Amazon’s Kindle is an e-reader that allows you to carry many more books than you’re ever going to read on a small computer-like device that, in some people’s opinion, makes you look a bit pretentious in coffeeshops.

But what does kindle really mean?

To kindle is to set or ignite (as in a fire), or to metaphorically start a flame, such as by arousing interest or passion.

You can kindle a fire for your campsite, and you can kindle a love of reading in your toddler, although probably not with a Kindle, since electronic reading devices don’t work with pop-up books.

Choose your own answer to this GRE Antonyms problem before clicking “more”:

KINDLE:
A. tout
B. deluge
C. damp
D. dilute
E. tamp

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To jibe is to be in harmony or accord with. Her adopt-a-highway plan didn’t jibe with my idea of a good spring break. Surprisingly, jibe also means “to shift from one side to the other when running before the wind, as a fore-and-aft sail or its boom.”

To gibe is to jeer, taunt, or deride. Or, as a noun, gibes are insults.

After putting up with my lab partner’s gibes for the entire length of the project, I requested a less asinine classmate for the next semester’s project. As I told the professor, our styles just didn’t jibe, because I am amiable and she is an intractable boor.

Welcome to Visual Dictionary, a series of posts about words that are better expressed in pictures.

This person is ebullient!

Try this Antonyms problem. Choose your own answer, then click “more.”

EBULLIENT:
A. frothy
B. impassive
C. unbiased
D. tantamount
E. gelid

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Pop Quiz!

Because the GRE is a computer-adaptive test, chances are you’re going to see words you don’t know. When that happens, one useful strategy is to try to ferret out whether the unknown words have positive or negative connotations. You can do this using roots, your knowledge of similar words in English or Romance languages, or just your “gut” feeling.

Decide whether each word is positive, negative, or neutral, then click “more.”

MERETRICIOUS
CROTCHETY
MAGNANIMOUS
CAJOLE
TERRIGENOUS
DULCET

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Welcome to Visual Dictionary, a series of posts about words that are better expressed in pictures.

Perhaps this fellow is incognito because he has
some clandestine business to attend to.

While clandestine means “secret,” it’s not a secret that the clandestine arm of the CIA is called the National Clandestine Service.

Some other words for “secret” are furtive and surreptitious.

While clandestine and furtive have similar meanings, furtive has a somewhat negative connotation. People have clandestine romantic affairs, but they furtively snoop through someone else’s email.

Manhattan GRE has developed 6 full-length GRE computer adaptive tests and is giving one away for free. Obviously, after massively augmenting your lexicon from its formerly pedestrian status to its currently redoubtable one, you will want to get a score on that thing.

After the practice test, you’ll see a results area that will not only give you a score (actually, a score for quant and a score for verbal, with percentiles), but also:

• A rundown of all the problems you did
• Your answer to each problem and the correct answer
• Explanations for each problem
• The difficulty level of each problem
• The amount of time you spent on each problem
• The cumulative time you spent over the course of the test versus the target cumulative time at various junctures during the test

If you take additional practice tests (you can also purchase access to all six exams here for $30, or get access to them by purchasing Manhattan GRE’s books or taking a class), you will be able to run assessment reports that will break down — among other useful statistics — what percent of problems you are getting correct or incorrect in specific areas such as Triangles, Exponents, Inference Questions in Reading Comp, etc.

Go here to take the free practice test.

Welcome to Visual Dictionary, a series of posts about words that are better expressed in pictures.

This guy is unctuous.

He’s trying to sell you a used car with 250,000 miles on it, and telling you that, if you don’t like the car, you’ll easily be able to resell it for a profit on the internet, and also the car is a total babe magnet.  Doesn’t this guy look like he would say “babe magnet”?  Unctuous.

Slugs are often thought to be unctuous.

Seriously unctuous.

Unctuous means greasy or oily, like an unguent. But we often use the word as a metaphor. That guy with the phone — kind of gross, right? It’s like he’s sliming your brain.

Bill’s unctuous uncle called him up asking for money. “Look, nephew … I know I haven’t called you since you were six, but I’ve got this unguent business, and I just need a few thousand bucks to get it off the ground, and also pay my rent. I’ve always liked you better than your cousins.”

Bill wasn’t that gullible. He told his unctuous uncle, “I don’t want any part of your unguent business.”

Pop Quiz!

The following six words can be grouped by meaning into two categories.

Mentally place them into two synonym groups, then click “more.”

AUGMENT
DISSEMBLE
DISSIMULATE
AGGRANDIZE
DISINGENUOUS
COMPOUND

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Welcome to Visual Dictionary, a series of posts about words that are better expressed in pictures.

This monk is sagacious.

Sagacious is the adjective form of sage, a wise person. A wise person is sapient (like Homo sapiens).

A very perceptive person could be called sharp, astute, perspicacious, or canny.

An educated person is erudite; an intellectual person is cerebral.

Let’s try an Antonyms problem:

PERSPICACIOUS:
A. inept
B. ambivalent
C. tepid
D. tantamount
E. opaque

Choose your own answer, then click “more.”

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Some of the most perplexing words on the GRE are diminutive. Who doesn’t see PAN : REVIEW and metaphorically scratch his or her head, or wonder what, exactly, a nib or a gin is on its own? Welcome to Three-Letter Words. A few of them might make you want to deploy some four-letter words.

Of course you can pat someone on the head, give someone a pat on the back, or use a pat of butter. You can also have something down pat.

But what does it mean when someone gives you a pat answer? As it turns out, pat can mean apt or right to the point, but it can also mean glib or facile. Thus:

I tried to help her get started with her philosophy paper by asking her “What is virtue?” Her answer was a little too pat: “It’s whatever the best qualities are.”

Complicated questions deserve more than pat answers. The answer to homelessness isn’t “build more homes.” Rather, a host of interrelated factors create the circumstances that cause homelessness in the first place.

Choose your own answer before clicking “more”:

PAT:
A. insipid
B. rueful
C. penetrating
D. sidereal
E. permeable

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