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.
bilious, vilify, nuance, gawk, refectory, palatial, mincing, trenchant, emboss, proletarian, careen, debacle, sycophant, crabbed, archetype, cryptic, penchant, bauble, mountebank, fawning, hummock, apotheosis, discretionary, pithy, comport, checkered, ambrosia, factious, disgorge, filch, wraith, demonstrable, pertinacious, emend, laggard, waffle, loquacious, venial, peon, effulgence, lode, fanfare, dilettante, pusillanimous, ingrained, quagmire, reprobation, mannered, squeamish, proclivity, miserly, vapid, mercurial, perspicuous, nonplus, enamor, hackneyed, spate, pedagogue, acme, masticate, sinecure, indite, emetic, temporize, unimpeachable, genesis, mordant, smattering, suavity, stentorian, junket, appurtenance, nostrum, immure, astringent, unfaltering, tutelage, testator, elysian, fulminate, fractious, pummel, manumit, unexceptionable, triumvirate, sybarite, jibe, magisterial, roseate, obloquy, hoodwink, striate, arrogate, rarefied, chary, credo, superannuated, impolitic, aspersion
irritable as if suffering from indigestion
Example Sentence: But his sleep had not refreshed him; he waked up bilious, irritable, ill-tempered, and looked with hatred at his room.
—Garnett, Constance
spread negative information about
Example Sentence: The trial was televised and the victim's identity became known, resulting in her being vilified by almost the entire town.
—The Guardian (Jan 19, 2011)
a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude
Example Sentence: By working so hard to simplify things, we lose any nuance or ability to deal with folks’ individual circumstances.
—Washington Post (Oct 3, 2011)
look with amazement; look stupidly
Example Sentence: He speaks mainly of his humiliation at lying on the sidewalkas hipsters gawked.
—New York Times (Apr 9, 2012)
a communal dining-hall (usually in a monastery)
Example Sentence: Meanwhile, the soup was getting cold in the refectory, so that the assembled brotherhood at last fell to, without waiting any longer for the Abbot.
—Scheffel, Joseph Victor von
suitable for or like a palace
Example Sentence: The house was very large; its rooms almost palatial in size, had been finished in richly carved hardwood panels and wainscoting, mostly polished mahogany.
—Hitchcock , Frederick L. (Frederick Lyman)
affectedly dainty or refined
Example Sentence: She went, carrying her little head very high indeed, and taking dainty, mincing steps.
—Banks, Nancy Huston
having keenness and forcefulness and penetration in thought, expression, or intellect
Example Sentence: They are written in a serio-comic tone, and for sparkling wit, trenchant sarcasm, and dramatic dialectics surpass anything ever penned by Lessing.
—Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim
raise in a relief
Example Sentence: Requests may also be made of the stationer to use an embossed plate so that the letters stand out in relief.
—Eichler, Lillian
a member of the working class (not necessarily employed)
Example Sentence: As yet, the true proletarian wage-earner, uprooted from his native village and broken away from the organization of Indian society, is but insignificant.
—Stoddard, Lothrop
pitching dangerously to one side
Example Sentence: I turned the steering wheel all the way to one side, and found myself careening backward in a violent arc.
—Vogel, Nancy
a sound defeat
Example Sentence: The Broncos are coming off their worst season in franchise history, a 4-12 debacle that included issues on and off the field.
—Newsweek (Jan 9, 2011)
a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage
Example Sentence: The people around the king are sycophants who are looking after their own personal advantage.
—Coffin, Charles Carleton
annoyed and irritable
Example Sentence: He grew crabbed and soured, his temper flashing out on small provocation.
—Weyman, Stanley J.
something that serves as a model or a basis for making copies
Example Sentence: Newport, R.I., looks like a perfect archetype of a small, seaside New England town.
—Forbes (Nov 3, 2010)
of an obscure nature
Example Sentence: The authorities, beyond some cryptic language about the death being sudden but not suspicious, have released no details.
—New York Times (Aug 24, 2011)
a strong liking
Example Sentence: But sometimes, old Wall Street habits — including a penchant for expensive luxuries — are hard to break .
—New York Times (Mar 31, 2012)
cheap showy jewelry or ornament on clothing
Example Sentence: But men were buying Valentine's baubles for their honeys long before the first Zales ever opened its doors in a suburban shopping mall.
—Slate (Feb 14, 2012)
a flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes
Example Sentence: They are singularly clever, these Indian mountebanks, especially in sleight of hand tricks.
—Ballou, Maturin Murray
attempting to win favor by flattery
Example Sentence: “As any cult leader, he was extremely good at milking the rich, at flattering and fawning,” Ms. Gordon said.
—New York Times (Apr 16, 2010)
a small natural hill
Example Sentence: Captain Bill leaned back on a hummock of earth, his arms folded behind his head.
—Grayson, J. J.
model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no equal
Example Sentence: Contrary to popular belief, however, she said Ms. Deen’s fat-laden cooking does not in fact represent the apotheosis of Southern cuisine.
—New York Times (Jan 17, 2012)
(especially of funds) not earmarked; available for use as needed
Example Sentence: Steeper prices for basic necessities have forced many to cut back on more discretionary purchases.
—Washington Post (Oct 19, 2011)
concise and full of meaning
Example Sentence: As Moore isolated finer points of the passing game, Keller in neat penmanship jotted down pithy phrases and punchy quotes, basic ideas and specific concepts.
—New York Times (Dec 10, 2011)
behave in a certain manner
Example Sentence: Ironically, the one man on stage who did comport himself with dignity, John Huntsman, is now being dismissed as having not made an impact.
—Time (Sep 8, 2011)
marked by changeable fortune
Example Sentence: Both restaurants have checkered histories with the health department; they were temporarily shut down for sanitary violations that included evidence of rodents.
—New York Times (Aug 22, 2010)
(classical mythology) the food and drink of the gods; mortals who ate it became immortal
Example Sentence: "Frieda represents the lovely goddess, Hebe, who served nectar and ambrosia to the high gods on Mount Olympus," she explained.
—Vandercook , Margaret
dissenting (especially dissenting with the majority opinion)
Example Sentence: Will it be answered that we are factious, discontented spirits, striving to disturb the public order, and tear up the old fastnesses of society?
—Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
cause or allow (a solid substance) to flow or run out or over
Example Sentence: There are telephone poles and cinder blocks and living room chairs and large trash bins, overturned and disgorging their soggy contents.
—New York Times (Oct 28, 2011)
make off with belongings of others
Example Sentence: Then, in place of the real site, it displays a fake site created to filch account numbers, login names and passwords.
—New York Times (Jul 13, 2010)
a mental representation of some haunting experience
Example Sentence: Whichever way he turns there loom past wraiths, restless as ghosts of unburied Grecian slain.
—Lee, Carson Jay
capable of being demonstrated or proved
Example Sentence: The linkage between deposits and trade is definite, causal, positive, statistically demonstrable.
—Anderson, Benjamin M.
stubbornly unyielding
Example Sentence: His temper, though yielding and easy in appearance, was in reality most obstinate and pertinacious.
—Kavanagh, Julia
make improvements or corrections to
Example Sentence: The following were identified as spelling or typographic errors and have been emended as noted.
—Hopper, James
someone who takes more time than necessary; someone who lags behind
Example Sentence: Corporate data centers are the slowpoke laggards of information technology.
—New York Times (Apr 10, 2012)
pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness
Example Sentence: A few days of waffling back and forth and I ended up going out to a mediocre bistro with my parents.
—Scientific American (Feb 8, 2011)
full of trivial conversation
Example Sentence: Pan soon found it needful to make conversation, in order to keep the loquacious old stage driver from talking too much.
—Grey, Zane
easily excused or forgiven
Example Sentence: The confidence of ignorance, however venial in youth, is not altogether so excusable, in full grown men.
—School, A Sexton of the Old
a laborer who is obliged to do menial work
Example Sentence: For the most part, the men were wiry peons, some toiling half naked, but there were a number who looked like prosperous citizens.
—Bindloss, Harold
the quality of being bright and sending out rays of light
Example Sentence: Then, all at once, in a way that seemed to frighten her, the sunshine had burst the clouds, and dazzled her with its effulgence.
—Fenn, George Manville
a deposit of valuable ore occurring within definite boundaries separating it from surrounding rocks
Example Sentence: Such local perturbations are regularly used in Sweden for tracing out the position of underground lodes of iron ore.
—Gilbert, William
a gaudy outward display
Example Sentence: It opened a month ago to considerable fanfare, with television cameras trailing government officials meandering proudly around the bright new stores filled with imported goods.
—New York Times (Aug 22, 2010)
showing frivolous or superficial interest; amateurish
Example Sentence: They dabbled in politics and art in the same dilettante fashion.
—Cannan, Gilbert
lacking in courage and manly strength and resolution; contemptibly fearful
Example Sentence: He was described by his friends as pusillanimous to an incredible extent, timid from excess of riches, afraid of his own shadow.
—Motley, John Lothrop
(used especially of ideas or principles) deeply rooted; firmly fixed or held
Example Sentence: The narrow prejudices of his country were ingrained too deeply in his character to be disturbed by any change of surroundings.
—Fuller, Robert H.
a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
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)
severe disapproval
Example Sentence: Mr. Conway denounced this scheme as "utterly and flagrantly unconstitutional, as radically revolutionary in character and deserving the reprobation of every loyal citizen."
—Blaine, James Gillespie
having unnatural mannerisms
Example Sentence: Nothing was mannered or pretentious; the texts came through with utter naturalness.
—New York Times (May 29, 2011)
excessively fastidious and easily disgusted
Example Sentence: But please note that this gunfire-fueled film is for mature audiences; given its content, young and/or squeamish viewers should avoid this one.
—Washington Post (Aug 6, 2010)
a natural inclination
Example Sentence: She received, under her father's supervision, a very careful education, and developed her proclivities for literary composition at an early age.
—Adams, W. H. Davenport
(used of persons or behavior) characterized by or indicative of lack of generosity
Example Sentence: Now, my uncle seemed so miserly that I was struck dumb by this sudden generosity, and could find no words in which to thank him.
—Stevenson, Robert Louis
lacking significance or liveliness or spirit or zest
Example Sentence: How vapid was the talk of my remaining fellow-passengers; how slow of understanding, and how preoccupied with petty things they seemed!
—Dawson, A. J. (Alec John)
liable to sudden unpredictable change
Example Sentence: Wind energy is notoriously mercurial, with patterns shifting drastically over the course of years, days, even minutes.
—Scientific American (Jan 4, 2012)
(of language) transparently clear; easily understandable
Example Sentence: The statements are plain and simple, a perfect model of perspicuous narrative.
—Smith, Uriah
be a mystery or bewildering to
Example Sentence: I shook my head and rushed from his presence, completely nonplussed, bewildered, frantic.
—Cole, E. W. (Edward William)
attract; cause to be enamored
Example Sentence: Young Indian audiences are so enamored with reality television that they will not watch the soap operas and dramas that their parents or grandparents watch.
—New York Times (Jan 9, 2011)
repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
Example Sentence: Many speakers become so addicted to certain hackneyed phrases that those used to hearing them speak can see them coming sentences away.
—Lewis, Arthur M. (Arthur Morrow)
(often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
Example Sentence: French authorities are already reporting a rising spate of calls to emergency services by homeowners whose once-frozen water mains have now burst.
—Time (Feb 13, 2012)
someone who educates young people
Example Sentence: His old pedagogue, Mr. Brownell, had been unable to teach him mathematics.
—Pierce, H. Winthrop
the highest level or degree attainable; the highest stage of development
Example Sentence: Scientifically speaking, it is the acme of absurdity to talk of a man defying the law of gravitation when he lifts his arm.
—Huxley, Thomas H.
chew (food); to bite and grind with the teeth
Example Sentence: Food should be masticated quietly, and with the lips closed.
—Cooke, Maud C.
an office that involves minimal duties
Example Sentence: He would have repudiated the notion that he was looking for a sinecure, but no doubt considered that the duties would be easy and light.
—Trollope, Anthony
produce a literary work
Example Sentence: She indited religious poems which were the admiration of the age.
—Brittain, Alfred
a medicine that induces nausea and vomiting
Example Sentence: The juice of this herb, taken in ale, is esteemed a gentle and very good emetic, bringing on vomiting without any great irritation or pain.
—Smith, John Thomas
draw out a discussion or process in order to gain time
Example Sentence: So he temporized and beat about the bush, and did not touch first on that which was nearest his heart.
—Erskine, Payne
beyond doubt or reproach
Example Sentence: Whether we agree with the conclusions of these writers or not, the method of critical investigation which they adopt is unimpeachable.
—Huxley, Thomas H.
a coming into being
Example Sentence: He found himself speculating on the genesis of the moral sense, how it developed in difficulties rather than in ease.
—Miller, Alice Duer
harshly ironic or sinister
Example Sentence: Even Morgan himself, intrepid as he was, shrank from the awful menace of the mordant words.
—Crawford, Will
a small number or amount
Example Sentence: Only a smattering of fans remained for all four ghastly quarters.
—Washington Post (Sep 24, 2011)
the quality of being bland and gracious or ingratiating in manner
Example Sentence: His combativeness was harnessed to his suavity, and he could be forcible and at the same time persuasive.
—Windsor, William
used of the voice
Example Sentence: If a hundred voices shouted in opposition, his stentorian tones still made themselves heard above the uproar.
—Jkai, Mr
a trip taken by an official at public expense
Example Sentence: Mr. Abramoff arranged for junkets, including foreign golfing destinations, for the members of Congress he was trying to influence.
—New York Times (Feb 26, 2010)
a supplementary component that improves capability
Example Sentence: In the center of this space stood a large frame building whose courtyard, stables, and other appurtenances proclaimed it an inn.
—Madison, Lucy Foster
patent medicine whose efficacy is questionable
Example Sentence: Just here a native "medicine man" dispenses nostrums of doubtful efficacy, and in front a quantity of red Moorish pottery is exposed for sale.
—Meakin, Budgett
lock up or confine, in or as in a jail
Example Sentence: Political prisoners, numbering as many as three or four hundred at a time, have been immured within its massive walls.
—Boyd, Mary Stuart
sour or bitter in taste
Example Sentence: There was something sharply astringent about her then, like biting inadvertently into a green banana.
—McFee, William
marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable
Example Sentence: Still unfaltering, the procession commenced to trudge back , the littlest boy and girl bearing themselves bravely, with lips tight pressed.
—Sabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)
attention and management implying responsibility for safety
Example Sentence: It will do so under German leadership that grows less hesitant with each crisis, and without the American tutelage it enjoyed for so many decades.
—Newsweek (Jan 23, 2011)
a person who makes a will
Example Sentence: This will was drawn up by me some years since at the request of the testator, who was in good health, mentally and bodily.
—Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
being of such surpassing excellence as to suggest inspiration by the gods
Example Sentence: Life seemed an elysian dream, from which care and sorrow must be for ever banished.
—Hentz, Caroline Lee
criticize severely
Example Sentence: But with people looking for almost any excuse to fulminate against airlines these days, there's a certain risk of embellishment.
—Salon (Jun 25, 2010)
easily irritated or annoyed
Example Sentence: He was a fractious invalid, and spared his wife neither time nor trouble in attending to his wants.
—Brazil, Angela
strike, usually with the fist
Example Sentence: Another, with rubber bands wrapped tightly around his face, is pummelled by a plastic boxing kangaroo.
—The Guardian (Jan 22, 2011)
free from slavery or servitude
Example Sentence: Moreover, manumitted slaves enjoyed the same rights, privileges and immunities that were enjoyed by those born free.
—Various
completely acceptable; not open to exception or reproach
Example Sentence: All cowboys are from necessity good cooks, and the fluffy, golden brown biscuits and fragrant coffee of Red's making were unexceptionable.
—Mayer, Frank
a group of three men responsible for public administration or civil authority
Example Sentence: This triumvirate approach has real benefits in terms of shared wisdom, and we will continue to discuss the big decisions among the three of us.
—Salon (Jan 20, 2011)
a person addicted to luxury and pleasures of the senses
Example Sentence: He was not used to travelling on omnibuses, being something of a sybarite who spared nothing to ensure his own comfort.
—Wallace, Edgar
be compatible, similar or consistent; coincide in their characteristics
Example Sentence: Contemporary art has never quite jibed with mainstream media.
—Salon (Jul 6, 2010)
offensively self-assured or given to exercising usually unwarranted power
Example Sentence: “Now look here,” he said, making believe to take down my words and shaking his pencil at me in a magisterial way.
—Fenn, George Manville
of something having a dusty purplish pink color
Example Sentence: Behind the trees rough, lichened rock and stony slopes ran up to a bare ridge, silhouetted against the roseate glow of the morning sky.
—Bindloss, Harold
a false accusation of an offense or a malicious misrepresentation of someone's words or actions
Example Sentence: This is the real history of a transaction which, by frequent misrepresentation, has brought undeserved obloquy upon a generous man.
—Purchas, H. T. (Henry Thomas)
influence by slyness
Example Sentence: The stories of the saints he regarded as preposterous fables invented to hoodwinka gullible and illiterate populace.
—The Guardian (Sep 19, 2010)
mark with striae or striations
Example Sentence: The body is striated with clearly defined, often depressed lines, which run longitudinally and sometimes spirally.
—Calkins, Gary N. (Gary Nathan)
seize and take control without authority and possibly with force; take as one's right or possession
Example Sentence: Japanese manufacturers were accused of arrogating American technologies to churn out low-cost electronics.
—New York Times (May 25, 2010)
of high moral or intellectual value; elevated in nature or style
Example Sentence: The debate over climate science has involved very complex physical models and rarefied areas of scientific knowledge.
—New York Times (Apr 9, 2011)
characterized by great caution and wariness
Example Sentence: There was no independent verification of the figure; the authorities have been chary of releasing death tolls for fear of inflaming further violence.
—New York Times (Apr 24, 2011)
any system of principles or beliefs
Example Sentence: She preferred to hang out with everyone but was best friends with no one, holding to the credo: “You should be nice to people.”
—New York Times (Jan 21, 2011)
too old to be useful
Example Sentence: Civil servants are superannuated at fifty-five years of age and are sent home on a pension, seldom enjoying life longer than two years afterward.
—Hunt, Eleonora
not politic
Example Sentence: Bill Maher has always been a vocal critic of Islam, even at times making impolitic statements about the religion.
—Salon (Mar 16, 2011)
a disparaging remark
Example Sentence: Lord Sanquhar then proceeded to deny the aspersion that he was an ill-natured fellow, ever revengeful, and delighting in blood.
—Thornbury, Walter