Grouping Vocab Words: An Example
Grouping to win.
I am not a great vocab learner. I never took Latin in high school, so I don’t know any roots. I did take Spanish “ but I was terrible at it. Ultimately for me, the best way to learn vocab is to learn vague definitions by grouping words together.
Most GRE questions can be better attacked if you know vaguely what a word means than if you have an exact definition memorized but you don’t really understand it. Sure, there are questions that depend on nuance of meaning. But if you have a basic understanding of a word, that’s almost always enough.
I find it easiest to learn vocab words by grouping them together. Two of my favorite groups are presented here. These groups contain a lot of words, so it’s helpful for both memory and for learning synonyms and antonyms.
To talk or not to talk? First, not to talk.
There are a LOT of words on the GRE that have to do with how talkative or quiet someone is. For example, the words reticent, taciturn, terse, laconic and brusque all basically mean not saying much. They are different in meaning from one another, to some extent. But I contend that you can get pretty far on the GRE without knowing that.
What do those words all mean? Terse and laconic pretty much mean the same thing: to-the-point, using words sparingly, or only saying what needs to be said. Brusque is sort of the same, except it has a negative connotation. So while you might describe a quiet, thoughtful old man as laconic or a direct paragraph as terse, you’d probably describe someone who dismissed your complaint with a two-word brush-off as brusque. I think of reticent and taciturn as pretty similar too. These words refer to someone who is quiet and reserved and doesn’t say much.
When I learned my vocab for the GRE, I didn’t worry about any of those nuances. I considered words such as terse, laconic, brusque, reticent, and taciturn synonyms that meant not talking a lot. And that groups wasn’t perfect, but it made it a lot easier to remember what the words meant.
What about talkative words?
I’m really not sure why there are so many GRE words that are synonyms for talkative, but here you go. Loquacious, garrulous, palaverous, voluble, and prolix all mean talking a lot. Once again, their meanings vary slightly. Garrulous and loquacious and voluble and prolix all basically mean chatty. Voluble is particularly tricky because it doesn’t have anything to do with volume “ well it does, but not the volume that is measured in decibels and tells you how loud something is. More like the volume of words; there are a lot of words, because you are talking a lot. (Note: I have no idea if that’s the root of the word, but that’s a good way to remember it!) Palaverous is slightly different; not only does it mean that you’re chatty, but it also means you are chatty about nothing. Think of a two-year-old child and you basically know what being palaverous is all about.
Should I bother to learn the nuances in meaning?
In a word? Yes. There are definitely GRE questions that require you to know the slight differences in meaning between two words that are otherwise pretty similar.
But on the other hand, having a pretty good idea what a lot of words mean is, in my opinion, better than having a perfect understanding of fewer words. Plus, I see a lot of students who get hung up on memorizing a perfect definition, but don’t really have a feel at all for what the word means. And that means when they forget what they memorized, they don’t have anything to go on.
What are some other good groups I can make?
There are lots of ways to group the GRE vocab words, and many of those ways are helpful. Here are a few examples of groups of GRE words you can make. I’m sure there are lots of words you can add to any of these lists, so group the words in a way that makes the most sense to you!
- Criticizing or blaming words. Would you believe that aspersion, belittle, berate, calumny, castigate, decry, defamation, denounce, deride, derisive, diatribe, disparage, excoriate, gainsay, harangue, impugn, inveigh, lambaste, objurgate, obloquy, opprobrium, rebuke, remonstrate, reprove, revile, tirade, and vituperate all fall into this category? They certainly aren’t exactly the same, but there’s a lot to be said for knowing a general level of meaning and similarity.
- Lying words. Words such as apocryphal, belie, canard, chicanery, defamation (again!), dissemble, duplicity, equivocate, erroneous, ersatz, fallacious, feign, guile, mendacious, mendacity, perfidy, prevaricate, specious, and spurious have something to do with being false or deceptive.
- Change-related words. There are lots of GRE words that have to do with things changing around. Some of them are capricious, changeable, faddish, fanciful, fickle, flighty, inconstant, mercurial, temperamental, tempestuous, quirky, unpredictable, variable, vicissitude, volatile, whimsical, but I’m sure there are others!
- Starting-something words. One category of words has to do with sparking or starting something. Whether you arouse, beget, cause, engender, enkindle, foment, incite, induce, instigate, kindle, rouse, prompt, spark, or trigger, you are starting something up!
- Uncaring words. Whether or not you care about something has a lot of words. Apathy, dispassion, ennui, impassivity, indifference, languor and lethargy all have something to do with a lack of caring or interest.
- Weakening words. We have lots of words for reducing or weakening. Allay, alleviate, assuage, attenuate, diminish, ease, enervate, and palliate are among the many words that have something to do with lessening. You can make a nice list for words that strengthen too.
As I said, this is far from complete list! But I strongly suggest you try grouping your words in ways that help you link them together and remember them. It’s very easy to do this with flashcards, because they can be easily stacked and re-grouped, but it can be helpful to write them out as well.
What do you think is the most helpful group of GRE words to learn?