1000 Vocabulary Words

Top 1000 Vocabulary Words That Everyone Should Know

Page 7 - 601 to 700 Words

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.


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diadem, fallow, hubbub, dispassionate, harrowing, askance, lancet, rankle, ramify, gainsay, polity, credence, indemnify, ingratiate, declivity, importunate, passe, whittle, repine, flay, larder, threadbare, grisly, untoward, idiosyncrasy, quip, blatant, stanch, incongruity, perfidious, platitude, revelry, delve, extenuate, polemic, enrapture, virtuoso, glower, mundane, fatuous, incorrigible, postulate, gist, vociferous, purvey, baleful, gibe, dyspeptic, prude, luminary, amenable, willful, overbearing, dais, automate, enervate, wheedle, gusto, bouillon, omniscient, apostate, carrion, emolument, ungainly, impiety, decadence, homily, avocation, circumvent, syllogism, collation, haggle, waylay, savant, cohort, unction, adjure, acrimony, clarion, turbid, cupidity, disaffected, preternatural, eschew, expatiate, didactic, sinuous, rancor, puissant, homespun, embroil, pathological, resonant, libretto, flail, bandy, gratis, upshot, aphorism, redoubtable

601. diadem

an ornamental jeweled headdress signifying sovereignty

Example Sentence: I dethrone monarchs and the people rejoicing crown me instead, showering diadems upon my head.

—Tilney, Frederick Colin


602. fallow

undeveloped but potentially useful

Example Sentence: Several new prostate cancer drugs have been approved in the last couple of years, after a long fallow period, and others are in advanced development.

—New York Times (Nov 3, 2011)


603. hubbub

loud confused noise from many sources

Example Sentence: There was some good-humoured pushing and thrusting, the drum beating and the church bells jangling bravely above the hubbub.

—Weyman, Stanley J.


604. dispassionate

unaffected by strong emotion or prejudice

Example Sentence: The commission sitting by, judicial, dispassionate, presided with cold dignity over the sacrifice, and pronounced it good.

—Candee, Helen Churchill Hungerford, Mrs.


605. harrowing

extremely painful

Example Sentence: Belgium found itself in turmoil as hundreds of people came forward to offer harrowing accounts of abuse over several decades.

—New York Times (Jan 16, 2012)


606. askance

with suspicion or disapproval

Example Sentence: A secret marriage in these days would be looked upon askance by most people.

—Wood, Mrs. Henry


607. lancet

a surgical knife with a pointed double-edged blade; used for punctures and small incisions

Example Sentence: His left arm was held by the second physician, while the chief surgeon bent over it, lancet in hand.

—Hay, Marie, Hon. (Agnes Blanche Marie)


608. rankle

gnaw into; make resentful or angry

Example Sentence: He was feeling more like himself now, though the memory of the bully’s sneering words rankled.

—Chadwick , Lester


609. ramify

have or develop complicating consequences

Example Sentence: Cometary science has ramified in unexpected ways during the last hundred years.

—Various


610. gainsay

take exception to

Example Sentence: That Whitman entertained a genuine affection for men and women is, of course, too obvious to be gainsaid.

—Rickett, Arthur


611. polity

a politically organized unit

Example Sentence: China needs a polity that can address its increasingly sophisticated society, and to achieve that there must be political reform, Mr. Sun said.

—New York Times (Mar 21, 2012)


612. credence

the mental attitude that something is believable and should be accepted as true

Example Sentence: "Well-known brand names that promote new products receive more credence than newcomers that people don't know about."

—US News (Oct 6, 2010)


613. indemnify

make amends for; pay compensation for

Example Sentence: She put her affairs in order and left instructions that those whom she had unwittingly wronged should be indemnified out of her private fortune.

—Butler, Pierce


614. ingratiate

gain favor with somebody by deliberate efforts

Example Sentence: He became kindly and coaxing, leaning across the table with an ingratiating smile.

—King, Basil


615. declivity

a downward slope or bend

Example Sentence: In this frightful condition, the hunter grappled with the raging beast, and, struggling for life, they rolled together down a steep declivity.

—Goodrich, Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold)


616. importunate

expressing earnest entreaty

Example Sentence: The young man was then passionately importunate in the protestations of his love.

—Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston


617. passe

out of fashion

Example Sentence: My friend is very keen on the new crowd; everything else he declares is "passe."

—Holliday, Robert Cortes


618. whittle

cut small bits or pare shavings from

Example Sentence: Tad followed, whittling on a stick with his knife and kicking at the shavings as they fell.

—Kjelgaard, James Arthur


619. repine

express discontent

Example Sentence: Those poor fellows above, accustomed to the wild freshness and freedom of the sea, how they must mourn and repine!

—O'Shea, John Augustus


620. flay

strip the skin off

Example Sentence: Once at the moose and hastily flaying the hide from the steaming meat my attention became centered on the task .

—Sinclair, Bertrand W.


621. larder

a small storeroom for storing foods or wines

Example Sentence: Mr. Goncalves’s larder holds staples like beefsteak , salt cod, sardines, olives, artichokes, hot and sweet peppers and plenty of garlic.

—New York Times (Feb 18, 2011)


622. threadbare

having the nap worn away so that the threads show through

Example Sentence: They were all poor folk , wrapped in threadbare cloaks or tattered leather.

—Brackett, Leigh Douglass


623. grisly

shockingly repellent; inspiring horror

Example Sentence: Television video showed a heavily damaged building and a grisly scene inside, with clothing and prayer mats scattered across a blood-splattered floor.

—New York Times (Aug 19, 2011)


624. untoward

not in keeping with accepted standards of what is right or proper in polite society

Example Sentence: Responding to criticism that cash payments are a classic means of tax evasion, he said he had done nothing untoward.

—New York Times (Aug 2, 2011)


625. idiosyncrasy

a behavioral attribute that is distinctive and peculiar to an individual

Example Sentence: One of his well-known idiosyncrasies was that he would never allow himself to be photographed.

—Le Queux, William


626. quip

make jokes or quips

Example Sentence: "I could have joined the FBI in a shorter period of time and with less documentation than it took to get that mortgage," she quipped.

—Reuters (Oct 13, 2010)


627. blatant

without any attempt at concealment; completely obvious

Example Sentence: There was no blatant display of wealth, and every article of furniture bore signs of long though careful use.

—Bull, Charles Livingston


628. stanch

stop the flow of a liquid

Example Sentence: She did not attempt to stanch her tears, but sat looking at him with a smiling mouth, while the heavy drops fell down her cheeks.

—Stockley, Cynthia


629. incongruity

the quality of disagreeing; being unsuitable and inappropriate

Example Sentence: Hanging out wet clothes and an American flag at the North Pole seemed an amusing incongruity.

—Cook , Frederick A.


630. perfidious

tending to betray; especially having a treacherous character as attributed to the Carthaginians by the Romans

Example Sentence: The perfidious Italian at length confessed that it was his intention to murder his master, and then rob the house.

—Billinghurst, Percy J.


631. platitude

a trite or obvious remark

Example Sentence: But details are fuzzy and rebel leaders often resort to platitudes when dismissing suggestions of discord, saying simply that "Libya is one tribe."

—Wall Street Journal (Jun 20, 2011)


632. revelry

unrestrained merrymaking

Example Sentence: But all this revelry — dancing, drinks, exuberant youth — can be hard to manage.

—New York Times (Jun 3, 2010)


633. delve

turn up, loosen, or remove earth

Example Sentence: So she did what any reporter would do: she delved into the scientific literature and talked to investigators.

—New York Times (Dec 27, 2010)


634. extenuate

lessen or to try to lessen the seriousness or extent of

Example Sentence: Prosecutors often spend time weighing mitigating and extenuating circumstances before deciding to seek the death penalty.

—Washington Post (Oct 15, 2011)


635. polemic

a controversy (especially over a belief or dogma)

Example Sentence: Would it be a polemic that denounced Western imperialism for using cinema to undermine emerging nations like Kazak hstan?

—New York Times (Oct 4, 2010)


636. enrapture

hold spellbound

Example Sentence: I was delighted, enraptured, beside myself--the world had disappeared in an instant.

—Spielhagen, Friedrich


637. virtuoso

someone who is dazzlingly skilled in any field

Example Sentence: Each of the seven instrumentalists was a virtuoso in his own right and had ample opportunity to prove it, often in long, soulful solos.

—New York Times (May 3, 2010)


638. glower

look angry or sullen, wrinkle one's forehead, as if to signal disapproval

Example Sentence: A moment later he would collapse, sit glowering in his chair, looking angrily at the carpet.

—Hecht, Ben


639. mundane

found in the ordinary course of events

Example Sentence: Now, it would seem, that the Chinese are getting back to their everyday concerns, paying attention to events more mundane and less cataclysmic.

—New York Times (Mar 20, 2012)


640. fatuous

devoid of intelligence

Example Sentence: They're too stupid, for one thing; they go on burning houses and breaking windows in their old fatuous way.

—McKenna, Stephen


641. incorrigible

impervious to correction by punishment

Example Sentence: She scolded and lectured her sister in vain; Cynthia was incorrigible.

—Various


642. postulate

maintain or assert

Example Sentence: In fact, when Einstein formulated his cosmological vision, based on his theory of gravitation, he postulated that the universe was finite.

—Scientific American (Jul 26, 2011)


643. gist

the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work

Example Sentence: The syntax was a little off, even comical at times, but I got the gist of what was going on.

—Time (May 6, 2010)


644. vociferous

conspicuously and offensively loud; given to vehement outcry

Example Sentence: The complaints grew so loud and vociferous that even President Obama was forced to address the backlash from Lisbon on Saturday.

—New York Times (Nov 23, 2010)


645. purvey

supply with provisions

Example Sentence: And we will agree also to purvey food for these horses and people during nine months.

—Villehardouin, Geoffroi de


646. baleful

deadly or sinister

Example Sentence: “But he is dead,” put in Fanning, wondering at the baleful expression of hatred that had come into the man’s face.

—Burnham, Margaret


647. gibe

laugh at with contempt and derision

Example Sentence: So much did their taunts prey upon him that he ran away from school to escape their gibes.

—Hubbard, Elbert


648. dyspeptic

irritable as if suffering from indigestion

Example Sentence: One may begin with heroic renunciations and end in undignified envy and dyspeptic comments outside the door one has slammed on one's self.

—Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)


649. prude

a person excessively concerned about propriety and decorum

Example Sentence: Criticising high-profile programmes about teenage sex education often means risking being written off as a prude.

—The Guardian (Feb 11, 2011)


650. luminary

a celebrity who is an inspiration to others

Example Sentence: Founded in 1947, the group's members have included such luminaries as Walt Disney, Spencer Tracy and another American president, Ronald Reagan.

—Seattle Times (Apr 11, 2011)


651. amenable

disposed or willing to comply

Example Sentence: He, Jean Boulot, being so amenable to sensible argument, would at once fall in with his views.

—Wingfield, Lewis


652. willful

habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition

Example Sentence: I crossed my arms like a willful child.

—New York Times (Aug 18, 2011)


653. overbearing

having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy

Example Sentence: "True; but——" "Just so," interrupted Mr. Fauntleroy, in his decisive and rather overbearing manner.

—Wood, Mrs. Henry


654. dais

a platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the person on it

Example Sentence: The throne was elevated on a dais of silver steps.

—Tracy, Louis


655. automate

make automatic or control or operate automatically

Example Sentence: And because leap seconds are needed irregularly their insertion cannot be automated, which means that fallible humans must insert them by hand.

—Economist (Jan 12, 2012)


656. enervate

weaken mentally or morally

Example Sentence: The reviewers have enervated men’s minds, and made them indolent; few think for themselves.

—Rossetti, William Michael


657. wheedle

influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering

Example Sentence: On one level, I expected incessant flattery in attempts to wheedle equipment or even money from American forces.

—New York Times (Aug 16, 2010)


658. gusto

vigorous and enthusiastic enjoyment

Example Sentence: The audience, surprisingly large given the inclement weather, responded with gusto, applauding each song, including those within the Shostakovich cycle.

—New York Times (Mar 2, 2010)


659. bouillon

a clear seasoned broth

Example Sentence: The meat soups are called broths, bouillon, or consommé, according to their richness.

—Ronald, Mary


660. omniscient

infinitely wise

Example Sentence: Robbe-Grillet responds that his work is in fact far less objective than the godlike, omniscient narrator who presides over so many traditional novels.

—The Guardian (May 13, 2010)


661. apostate

not faithful to religion or party or cause

Example Sentence: They are atheist conservatives — Mr. Khan an apostate to his family’s Islamic faith, Ms. Mac Donald to her left-wing education.

—New York Times (Feb 18, 2011)


662. carrion

the dead and rotting body of an animal; unfit for human food

Example Sentence: Habitually his diet is not carnivorous, but he will eat at times either carrion or living flesh.

—Reid, Mayne


663. emolument

compensation received by virtue of holding an office or having employment (usually in the form of wages or fees)

Example Sentence: As the TUC has pointed out, those incomes – except for senior executives, whose emoluments seem to know few bounds – are rising more slowly than prices.

—The Guardian (Jan 8, 2011)


664. ungainly

lacking grace in movement or posture

Example Sentence: Thomas looked up furtively and saw that an ungainly human figure with crooked legs was being led into the church.

—Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich


665. impiety

unrighteousness by virtue of lacking respect for a god

Example Sentence: That, however, is unbelief, extreme impiety, and a denial of the most high God.

—Bente, F. (Friedrich)


666. decadence

the state of being degenerate in mental or moral qualities

Example Sentence: But there are people who really do not want to import what they regard as Western decadence, especially public drunkenness.

—BBC (Jun 11, 2011)


667. homily

a sermon on a moral or religious topic

Example Sentence: In his New Year's homily, the pope said "words were not enough" to bring about peace, particularly in the Middle East.

—Reuters (Jan 2, 2011)


668. avocation

an auxiliary activity

Example Sentence: Unlike many retired doctors, whom he says often have no life outside their profession, he always knew sailing would become his avocation.

—Newsweek (Nov 17, 2010)


669. circumvent

avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues)

Example Sentence: Mr. Bloomberg said he would take several steps to circumvent obstacles to his proposals posed by city labor unions.

—New York Times (Jan 12, 2012)


670. syllogism

deductive reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from two premises

Example Sentence: The conclusions arrived at by means of syllogisms are irresistible, provided the form be correct and the premises be true.

—Webster, W. F. (William Franklin)


671. collation

assembling in proper numerical or logical sequence

Example Sentence: In the case of early printed books or manuscripts, which are often not paged, special knowledge is needed for their collation.

—Rooke, Noel


672. haggle

wrangle (over a price, terms of an agreement, etc.)

Example Sentence: Obama said while officials can haggle over the makeup of spending cuts, the policy issues have no place in the measure.

—BusinessWeek (Apr 6, 2011)


673. waylay

wait in hiding to attack

Example Sentence: Sir Samuel Clithering was not, of course, a member of it; but he lurked about outside and waylaid us as we went in.

—Birmingham, George A.


674. savant

someone who has been admitted to membership in a scholarly field

Example Sentence: Frank had studied something of almost everything and imagined himself a savant.

—Roussel, John


675. cohort

a group of people having approximately the same age

Example Sentence: The current cohort of college students is, as many have pointed out, the first truly digital generation.

—Washington Post (Dec 1, 2011)


676. unction

excessive but superficial compliments given with affected charm

Example Sentence: "You couldn't ask too much of me," he returned, with no unction of flattery, but the cheerfully frankexpression of an ingenuous heart.

—Ogden, George W. (George Washington)


677. adjure

command solemnly

Example Sentence: “I adjure thee,” she said, “swear to me that you will never go near those Christians again or read their books.”

—Pennell, T. L. (Theodore Leighton)


678. acrimony

a rough and bitter manner

Example Sentence: Relations with India have been slowly improving, although talks ended in acrimony last July with the two sides indulging in a public spat over Kashmir.

—BBC (Feb 10, 2011)


679. clarion

loud and clear

Example Sentence: “He has been the single, clarion voice for commuter rail in central Florida for 20 years,” said Mayor Ken Bradley of Winter Park .

—New York Times (Jun 27, 2011)


680. turbid

(of liquids) clouded as with sediment

Example Sentence: The thick turbid sea rolled in, casting up mire and dirt from its depths.

—Reynolds, Mrs. Baillie


681. cupidity

extreme greed for material wealth

Example Sentence: Well educated, but very corrupt at heart, he found in his insatiable cupidity many ways of gaining money.

—Kraszewski, Jozef Ignacy


682. disaffected

discontented as toward authority

Example Sentence: The financial crisis, largely caused by banker incompetence, has created legions of disaffected customers.

—Forbes (Sep 15, 2011)


683. preternatural

surpassing the ordinary or normal

Example Sentence: In fact, they regarded the Spaniards as superior beings endowed with preternatural gifts.

—Gilson, Jewett Castello


684. eschew

avoid and stay away from deliberately; stay clear of

Example Sentence: Morrissey is among those seniors who are eschewing nursing homes in favor of independent living.

—Washington Post (Mar 23, 2012)


685. expatiate

add details, as to an account or idea; clarify the meaning of and discourse in a learned way, usually in writing

Example Sentence: He then expatiated on his own miseries, which he detailed at full length.

—Manzoni, Alessandro


686. didactic

instructive (especially excessively)

Example Sentence: Let us have a book so full of good illustrations that didactic instruction shall not be needed.

—Various


687. sinuous

curved or curving in and out

Example Sentence: In origami parlance, Mr. Joisel was a wet-folder, dampening his paper so that he could coax it into sinuous curves.

—New York Times (Oct 20, 2010)


688. rancor

a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will

Example Sentence: The current session of Parliament has so far produced only rancor, as opposition parties have shut down proceedings with angry, theatrical protests against corruption.

—New York Times (Aug 14, 2011)


689. puissant

powerful

Example Sentence: The ship was not fighting now, but yielding—a complacent leviathan held captive by a most puissant and ruthless enemy.

—Tracy, Louis


690. homespun

characteristic of country life

Example Sentence: His rural, homespun demeanor ordinarily might elicit snickers from India’s urban elite.

—New York Times (Aug 18, 2011)


691. embroil

force into some kind of situation, condition, or course of action

Example Sentence: But Mr. Marbury, often embroiled in controversy during his N.B.A. days, seems to have found some measure of peace in China.

—New York Times (Apr 1, 2012)


692. pathological

caused by or evidencing a mentally disturbed condition

Example Sentence: "Fixated individuals" — mentally ill people with a pathological focus on someone, often a stranger — make up the first group.

—Time (Apr 26, 2011)


693. resonant

characterized by resonance

Example Sentence: His eyes were piercing but sad, his voice grand and resonant, suiting well the wrathful, impassioned Calvinism of his sermons.

—Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston


694. libretto

the words of an opera or musical play

Example Sentence: In many great operas, composers have had to whittle down an epic literary work into a suitable libretto.

—New York Times (Mar 6, 2010)


695. flail

move like a flail; thresh about

Example Sentence: Exercise is prescribed, but when she joins an aqua aerobics class, she flails embarrassingly.

—New York Times (Apr 12, 2012)


696. bandy

discuss lightly

Example Sentence: Hillary Clinton’s name has been bandied about, but she’s made it clear she’s not interested.

—Time (Mar 20, 2012)


697. gratis

costing nothing

Example Sentence: "Would you admit them gratis?" asked Mr. Castlemaine with a smile, "or would they have to pay, like ordinary residents in an hotel?"

—Hocking, Joseph


698. upshot

a phenomenon that follows and is caused by some previous phenomenon

Example Sentence: The inevitable upshot of their growing social power was that brands wanted an expanded visual presence.

—The Guardian (Jul 27, 2010)


699. aphorism

a short pithy instructive saying

Example Sentence: General Sherman's famous aphorism that "War is Hell," has become classic.

—Fletcher, Samuel H.


700. redoubtable

worthy of respect or honor

Example Sentence: Captain Miles Standish was a redoubtable soldier, small in person, but of great activity and courage.

—Mann, Henry


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