- Abate
- To lessen, reduce, or subside; to diminish in intensity. (The storm finally abated.)
- Aberration
- A departure from what is normal, expected, or right; a deviation.
- Abscond
- To leave secretly and hurriedly, typically to avoid capture or escape the law.
- Accolade
- An award, honor, or expression of praise.
- Acumen
- Keen insight and shrewd judgment, especially in practical matters.
- Admonish
- To warn, reprove, or counsel against something gently but earnestly.
- Affable
- Friendly, good-natured, and easy to talk to.
- Aggrandize
- To increase the power, status, wealth, or reputation of; to exaggerate.
- Alacrity
- Brisk and cheerful readiness; eager and prompt willingness.
- Ambivalent
- Having mixed, contradictory feelings about something.
- Ameliorate
- To make a bad or unsatisfactory situation better; to improve.
- Anachronism
- Something out of its proper time, especially a thing belonging to an earlier period.
- Anomaly
- Something that deviates from the standard, normal, or expected.
- Antipathy
- A deep-seated feeling of dislike or aversion.
- Apathy
- Lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern; indifference.
- Arcane
- Understood by few; mysterious, secret, or known only to specialists.
- Arduous
- Demanding great effort or labor; difficult and strenuous.
- Assuage
- To make an unpleasant feeling less intense; to soothe or relieve.
- Austere
- Severe or strict in manner; lacking ornament; plain and simple.
- Bolster
- To support, strengthen, or reinforce.
- Cacophony
- A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.
- Candor
- The quality of being open, honest, and frank in expression.
- Capricious
- Given to sudden, unpredictable changes of mood or behavior; whimsical.
- Castigate
- To reprimand or criticize severely.
- Chicanery
- The use of clever but deceptive talk or action; trickery.
- Coalesce
- To come together to form one whole; to unite or merge.
- Cogent
- Clear, logical, and convincing; forcefully persuasive.
- Conciliatory
- Intended to placate, pacify, or win over; appeasing.
- Connoisseur
- An expert judge in matters of taste, such as art, food, or wine.
- Corroborate
- To confirm or give support to a statement, theory, or finding.
- Dearth
- A scarcity or lack of something.
- Deride
- To express contempt for; to ridicule or mock.
- Diatribe
- A forceful and bitter verbal attack against someone or something.
- Didactic
- Intended to teach or instruct, often with a moral lesson; sometimes overly so.
- Disparate
- Essentially different in kind; not allowing comparison.
- Dogmatic
- Asserting opinions in an arrogant, authoritative way as if undeniably true.
- Ebullient
- Cheerful and full of energy; exuberant.
- Eclectic
- Deriving ideas or style from a broad and diverse range of sources.
- Efficacy
- The ability to produce a desired or intended result; effectiveness.
- Egregious
- Outstandingly bad; shockingly and conspicuously wrong.
- Elucidate
- To make something clear; to explain.
- Enervate
- To weaken or drain of energy and vitality.
- Ephemeral
- Lasting for a very short time; fleeting.
- Equivocate
- To use ambiguous language to conceal the truth or avoid commitment.
- Erudite
- Having or showing great knowledge; learned and scholarly.
- Eschew
- To deliberately avoid or abstain from something.
- Exacerbate
- To make a problem, situation, or feeling worse.
- Exculpate
- To clear from blame or guilt.
- Extol
- To praise enthusiastically and highly.
- Facetious
- Treating serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humor; flippant.
- Fortuitous
- Happening by chance, often a lucky chance; accidental.
- Garrulous
- Excessively talkative, especially about trivial matters.
- Gregarious
- Fond of company; sociable.
- Hackneyed
- Lacking originality through overuse; clichéd and trite.
- Hegemony
- Leadership or dominance, especially of one state or group over others.
- Iconoclast
- A person who attacks cherished beliefs or established institutions.
- Impetuous
- Acting or done quickly and without thought or care; impulsive.
- Implacable
- Unable to be appeased, placated, or satisfied; relentless.
- Ineffable
- Too great or extreme to be expressed in words.
- Ingenuous
- Innocent, candid, and unsuspecting; frank and sincere.
- Inimical
- Tending to obstruct or harm; hostile or unfriendly.
- Insipid
- Lacking flavor, interest, or vigor; dull and bland.
- Intransigent
- Unwilling to change one's views or to compromise; stubborn.
- Laconic
- Using very few words; concise to the point of seeming rude or mysterious.
- Laud
- To praise highly, especially in a public context.
- Loquacious
- Tending to talk a great deal; very talkative.
- Magnanimous
- Very generous or forgiving, especially toward a rival or less powerful person.
- Maverick
- An unorthodox, independent-minded person who refuses to conform.
- Mendacious
- Not telling the truth; lying or dishonest.
- Mercurial
- Subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood; volatile.
- Mitigate
- To make less severe, serious, or painful; to alleviate.
- Mollify
- To appease the anger or anxiety of; to soothe.
- Nascent
- Just coming into existence and beginning to develop.
- Obdurate
- Stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course of action.
- Obfuscate
- To deliberately make something obscure, unclear, or confusing.
- Obsequious
- Obedient or attentive to an excessive or fawning degree; servile.
- Ostentatious
- Characterized by vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress.
- Panacea
- A solution or remedy claimed to cure all problems or diseases.
- Paradigm
- A typical example, pattern, or model of something.
- Pedantic
- Excessively concerned with minor details, formal rules, or book learning.
- Perfunctory
- Carried out with minimum effort or reflection; cursory and routine.
- Pernicious
- Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.
- Perspicacious
- Having a ready insight into and understanding of things; perceptive.
- Placate
- To make someone less angry or hostile; to appease.
- Plethora
- An excess or overabundance of something.
- Prevaricate
- To speak or act evasively in order to avoid telling the truth.
- Probity
- The quality of having strong moral principles; honesty and integrity.
- Prodigal
- Spending money or resources wastefully and recklessly; extravagant.
- Profligate
- Recklessly wasteful and extravagant, especially with money or resources.
- Propitious
- Giving or indicating a good chance of success; favorable.
- Pugnacious
- Eager or quick to argue, quarrel, or fight; combative.
- Quixotic
- Extremely idealistic and impractical; unrealistically chivalrous.
- Recalcitrant
- Having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline.
- Repudiate
- To refuse to accept or be associated with; to reject or disown.
- Reticent
- Not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily; reserved.
- Sanguine
- Optimistic or positive, especially in a difficult situation.
- Sagacious
- Having or showing keen mental discernment and good judgment; wise.
- Sedulous
- Showing dedication, diligence, and careful persistence.
- Spurious
- Not genuine, authentic, or true; false.
- Sycophant
- A person who flatters powerful people for personal advantage; a toady.
- Taciturn
- Reserved or uncommunicative in speech; saying little.
- Tenuous
- Very weak, slight, or insubstantial; flimsy.
- Trenchant
- Vigorous, incisive, and effective in expression; sharply perceptive.
- Ubiquitous
- Present, appearing, or found everywhere.
- Venerate
- To regard with great respect; to revere.
- Veracity
- Conformity to facts; truthfulness and accuracy.
- Vilify
- To speak or write about in an abusively disparaging manner; to defame.
- Vituperative
- Bitter and abusive in language; harshly critical.
- Sentence Equivalence
- A Verbal question with one blank and six choices; pick the two words that complete the sentence to produce sentences alike in meaning.
- Text Completion
- A Verbal question with one to three blanks; fill each with the best word. No partial credit — every blank must be correct.
- Reading Comprehension
- Verbal passages with multiple-choice (one answer), multiple-choice (one or more answers), and select-in-passage questions.
- Select-in-passage
- A Reading Comprehension format where you click the sentence in the passage that fits a stated description.
- Inference (reading)
- A conclusion a passage implies but does not state outright; the correct inference is the one the text most directly supports.
- Words in context
- Determining a word's meaning from the surrounding sentence's logic and tone rather than a dictionary definition.
- Signpost word
- A transition (however, because, although, therefore) that signals whether ideas agree or contrast — key to filling GRE blanks.
- Root and affix strategy
- Breaking an unfamiliar word into parts (bene- good, mal- bad, -ous full of) to estimate its meaning in context.
- Predict-then-match
- The GRE vocabulary tactic of deciding the meaning a blank needs before reading the answer choices.
- Main idea
- The central point the whole passage supports — broader than any single detail but never beyond what the text states.
- Quantitative Comparison
- Compare Quantity A and Quantity B; the four choices are always A greater, B greater, equal, or relationship cannot be determined.
- Numeric Entry
- A Quant format with no answer choices — type the answer as an integer, decimal, or fraction.
- Percent change
- Change ÷ original × 100. From 80 to 100 is 20 ÷ 80 = 25%. Always divide by the starting value.
- Percent of a number
- x percent of n = (x ÷ 100) × n. '30 is 60% of n' means 30 = 0.60 × n, so n = 50.
- Ratio
- A comparison of two quantities, a : b. Scale both parts by the same factor to keep the ratio equal.
- Proportion
- An equation stating two ratios are equal, a/b = c/d; cross-multiply to solve (ad = bc).
- Mean (average)
- Sum of the values ÷ how many there are; it is pulled toward outliers.
- Median
- The middle value of an ordered data set; with an even count, the average of the two middle values. Resists outliers.
- Mode
- The value that appears most often in a data set.
- Range (statistics)
- The largest value minus the smallest value in a data set.
- Standard deviation
- A measure of how spread out data is around the mean; a larger value means more spread.
- Probability
- Favorable outcomes ÷ total equally likely outcomes, a value from 0 to 1.
- Complement rule
- P(not A) = 1 − P(A); useful for 'at least one' problems.
- Independent events
- Events whose outcomes don't affect each other; multiply their probabilities for both to occur.
- Mutually exclusive events
- Events that cannot both happen; add their probabilities for either to occur.
- Combination
- The count of ways to choose k items from n where order doesn't matter: nCk = n! ÷ (k!(n−k)!).
- Permutation
- The count of ways to arrange k items from n where order matters: nPk = n! ÷ (n−k)!.
- Factorial
- n! = n × (n−1) × … × 1; by definition 0! = 1.
- Slope
- Rise over run: the change in y ÷ the change in x between two points on a line.
- Slope-intercept form
- y = mx + b, where m is the slope and b is the y-intercept (where the line crosses the y-axis).
- Slope between two points
- (y₂ − y₁) ÷ (x₂ − x₁) for points (x₁, y₁) and (x₂, y₂).
- Parallel vs perpendicular slopes
- Parallel lines have equal slopes; perpendicular slopes are negative reciprocals (their product is −1).
- Quadratic formula
- x = (−b ± √(b² − 4ac)) ÷ (2a) solves any quadratic ax² + bx + c = 0.
- Discriminant
- b² − 4ac. Positive gives two real solutions, zero gives one, negative gives none.
- Difference of squares
- a² − b² = (a + b)(a − b).
- Perfect square trinomial
- (a + b)² = a² + 2ab + b² and (a − b)² = a² − 2ab + b².
- FOIL
- Multiply two binomials by combining First, Outer, Inner, Last terms.
- Exponent product rule
- Multiplying like bases adds exponents: xᵐ · xⁿ = xᵐ⁺ⁿ.
- Exponent quotient rule
- Dividing like bases subtracts exponents: xᵐ ÷ xⁿ = xᵐ⁻ⁿ.
- Power of a power
- (xᵐ)ⁿ = xᵐⁿ — multiply the exponents.
- Negative exponent
- x⁻ⁿ = 1 ÷ xⁿ — the reciprocal of the positive power.
- Zero exponent
- Any nonzero base to the zero power equals 1: x⁰ = 1.
- Fractional exponent
- A base raised to the power 1/n equals the nth root of the base; raising to one-half gives the square root (e.g. four to the one-half is √4 = 2).
- Pythagorean theorem
- For a right triangle with legs a and b and hypotenuse c, a² + b² = c².
- Pythagorean triples
- Integer side sets that satisfy a² + b² = c², such as 3-4-5 and 5-12-13.
- 45-45-90 triangle
- An isosceles right triangle with sides in ratio 1 : 1 : √2.
- 30-60-90 triangle
- A right triangle with sides in ratio 1 : √3 : 2 (short leg : long leg : hypotenuse).
- Triangle angle sum
- The three interior angles of any triangle add to 180 degrees.
- Area of a triangle
- Area = ½ × base × height.
- Area of a rectangle
- Area = length × width.
- Area of a circle
- Area = π × r², where r is the radius.
- Circumference of a circle
- Circumference = 2 × π × r, or π × diameter.
- Area of a parallelogram
- Area = base × height.
- Area of a trapezoid
- Area = ½ × (b₁ + b₂) × height, the average of the parallel sides times the height.
- Volume of a rectangular box
- Volume = length × width × height.
- Volume of a cylinder
- Volume = π × r² × h, the base-circle area times the height.
- Sum of interior angles
- For a polygon with n sides, the interior angles sum to (n − 2) × 180 degrees.
- Complementary angles
- Two angles that add to 90 degrees.
- Supplementary angles
- Two angles that add to 180 degrees.
- Angles on a line
- Angles on a straight line sum to 180 degrees; angles around a point sum to 360 degrees.
- Prime number
- A whole number greater than 1 with exactly two factors, 1 and itself (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, …).
- Greatest common factor
- The largest integer that divides two or more numbers evenly.
- Least common multiple
- The smallest positive integer that is a multiple of two or more numbers.
- Even and odd rules
- Even ± even = even; odd ± odd = even; even × any = even; odd × odd = odd.
- Absolute value
- |x| is the distance of x from zero, always nonnegative; |−5| = 5.
- Inequality sign flip
- When you multiply or divide an inequality by a negative number, reverse the inequality sign.
- Distance formula
- The distance between (x₁, y₁) and (x₂, y₂) is √((x₂ − x₁)² + (y₂ − y₁)²).
- Midpoint formula
- The midpoint of (x₁, y₁) and (x₂, y₂) is ((x₁ + x₂)/2, (y₁ + y₂)/2).
- Function notation
- f(x) is the output for input x; f(3) means evaluate the rule at x = 3.
- Distance, rate, time
- Distance = rate × time; rearrange to rate = distance ÷ time or time = distance ÷ rate.
- Average speed
- Total distance ÷ total time — not the simple average of two speeds unless the times are equal.
- Work rate
- Combined rate = sum of individual rates; if one does a job in a hours and another in b, together they take ab ÷ (a + b) hours.
- Simple interest
- Interest = principal × rate × time (I = Prt).
- Compound interest
- Final amount = principal × (1 + rate) raised to the number of periods, when compounded once per period.
- Ratio word problem
- Multiply the ratio parts by a common factor x, set the total equal to the given amount, and solve for x.
- Mixtures
- Track the amount of each component before and after; the total quantity and each part must balance.
- Overlapping sets
- For two groups: total = A + B − both + neither; a Venn diagram or the formula avoids double counting.
- Sequences
- An arithmetic sequence adds a constant difference each term; a geometric sequence multiplies by a constant ratio.
- Figures not to scale
- Unless stated, GRE geometry figures are not drawn to scale — reason from the given values, not the picture.
- On-screen calculator
- The GRE provides a basic on-screen calculator for the Quant sections; estimate first to catch entry errors.
- Analyze an Issue
- The single Analytical Writing task on the current GRE: state and develop your own position on a given claim of general interest.
- Analytical Writing score scale
- 0 to 6 in half-point increments, set by a trained human rater and an automated scoring engine.
- Thesis statement
- A clear, arguable sentence stating the position your essay will defend.
- Topic sentence
- The opening sentence of a body paragraph that states the point that paragraph will support.
- Counterargument
- An objection to your position; addressing one and rebutting it strengthens a GRE essay.
- Assumption
- An unstated belief an argument depends on; naming a weak assumption is a powerful analytical move.
- Concrete example
- A specific historical, scientific, or hypothetical instance used to support a reason — far stronger than restating the prompt.
- Qualified claim
- A position that allows for exceptions ('in most cases'), often the smartest stance on an extreme prompt.
- Logical transition
- A connective (moreover, however, consequently) that links ideas and shows the structure of an argument.
- Standard written English
- Conventional grammar, usage, and mechanics; controlling it is part of the Analytical Writing score.
- e-rater
- The ETS automated scoring engine that evaluates each GRE essay alongside a trained human rater.
- Issue prompt instructions
- The specific directions that accompany an Analyze an Issue statement (for example, 'discuss the extent to which you agree').
