A lot of you have been asking for a GRE resource with vocabulary flashcards, so here it is—the GRE Vocabulary Flashcard “eBook”! It contains all of the vocabulary words from our popular Vocabulary eBook, but the words have been reformatted from plain old text into flashcards.

Looking for a digital resource? Be sure to check out our GRE Vocabulary Flashcards App available in web/iPhone/Android formats!

These cards are designed to be printed out on paper—either through your home printer or a copy shop’s :). This should satisfy students with “old school” study habits who want something tangible that they can flip through, highlight, mark up, etc. (More technically inclined learners interested in digital flashcards should check out our free GRE vocabulary flashcard apps for iPhone, Android, and the web!)

Click the button below to download the printable flashcards. It’s a big file (flashcards take up a lot of pages), so it’ll take a while to load. Enjoy! And see below for some tips on how to use these flashcards effectively.



We weren’t exactly pleased with the other GRE flashcards available on the market, so we’ve made these in true Magoosh fashion—each card includes example sentences, descriptive definitions, and fun themes to really help the words stick.

Let us know how you like these, and if you have any other “eBook” or resource requests for our next release.

Study Tips: Apply your knowledge to practice problems

While we do encourage flashcard use as a supplement to your GRE studying, nothing really beats good practice. So, make sure to put your vocab skills to use by doing plenty of Sentence Equivalence and Text Completion questions as well. Magoosh premium members have access to nearly ~400 SE & TC questions combined.

Don’t only use GRE Vocabulary Flashcards—read as well!

Although GRE vocabulary flashcards are a great starting point, they should not be the only means of expanding your vocabulary. One of the best ways to develop your personal lexicon is to read more.

But don’t just read anything—you need to focus on academic materials similar to what you’ll see on the GRE. Some great suggestions include The New York Times, The Economist, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New Yorker. Anytime you come across a new word, see if you can figure out it’s meaning by scrutinizing the surrounding words. Then look up the real definition—keep this information recorded somewhere and review it often! If you do a lot of online reading, check out our Chrome Plugin that highlights common GRE words.

While our flaschcards and the Chrome Plugin include words that frequently appear on the GRE, it’s likely that you’ll run into some unfamiliar terms come test day. The best way to prepare for this situation is to practice reading until you develop a comfortable sense of logic & structure within sentences. This will allow you to decipher the meaning of unknown words simply by examining their context.

Use mnemonics to retain definitions

Brains are complicated organs, and encoding new information can be tricky. Thankfully, we can use mnemonics as a sort of “brain hack” to enhance our learning and recall abilities. Simply put, mnemonics are memory tricks that use association to assist learning. These associations can be rhymes, alliteration, historical context, opposites, or any other tool that makes a word easier to remember! Here’s a couple examples:

Diffidence refers to timidity or shyness. In this respect, it’s the opposite of a more common word: confidence.

Verisimilitude means “something that has the appearance of being true.” So when you see this word, think of something “veri-similar” to the truth.

Coming up with mnemonics for new words is a great way to help them stick!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in June, 2013 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.