GRE Vocab Words You Think You Know…But Don’t
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Some researchers estimate that there are as many as a million words in the English language. However, you won’t see words like mylohyoid, ekphrasis, or cotyledon on the GRE. In fact, even though English has a huge number of extremely rare words, the GRE almost never tests them. Instead, it focuses on a set of words we’ll call rare but reasonable.
Rare but reasonable words are words like impenetrable or harmonious. They aren’t as common as cat and dog, but you’re reasonably likely to see them in an academic journal or an erudite news article. These words are much more likely to appear on your GRE than the extremely rare words. In fact, within the set of academic vocabulary, the GRE tests the more common words much more often than the rarer ones. It’s hard to give exact statistics, but our research suggests that you’re more likely to see ubiquitous (which is fairly common) on the GRE than tendentiousness (which is quite rare), for example.
That’s good news, if you already know the more common academic vocabulary words. These words are high-value, and knowing them is very likely to help you out. However, there’s a flip side: it’s no big deal if you can’t define hymnody, but if you’re missing some of the heavy-hitting words, that could hurt you on test day. On top of that, some of the GRE’s favorite words to test are the fairly common ones that we like to think we know, but actually don’t. Here are a few of the best.
Qualified: This word, like most of the words on this list, has two meanings. Somebody who’s qualified, well, they have qualifications! You might describe someone as a qualified doctor or a qualified pilot. However, what’s a qualified success? It’s not a particularly good success. In fact, a qualified success is one that’s only partially successful. Likewise, qualified praise is praise that isn’t completely enthusiastic. And to qualify a claim or a statement means adding caveats or exceptions to it, or not standing behind it 100%.
Apparent: If your intelligence is apparent, that means it’s obvious for anyone to see. On the other hand, if a GRE vocabulary question starts off like this:
“The governor was apparently intelligent, but…”
then, in the second half of the sentence, we’re going to hear about the governor doing something totally boneheaded. Depending on context, apparent can refer to something that’s clear and obvious, or to something that only seems to be true. Here’s an example from the 5lb. Book of GRE Practice Problems that uses this trick:
The apparent simplicity of a cup of coffee __________ the dizzying number of hours of toil required to produce it, from months of cultivation of the bean tree to painstaking refinement in highly sophisticated machinery.
The coffee is apparently simple, but this only seems to be the case. In fact, it’s quite complex. (The correct answer here is belies, which fits the contrast between simplicity and complexity.)
Measured: This word is so common that many of us wouldn’t think to put it on a flashcard. However, it has a clever second meaning that the GRE loves to use. If your tone of voice is measured, that doesn’t mean that someone’s taken measurements of it. A measured attitude or a measured voice is one that’s calm, thoughtful, and steady. It’s a near-synonym with the adjective restrained – which also has two meanings!
Arrest: Speaking of restrained, the verb arrest is also likely to be used non-literally on the GRE. If you arrest a runaway train, you aren’t taking it to jail – you’re just bringing it to a halt. Excessive heat might arrest (stop) the growth of crops. The most common place to see this meaning is in the phrase arrest someone’s progress, which just means stopping it. This is also where we get the phrase cardiac arrest, which is what happens when someone’s heart stops beating.
Appropriate: On the two GRE vocabulary problem types, Sentence Equivalence and Text Completion, the answer choices are always all the same part of speech. They might all be nouns, or all adjectives, but the test won’t mix the two together. If you don’t know this, and you see the word appropriate in the answer choices, you might assume that it’s an adjective (meaning ‘correct’ or ‘proper’). However, if the other answer choices are all verbs, look twice. Appropriate must be being used as a verb, as well. When used as a verb, it has a totally different meaning: to appropriate property is to seize it from the owner, often by force, and to appropriate a trademark means taking it for your own without permission. Other words that have different meanings when used as different parts of speech: flag (noun or verb), facility (noun or adjective), and intimate (adjective or verb). If you spot these, make sure the meaning you’re using matches the part of speech of the other answer choices.
The weirdest, toughest words aren’t the most important ones on the GRE. Instead, the most important words are the ones you’re most likely to see, and the ones that you don’t know yet. These words, which are fairly common but quite tricky, fall into the overlap of those two sets for many students. Make flashcards for them now, and if you spot others that are similar, don’t pass them by just because they seem easy! ?
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Chelsey Cooley
is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington. Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master’s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170/170 on the GRE. Check out Chelsey’s upcoming GRE prep offerings here.