The top 1,000 vocabulary words have been carefully chosen to represent difficult but common words that appear in everyday academic and business writing. These words are also the most likely to appear on the SAT, ACT, GRE, and ToEFL.
To create this list, we started with the words that give our users the most trouble and then ranked them by how frequently they appear in our corpus of billions of words from edited sources. If you only have time to study one list of words, this is the list.
avarice, edict, disconcert, symmetry, capitulate, arbitrate, cleave, append, visage, horde, parable, chastise, foil, veritable, grapple, gentry, pall, maxim, projection, prowess, dingy, semblance, tout, fortitude, asunder, rout, staid, beguile, purport, deprave, bequeath, enigma, assiduous, vassal, quail, outskirts, bulwark, swerve, gird, betrothed, prospective, advert, peremptory, rudiment, deduce, halting, ignominy, ideology, pallid, chagrin, obtrude, audacious, construe, ford, repast, stint, fresco, dutiful, hew, parity, affable, interminable, pillage, foreboding, rend, livelihood, deign, capricious, stupendous, chaff, innate, reverie, wrangle, crevice, ostensible, craven, vestige, plumb, reticent, propensity, chide, espouse, raiment, intrepid, seemly, allay, fitful, erode, unaffected, canto, docile, patronize, teem, estrange, spat, warble, mien, sate, constituency, patrician
extreme greed for material wealth
Example Sentence: The old man's fears were assailed with threats, and his avarice was approached by bribes, and he very soon capitulated.
—Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
a formal or authoritative proclamation
Example Sentence: An edict was issued by him forbidding any Christian to give instruction in Greek literature under any circumstances.
—Lightfoot, J. B.
cause to lose one's composure
Example Sentence: Perplexed and disconcerted, I found no words to answer such an amazing sally.
—Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William)
balance among the parts of something
Example Sentence: Even the staging displays symmetry, with actors lined up on either side in formal precision.
—New York Times (Jan 24, 2011)
surrender under agreed conditions
Example Sentence: "Alas, no," said Bergfeld, mournfully, "the day after the battle our brave soldiers were surrounded by overwhelming forces and obliged to capitulate."
—Meding, Johann Ferdinand Martin Oskar
act between parties with a view to reconciling differences
Example Sentence: The Scottish throne was now disputed by many claimants, and the Scots asked Edward to arbitrate between them.
—Various
separate or cut with a tool, such as a sharp instrument
Example Sentence: Instead someone shouts "Go" and he is bearing down on me and almost cleaves my shield in two with his first blow.
—BBC (Aug 7, 2011)
add to the very end
Example Sentence: Some specimens will appear in the papers appended to this report.
—Various
the human face (`kisser' and `smiler' and `mug' are informal terms for `face' and `phiz' is British)
Example Sentence: An honest, quiet laugh often mantled his pale earnest visage.
—Turnbull, Robert
a moving crowd
Example Sentence: Hordes of puzzled tourists, many with rolling suitcases attached, poured down the staircases.
—New York Times (Jan 1, 2012)
a short moral story (often with animal characters)
Example Sentence: In most instances, I have closed my visits by reading some interesting story or parable.
—Frothingham, Octavius Brooks
censure severely
Example Sentence: She remembers an upsetting incident when a headmistress chastised her for working too much.
—The Guardian (Jan 14, 2011)
hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of
Example Sentence: On March 1st, a Turkish newspaper reported that the country's intelligence service had foiled an attempt by Syrian agents to kidnap the colonel.
—Time (Mar 8, 2012)
often used as intensifiers
Example Sentence: The heavy rain had reduced this low-lying ground to a veritable quagmire, making progress very difficult even for one as unburdened as he was.
—Putnam Weale, B. L. (Bertram Lenox)
come to terms with
Example Sentence: But, he said, all coastal communities will have to grapple with rising seas.
—New York Times (Mar 24, 2012)
the most powerful members of a society
Example Sentence: The mode of travel of the gentry was riding horses, but most people traveled by walking.
—Reilly, S. A.
a sudden numbing dread
Example Sentence: Residents who fled in recent days spoke of the smell of death and piles of garbage drifting like snowbanks, casting a pall over the city.
—New York Times (Mar 7, 2012)
a saying that is widely accepted on its own merits
Example Sentence: The maxim "All is fair in love and war" was applied literally.
—Thomson, Basil
a prediction made by extrapolating from past observations
Example Sentence: Volume is down 25 percent from five years ago, and projections show even further declines, said Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe.
—New York Times (Mar 22, 2012)
a superior skill that you can learn by study and practice and observation
Example Sentence: While our engineering prowess has advanced a great deal over the past sixty years, the principles of innovation largely have not.
—Time (Mar 21, 2012)
thickly covered with ingrained dirt or soot
Example Sentence: Though composed amid the unromantic surroundings of a dingy, dusty, and neglected back room, the speech has become a memorable document.
—Herndon, William H.
an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading
Example Sentence: He was perceptibly older, in the way in which people look older all at once after having long kept the semblance of youth.
—King, Basil
advertize in strongly positive terms
Example Sentence: Testing is being touted as the means of making the U.S. education system competitive, even world-class.
—Washington Post (Mar 23, 2012)
strength of mind that enables one to endure adversity with courage
Example Sentence: Leigh Hunt bore himself in his captivity with cheerful fortitude, suffering severely in health but flagging little in spirits or industry.
—Colvin, Sidney
into parts or pieces
Example Sentence: In 1854, as I have already remarked, Nicaragua was split asunder by civil war.
—Powell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander)
an overwhelming defeat
Example Sentence: It's how Seattle won Sunday's game in Chicago, scoring 31 consecutive second-half points as an impressive comeback became an overwhelming rout.
—Seattle Times (Dec 19, 2011)
characterized by dignity and propriety
Example Sentence: He was prim and staid and liked to do things in an orderly fashion.
—Doyle, A. Conan
influence by slyness
Example Sentence: I can no longer remain silent in the presence of the schemers who seek to beguile you.
—Bolanden, Conrad von
have the often specious appearance of being, intending, or claiming
Example Sentence: Of course, none of these purported medical benefits have any grounding in science.
—Scientific American (Jan 28, 2012)
corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality
Example Sentence: The people who make up this typical Gorky offering are drunkards, thieves, depraved creatures of every kind.
—Kilmer, Joyce
leave or give by will after one's death
Example Sentence: No matter how often she changed her will, she told me, that diamond pin was always bequeathed to me.
—Wells, Carolyn
something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained
Example Sentence: Tails are often an enigma; many creatures have them, but scientists know little about their function, particularly for extinct species.
—Science Magazine (Jan 4, 2012)
marked by care and persistent effort
Example Sentence: He's an assiduous diary-keeper and regularly rereads ancient entries to check up on himself.
—The Guardian (Jul 17, 2010)
a person holding a fief; a person who owes allegiance and service to a feudal lord
Example Sentence: And what was of still greater importance, he could only obtain taxes and soldiers from among the vassals, by the consent of their feudal lords.
—Freytag, Gustav
draw back, as with fear or pain
Example Sentence: He quailed before me, and forgetting his new part in old habits, muttered an apology.
—Weyman, Stanley John
outlying areas (as of a city or town)
Example Sentence: Ms. Waters talked about how she had spent the day at an organic farm on the outskirts of Beijing looking at vegetables for the dinner.
—New York Times (Nov 14, 2011)
a protective structure of stone or concrete; extends from shore into the water to prevent a beach from washing away
Example Sentence: The cliffs are of imposing height, nearly three hundred feet: a formidable bulwark.
—White, Walter
an erratic deflection from an intended course
Example Sentence: However, I was not going to swerve from my word.
—Johnstone, James Johnstone, chevalier de
prepare oneself for a military confrontation
Example Sentence: Protesters are girding for another police raid as several City Council members have called on protesters to leave.
—Washington Post (Nov 11, 2011)
pledged to be married
Example Sentence: We are not betrothed'—her eyes filled with tears,—'he can never marry me; and he and my father have quarrelled.
—Fleming, George
of or concerned with or related to the future
Example Sentence: Most prospective homesteaders make the same mistake I did in buying horses, unless they are experienced.
—Micheaux, Oscar
make reference to
Example Sentence: In the family circle it was rarely adverted to, and never except when some allusion to the approaching separation had to be made.
—Werner, E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers)
not allowing contradiction or refusal
Example Sentence: This time it was not a request but a peremptory order to go at once to Cuba and undertake the work .
—Johnson, Willis Fletcher
the elementary stages of any subject (usually plural)
Example Sentence: He retraced his steps, and came to Cape Girardeau, in Missouri, where he remained some time, acquiring the rudiments of the English language.
—Anonymous
reason by deduction; establish by deduction
Example Sentence: They then used models of global wind circulation to deduce which dust sources have become stronger and which weaker.
—Economist (Jan 6, 2011)
fragmentary or halting from emotional strain
Example Sentence: “I so much love cricket,” he said, shyly, in halting English.
—New York Times (Feb 22, 2012)
a state of dishonor
Example Sentence: After all, we love nothing better than seeing the powerful and formerly smug dragged across the front pages in ignominy.
—Time (Jun 7, 2011)
an orientation that characterizes the thinking of a group or nation
Example Sentence: Bill O’Reilly and others picked up on the theme, summing up left-wing ideology as “San Francisco values.”
—Slate (Jan 19, 2012)
lacking in vitality or interest or effectiveness
Example Sentence: But too often the music sounded thin and pallid.
—New York Times (Apr 25, 2010)
strong feelings of embarrassment
Example Sentence: But he was feeling deeply chagrined and mortified over his last escapade.
—White, Fred M. (Fred Merrick )
thrust oneself in as if by force
Example Sentence: She had no right to obtrude herself into his life and to disturb it.
—Packard, Frank L. (Frank Lucius)
disposed to venture or take risks
Example Sentence: In an audacious operation that unfolded like a Hollywood thriller, the Navy Seals executed a daring raid deep into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden.
—New York Times (Sep 4, 2011)
make sense of; assign a meaning to
Example Sentence: But nothing that was said Tuesday can be construed as good news.
—Washington Post (Sep 14, 2011)
cross a river where it's shallow
Example Sentence: Sometimes they drive their teams through unsettled country, without roads, swimming and fording streams, clearing away obstructions, and camping where night overtakes them.
—Folsom, William Henry Carman
the food served and eaten at one time
Example Sentence: Fragrant coffee, light rolls, fresh butter, ham and eggs, fried crocuses and soft crabs, formed the repast.
—Reid, Mayne
an unbroken period of time during which you do something
Example Sentence: He found his unionized warehouse job after a stint working for his father, an accountant.
—New York Times (Mar 21, 2012)
a mural done with watercolors on wet plaster
Example Sentence: The little church has an ancient fresco of St. Christopher, placed, as usual, opposite the entrance.
—Conybeare, Edward
willingly obedient out of a sense of duty and respect
Example Sentence: Perhaps he thinks an engaged young lady should be demure and dutiful, having no eyes or ears for any one except her betrothed.
—Harland, Marion
make or shape as with an axe
Example Sentence: They bought a log chain, and lumber for a door; the window frames were hewed from logs.
—Daughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska
functional equality
Example Sentence: How many of the world’s problems would be solved, or at least greatly reduced, if women had true parity with men?
—New York Times (Dec 15, 2011)
diffusing warmth and friendliness
Example Sentence: He was well liked and respected in these islands, for his affable manners had obtained for him much popularity.
—Various
tiresomely long; seemingly without end
Example Sentence: All was going well, but slowly, the time taken for the last few feet seeming to be interminable.
—Cumberland, Barlow
steal goods; take as spoils
Example Sentence: In addition great material losses were inflicted: seven hundred houses were destroyed, six hundred stores pillaged, and thousands of families utterly ruined.
—Straus, Oscar S.
a feeling of evil to come
Example Sentence: Mr. Harding had strong forebodings that the trouble, so far from being ended, was only just beginning.
—Marsh, Richard
tear or be torn violently
Example Sentence: In the distance heavy artillery was growling, and high explosive shells were bursting with a violence that seemed to rend the sky.
—Tracy, Louis
the financial means whereby one lives
Example Sentence: With businesses shut, fields untended and fishing abandoned many have lost their livelihoods as well as their homes, our correspondent says.
—BBC (Apr 15, 2011)
do something that one considers to be below one's dignity
Example Sentence: To Mr. Gompers' courteous letter Czar Gary did not deign to reply.
—Foster, William Z.
determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason
Example Sentence: Her admirers were capricious, returning to her at times, and then holding aloof again; and as for suitors, they entirely disappeared.
—Schubin, Ossip
so great in size or force or extent as to elicit awe
Example Sentence: The fact was so stupendous that Terry felt almost frightened over the great good fortune.
—Sabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)
material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds
Example Sentence: The wheat, being heavy, falls, while the chaff is blown away.
—Starr, Frederick
not established by conditioning or learning
Example Sentence: In other words, one of our most essential abilities as humans--reading--is the product of a combination of innate and learned traits.
—Time (Dec 9, 2011)
an abstracted state of absorption
Example Sentence: He stood still, seemingly lost in reverie, and quite oblivious to the group about him.
—Frey, Hildegard G. (Hildegard Gertrude)
to quarrel noisily, angrily or disruptively
Example Sentence: Here were many fierce and bitter wrangles over vexed questions, turbulent scenes, displays of sectional feelings.
—Raymond, Evelyn
a long narrow opening
Example Sentence: The disruptive power of tree roots, growing in the crevices of rocks, is well known.
—Various
appearing as such but not necessarily so
Example Sentence: This already-exhaustive bookis studded with diary entries, academic papers and other ostensible evidence that its fictitious stories of destruction are true.
—New York Times (Jun 6, 2010)
lacking even the rudiments of courage; abjectly fearful
Example Sentence: Was it for them to follow the craven footsteps of a cowardly generation?
—Robinson, Victor
an indication that something has been present
Example Sentence: Now, there was no vestige of vegetation; no living thing.
—Hopkins, William John
examine thoroughly and in great depth
Example Sentence: Tellingly, Ms. Liao said she had great difficulty finding three actors willing to plumb their own personalities.
—New York Times (Jun 1, 2011)
temperamentally disinclined to talk
Example Sentence: No questions were asked, and few indeed were the words spoken, his reticent manner preventing any undue familiarity.
—Maclean, John
an inclination to do something
Example Sentence: A longtime colleague, Gate Theatre director Michael Colgan, noted Kelly's old-school charms, punctuated by his propensity for bow ties and smart suits.
—Seattle Times (Feb 15, 2012)
censure severely or angrily
Example Sentence: He chided reporters as having “stalked” family members, demanding that his relatives be left alone.
—New York Times (Nov 8, 2011)
choose and follow; as of theories, ideas, policies, strategies or plans
Example Sentence: He said Islam should not be equated with terrorism or the kind of violence espoused by Bin Laden.
—Reuters (May 2, 2011)
especially fine or decorative clothing
Example Sentence: Clothed in fine raiment and faring sumptuously every day, he soon developed into a handsome lad.
—Oxley, J. Macdonald (James Macdonald)
invulnerable to fear or intimidation
Example Sentence: There are some very courageous and intrepid reporters in Afghanistan, including some who work for American media outlets.
—Salon (Apr 5, 2010)
according with custom or propriety
Example Sentence: The Baron was less conscientious, for he ate more beefsteak than was seemly, and talked a great deal of stupid nonsense, as was his wont.
—Hoffmann, Ernst Theordor Wilhelm
lessen the intensity of or calm
Example Sentence: Our boy was scared and confused; we tried to allay his fears.
—New York Times (Mar 30, 2012)
occurring in spells and often abruptly
Example Sentence: She had lost her composure, her breath came in fitful, uneven gasps, and as she sat there she pressed one hand over her heart.
—Davis, Owen
become ground down or deteriorate
Example Sentence: Another report today showed home prices fell more than forecast in November, eroding the wealth of families as they seek to rebuild savings.
—BusinessWeek (Jan 31, 2012)
free of artificiality; sincere and genuine
Example Sentence: His conversation was unaffectedly simple and frank ; his language natural; always abounding in curious anecdotes.
—Conway, Moncure Daniel
a major division of a long poem
Example Sentence: Folengo’s next production was the Orlandino, an Italian poem of eight cantos, written in rhymed octaves.
—Various
easily handled or managed
Example Sentence: Time and again humans have domesticated wild , producing tame individuals with softer appearances and more docile temperaments, such as dogs and guinea pigs.
—Scientific American (Jan 25, 2012)
treat condescendingly
Example Sentence: Ms. Paul herself noted that “glib talk about appreciating dyslexia as a ‘gift’ is unhelpful at best and patronizing at worst.”
—New York Times (Feb 6, 2012)
be teeming, be abuzz
Example Sentence: The coast, once teeming with traffic, is now lonely and deserted.
—Mahaffy, J. P.
arouse hostility or indifference in where there had formerly been love, affection, or friendliness
Example Sentence: An atmosphere of distrust, suspicion and fear can cause workers to feel estranged from one another, Dr. Wright has written.
—New York Times (Jan 28, 2012)
a quarrel about petty points
Example Sentence: Public spats are rare in the asset-management industry, where companies typically resolve disputes behind closed doors.
—BusinessWeek (Sep 16, 2011)
sing or play with trills, alternating with the half note above or below
Example Sentence: Meadow larks, as you have undoubtedly noticed, warble many different songs.
—Barrett, R. E.
dignified manner or conduct
Example Sentence: Nevertheless, before going to meet Samuel, she assumed a calm and dignified mien.
—Kraszewski, Jo?zef Ignacy
fill to satisfaction
Example Sentence: His appetite was not sated by any means, but he knew the danger of overloading his stomach, so he stopped.
—Dewey, Edward Hooker
the body of voters who elect a representative for their area
Example Sentence: Each posited that the blue-collar Democratic constituency rooted in the New Deal had grown increasingly conservative, alienated from “big government.”
—New York Times (Jan 14, 2012)
belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy
Example Sentence: Respectable ladies, long resident, wearing black poke bonnets and camel's-hair shawls, lifted their patrician eyebrows with disapproval.
—Brooks, Charles Stephen