and in your future college career.
Use the vocabulary lists in this chapter to upgrade your vocabulary to a college level. They are all excellent vocabulary building tools.
Select words from the word list to create flashcards of words you want to master. Work up memory tricks to help yourself remember them. Try using them on your parents and friends. Not only will going over these words reassure you that you do know some SAT-type words, but also it may well help you on the actual day of the test. These words have turned up on previous tests; some of them may well turn up on the test you take.
THE MASTER WORD LIST
The Master Word List begins on the following page. Do not let this list overwhelm you. You do not need to memorize every word.
You can use this list as a sort of dictionary. When you come across an unfamiliar word in your reading and can’t figure out its meaning from the context, look it up in the word list. The illustrative sentence may help make the word’s meaning clear.
For each word, the following is provided:
1.The word (printed in heavy type).
2.Its part of speech (abbreviated).
3.A brief definition.
4.A sentence illustrating the word’s use.
5.Whenever appropriate, related words are provided, together with their parts of speech.
The word lists are arranged in strict alphabetical order.
A PLAN FOR MASTERING THE ENTIRE LIST
1.Allot a definite time each day for the study of a list.
2.Devote at least one hour to each list.
3.First go through the list looking at the short, simple-looking words (7 letters at most). Mark those you don’t know. In studying, pay particular attention to them.
4.Go through the list again looking at the longer words. Pay particular attention to words with more than one meaning and familiar-looking words that have unusual definitions that come as a surprise to you. Study these secondary definitions.
5.List unusual words on index cards that you can shuffle and review from time to time.
6.Use the illustrative sentences in the list as models and make up new sentences of your own.
SAT Word Lists
- SAT Word List 1: abate-acuity
- SAT Word List 2: acumen-allegory
- SAT Word List 3: alleviate-anomalous
- SAT Word List 4: anomaly-articulate
- SAT Word List 5: artifact-avalanche
- SAT Word List 6: avarice-blare
- SAT Word List 7: blasé-cacophonous
- SAT Word List 8: cajole-chary
- SAT Word List 9: chasten-comeuppance
- SAT Word List 10: commandeer-confound
- SAT Word List 11: confrontation-corrosive
- SAT Word List 12: cosmopolitan-defiance
- SAT Word List 13: definition-detrimental
- SAT Word List 14: deviate-disengage
- SAT Word List 15: disgruntle-dutiful
- SAT Word List 16: dwarf-engage
- SAT Word List 17: engaging-execrable
- SAT Word List 18: execute-falter
- SAT Word List 19: fanaticism-forensic
- SAT Word List 20: foreshadow-germinal
- SAT Word List 21: germinate-homage
- SAT Word List 22: hom*ogeneous-implement
- SAT Word List 23: implicate-indices
- SAT Word List 24: indifferent-insolvent
- SAT Word List 25: instigate-jargon
- SAT Word List 26: jeopardize-magnanimous
- SAT Word List 27: magnate-misapprehension
- SAT Word List 28: miscellany-neophyte
- SAT Word List 29: nepotism-opus
- SAT Word List 30: oracular-pathetic
- SAT Word List 31: pathological-platitude
- SAT Word List 32: plausible-pretentious
- SAT Word List 33: pretext-prudent
- SAT Word List 34: prune-rebuke
- SAT Word List 35: rebuttal-renounce
- SAT Word List 36: renovate-retrograde
- SAT Word List 37: retrospective-sedentary
- SAT Word List 38: sedition-sporadic
- SAT Word List 39: spurious-succinct
- SAT Word List 40: succumb-terminology
- SAT Word List 41: terrestrial-ulterior
- SAT Word List 42: ultimate-verity
- SAT Word List 43: vernacular-zealot
