Below is a sample list of GRE® vocabulary words organized into categories and subcategories for easier memorization.

Here are 700 free words for you. For a complete list of the top-2500 GRE words categorized by definition, please see our GRE Plus Package

WHY’RE YOU ACTING UP?

Praise

Admirable- commendable, creditable, estimable, laudable, meritorious, venerable

To praise/praise (n.)- acclaim, adulatory, applaud, approbate, claim, commend, compliment, encomium, eulogize, exalt, extol, hail, kudos, laud, paean, panegyric, plaudit, tribute, venerate

Respect- courtesy, deference, homage, idolize, obeisance, reverence, veneration

Condemn

Mock/ridicule- deride (can also imply a feeling of contempt), gibe, jeer, scoff, sneer, taunt

To criticize- censure, defame, demean, denigrate, denounce, denunciate, deprecate, impugn, inveigh, pejorative

A long, harsh critique or verbal attack- diatribe, fulmination, harangue, invective, jeremiad, malediction, obloquy, tirade, vilification

to dishonor/shame- discredit, disgrace, disrepute, ignominy, infamy, opprobrium (public disgrace)

To punish- admonish, castigate, chastise, chide, punish, rebuke, reprimand, reproach, reprove, scold, tax, upbraid

To annoy/instigate- aggravate, antagonize, chafe, clash, exacerbate, incite, irk, nettle, peeve, pester, provoke, vex

Easily angered- cantankerous, curmudgeonly (refers to an ill-tempered old man), irascible, irritable, ornery, testy, volatile

WHATEVER…

Unpredictable/changing one’s mind often- arbitrary, capricious, chance, erratic, fickle, frivolous, inconsistent, inconstant, irresolute, labile, mercurial (like the Messenger god in Greek mythology, Mercury, who was swift and fickle, active yet always changing his mind), protean, quicksilver, temperamental, volatile, whimsical, willful

To waver back and forth- dither, falter, fluctuate, oscillate, vacillate

Unimportant- debased, frivolous, ignoble, inconsequential, inglorious, negligible, niggling, nonentity, paltry, picayune, peon, piddling, servile

With nary a care- aplomb, delicatesse, equanimity, imperturbability, nonchalance, placidity, poise, sangfroid

SMARTIE PANTS

Bookish- erudite, scholarly

Knowledge only known or understood by a few- abstruse, arcane, esoteric, obscure

Wisdom- acumen, astuteness, discretion, flair, ingenious, sagacity

Wise- astute, circumspect, finesse, incisive, ingenious, judiciousness, keen, omniscient, percipient, perspicacious, precocious, providence, prudent, pundit, sage, sapient

Stupid/clumsy- asinine, deranged, fatuous, gauche, gullible, ignoramus, impolitic, inane, maladroit, simple, unwitting, vacuous, vapid

WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

Showy wordiness: bloated, bombastic, declamatory, effusive, florid, fustian, garrulous, grandiloquent, grandiose, loquacious, magniloquent, orotund, pompous, pretentious, rhetorical, talkative, tumid, turgid, verbose, voluble

Excessively wordy- florid, long-winded, loquacious, prate, prolix, superfluous

Good/clear with words: articulate, eloquent, expressive, lucid, oratory, raconteur (good at storytelling), rhetoric, silver-tongued

Using few words- concise, curt, laconic, pithy, reticent, taciturn, terse, succinct

Something done without the use of words- implicit, implied, tacit, undeclared, unsaid, unuttered

Beyond words – ineffable, inexpressible, unutterable

YOU’RE SO VAIN

Bragging- braggadocio, braggart, bravado, gasconade, magniloquent, rodomontade, vaunt

Bold- arrogant, assured, conceited, egotistical, immodest, narcissistic, ostentatious, presumptuous, unabashed

Modest- chaste, coy, demure, diffident, discreet, meek, resigned, reticent, self-effacing, temperate, timorous, unobtrusive, unpretentious, verecund

FOR BETTER OR WORSE

To Strengthen

To improve- ameliorate, amend, pacify, rectify, upgrade

To support- ballast, bolster, brace, buttress, prop, sustain, underpin, uphold

To provide supporting evidence- authenticate, buttress, corroborate, substantiate, verify

To Weaken

To Weaken/thin- attenuate (n. tenuous), attrition, debilitate, devitalize, dilute, enervate, enfeeble, etiolate, rarefy, sap, undermine, unnerve, water

SOUNDS

Harsh noises- bluster (loud, aggressive speech), cacophony, clamor, discord, disharmony, din, dissonance (harsh and disagreeable combination, usually applying to sounds), dissension, dissent, dissidence, friction, stentorian (of a person’s voice, loud), strife, variance, vociferous (loud)

Pleasant sounds- attunement, consonance, diapason, euphony, mellifluousness, melodiousness, organum

LOOKS

Flashy/excessively decorated- baroque, flamboyant, florid, ornate, ostentatious, rococo

Harsh Appearance- austere, dour, grim, stark, unadorned

Pleasant appearance- attractive, bonny, beguiling (charming, bewitching), comely, fetching, prepossessing, winsomeness (pleasant to be around because of a childlike charm), pulchritudinous

THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE

Resistant, difficult to penetrate- impermeable, impervious, impregnable

To prevent something from happening/to render unnecessary- avert, foil, forestall, obviate, preclude, preempt, prohibit, thwart

To prevent the passage of- barricade, block, close, obstruct, occlude

Abstain- eschew, forbear, forgo, refrain, withhold

So much work- arduous, backbreaking, cumbersome, difficult, exacting, formidable, laborious, onerous, rigorous, taxing, trying

Opaque/obscure/vague- impossible to see through, ambiguous, bleary, cloudy, fuliginous, indecipherable, muddied, murky, nebulous, obfuscated, polysemous, tenebrous (dark and uncertain), unclear

To penetrate throughout- disseminate, imbue, impregnate, infuse, percolate, permeate, pervade, suffuse

DODGING THE BULLET

Avoiding the point- circumambages, circumlocution, discursiveness (rambling, digressive), equivocate, euphemism, periphrasis, pleonasm, prolixity, tautology, whitewash

* Note on shades of meaning

Equivocate, euphemism, and whitewash refer to misleading, evasive language

Circumambages and circumlocution can be used to describe either deceptive or redundant, indirect wording

Discursiveness, periphrasis, pleonasm, prolixity, and tautology have to do with digressive, repetitive language that isn’t intended to obscure or mislead.