GRE Preparation

GRE High-Frequency Vocabulary List

120+ genuinely hard GRE words organized by category. Each entry includes part of speech, a precise definition, and a GRE-style example sentence. These are words that native English speakers often do not know — exactly the level the GRE tests.

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Why GRE vocabulary is harder than TOEFL or IELTS

Words native speakers don't know

The GRE tests rare, literary, and academic words — like recondite, pellucid, and turpitude — that many college-educated native English speakers have never encountered.

Precision is everything

Text Completion questions require knowing the exact shade of meaning between near-synonyms. Knowing that a word is "negative" is not enough — you need the precise connotation.

Two correct answers in SE

Sentence Equivalence questions require selecting two words that produce sentences with the same meaning — demanding nuanced understanding of subtle distinctions between synonyms.

Tip: On the GRE, knowing a word's positive or negative charge is useful, but the test rewards knowing the exact meaning. Study words in context and pay attention to the tone of example sentences.

Why Vocabulary Matters: The Data

Vocabulary knowledge is the single most direct predictor of GRE Verbal performance. Here is what the research and exam structure show.

~3,500

Unique words tested across the GRE Verbal pool

ETS draws from approximately this many distinct word families in the question bank

+5 pts

Average Verbal improvement after learning 1,000+ words

Students who systematically learn 1,000 or more GRE words improve Verbal by ~5 points on average

~50%

Of Verbal questions are vocabulary-dependent

All Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions require precise vocabulary knowledge

170

Maximum Verbal score

GRE Verbal is scored 130–170; a score of 163+ puts you in the 90th percentile

~1 in 50

Native speakers who know all tested GRE words

Some GRE words are so rare that most educated native English speakers have never encountered them

3 months

Recommended focused study period for GRE vocabulary

Consistent daily review over 3 months, using spaced repetition, produces the strongest results

Source: ETS GRE General Test data; independent test prep research. Figures are approximate.

Describing Emotions & Attitudes

(15 words)

Word	Part of speech	Definition	Example sentence
sanguine	adjective	Optimistic, especially in a difficult situation; blood-red in color.	Despite the project's delays, the director remained sanguine about meeting the final deadline.
equanimity	noun	Mental calmness and composure, especially in difficult situations.	She faced the devastating diagnosis with remarkable equanimity, focusing on what she could control.
choleric	adjective	Bad-tempered or irritable; easily angered.	His choleric outbursts during negotiations alienated potential partners who might otherwise have agreed.
lugubrious	adjective	Looking or sounding sad and dismal; mournful to an exaggerated degree.	The lugubrious expression on the actor's face was so overdone that the audience laughed instead of sympathized.
ebullient	adjective	Cheerful and full of energy; exuberantly enthusiastic.	The ebullient crowd greeted the returning champion with deafening applause and confetti.
phlegmatic	adjective	Having an unemotional and stolidly calm disposition; not easily excited.	The phlegmatic negotiator's unruffled demeanor gave him a significant advantage at the bargaining table.
truculent	adjective	Eager or quick to argue or fight; aggressively defiant.	The truculent senator interrupted every speaker and refused to yield the floor.
querulous	adjective	Complaining in a petulant or whining manner.	The querulous passenger complained about everything from the seat width to the temperature of the cabin.
sycophant	noun	A person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain advantage; a flatterer.	Surrounded by sycophants who praised every decision, the CEO lost touch with the company's real problems.
inveterate	adjective	Having a habit or activity so firmly established that it is unlikely to change.	An inveterate gambler, he could not resist placing bets even after losing his savings.
pugnacious	adjective	Eager or quick to argue, quarrel, or fight.	The pugnacious commentator rarely finished an interview without provoking a heated exchange.
maudlin	adjective	Self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often in an exaggerated way.	His maudlin toasts at the reunion grew longer and less coherent as the evening progressed.
imperious	adjective	Assuming power or authority without justification; arrogantly domineering.	Her imperious manner alienated colleagues who might otherwise have supported her proposals.
petulant	adjective	Childishly sulky or bad-tempered.	When his suggestion was not adopted, he gave a petulant shrug and refused to contribute further.
magnanimous	adjective	Very generous or forgiving, especially toward a rival or someone less powerful.	In a magnanimous gesture, the champion praised his opponent's skill before accepting the trophy.

Academic & Intellectual

(15 words)

Word	Part of speech	Definition	Example sentence
recondite	adjective	Not known by many people; abstruse; dealing with obscure subject matter.	The professor's lecture on recondite aspects of medieval cartography drew only a handful of specialists.
perspicacious	adjective	Having a ready insight into things; shrewd and discerning.	The perspicacious analyst identified the flaw in the model before the data were even collected.
pellucid	adjective	Easily understood; lucidly expressed; translucently clear.	Her pellucid explanation of quantum entanglement made a notoriously difficult topic accessible to laypeople.
tendentious	adjective	Expressing or promoting a particular cause or point of view; biased.	Critics accused the documentary of being tendentious, presenting only evidence that supported its predetermined conclusion.
erudite	adjective	Having or showing great knowledge or learning.	The erudite scholar's footnotes alone constituted a comprehensive bibliography of Renaissance art.
abstruse	adjective	Difficult to understand; obscure.	Even trained mathematicians found the proof abstruse, requiring multiple readings to follow the logic.
specious	adjective	Superficially plausible but actually wrong; misleadingly attractive in appearance.	The lawyer's specious argument sounded compelling on the surface but collapsed under cross-examination.
pedantic	adjective	Excessively concerned with minor details or rules; overly formal and precise.	His pedantic insistence on correcting every minor grammatical slip disrupted the flow of the seminar.
solipsistic	adjective	Of or characterized by the view that the self is all that can be known to exist; self-absorbed.	The novel's solipsistic narrator interprets every event exclusively in terms of its effect on himself.
heretical	adjective	Holding an opinion at odds with what is generally accepted; unorthodox.	In the 1970s, the idea that stomach ulcers were caused by bacteria was considered heretical.
sophistry	noun	The use of clever but false arguments, especially with the intention to deceive.	The debate coach warned students that sophistry might win arguments but would undermine their credibility.
didactic	adjective	Intended to teach, particularly with moral instruction; excessively instructive.	The film's didactic tone — interrupting the story to explain its lessons — struck critics as condescending.
cogent	adjective	Clear, logical, and convincing; compelling.	She presented a cogent case for reforming the curriculum, citing data from eight longitudinal studies.
heuristic	noun / adjective	A problem-solving approach that uses a practical method not guaranteed to be optimal; relating to learning by trial and error.	The team used a heuristic approach when the data were too sparse to support a formal statistical model.
esoteric	adjective	Intended for or understood by only a small number of people with specialized knowledge.	The journal published esoteric research that rarely reached audiences outside the subfield.

Positive Qualities

(15 words)

Word	Part of speech	Definition	Example sentence
probity	noun	The quality of having strong moral principles; complete honesty and integrity.	The judge's probity was unquestioned; she had never been accused of bias or impropriety in thirty years on the bench.
munificent	adjective	Larger or more generous than is usual or necessary; lavishly generous.	The munificent donation from an anonymous alumna funded an entire new wing of the library.
assiduous	adjective	Showing great care, attention, and effort; hardworking and diligent.	Through assiduous practice, she mastered a repertoire of twenty Chopin études within a year.
sagacious	adjective	Having or showing keen mental discernment and good judgment; wise.	The sagacious investor recognized the company's potential years before it became a household name.
intrepid	adjective	Fearless and adventurous; characterized by resolute determination.	The intrepid explorer spent three months traversing the unmapped interior of the archipelago.
felicitous	adjective	Well chosen or suited to the circumstances; pleasing and fortunate.	The author's felicitous phrase captured a complex emotion that had previously resisted precise description.
sanguine	adjective	Optimistic, especially in a difficult situation.	Even after the initial trial failed, the research team remained sanguine that a modified approach would succeed.
indefatigable	adjective	Persisting tirelessly; not susceptible to fatigue.	The indefatigable activist traveled to twelve cities in two weeks to campaign for the referendum.
veracious	adjective	Speaking or representing the truth; truthful.	The court valued the witness precisely because she was known to be scrupulously veracious.
temperate	adjective	Showing moderation or self-restraint; mild in climate.	His temperate response to provocation earned him widespread respect among colleagues.
perspicuous	adjective	Clearly expressed and easily understood; lucid.	The most perspicuous technical writing requires no assumptions about what the reader already knows.
circumspect	adjective	Wary and cautious; careful to consider all circumstances and possible consequences.	A circumspect politician, she declined to endorse a policy until she had reviewed the full economic data.
laudable	adjective	Deserving praise and commendation.	Reducing the firm's carbon footprint by 40% in two years was a laudable achievement.
ingenuous	adjective	Innocent and unsuspecting; free from deception or cunning.	Her ingenuous trust in strangers was both endearing and, at times, a source of vulnerability.
steadfast	adjective	Resolutely firm and unwavering.	Steadfast in her convictions, she refused to revise her findings despite significant political pressure.

Negative Qualities

(15 words)

Word	Part of speech	Definition	Example sentence
turpitude	noun	Wickedness or depravity; shameful or immoral conduct.	The tribunal found him guilty of moral turpitude and revoked his professional license.
perfidious	adjective	Guilty of betrayal or deception; treacherous.	The perfidious advisor leaked the negotiating strategy to the opposing side the night before talks began.
mendacious	adjective	Not telling the truth; lying.	The investigation revealed a pattern of mendacious reporting that spanned nearly a decade.
venal	adjective	Showing or motivated by susceptibility to bribery; corrupt.	The venal official accepted payments to approve permits that should have been denied on safety grounds.
nefarious	adjective	Wicked or criminal; flagrantly evil.	The prosecutors detailed the nefarious scheme, which had defrauded thousands of elderly investors.
obdurate	adjective	Stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course of action; hardened against persuasion.	Despite overwhelming evidence, the committee remained obdurate in its refusal to revise the policy.
duplicitous	adjective	Deceitful; given to or involving duplicity.	The duplicitous executive simultaneously assured investors and employees that all was well while liquidating his own shares.
invidious	adjective	Likely to arouse resentment or anger in others; making unfair distinctions.	Comparing the two candidates' accomplishments in such invidious terms undermined the objectivity of the review.
calumnious	adjective	Making false and defamatory statements about someone.	The calumnious article, filled with unverified accusations, destroyed his professional reputation.
pusillanimous	adjective	Showing a lack of courage or determination; timid and cowardly.	His pusillanimous refusal to speak out during the crisis drew more criticism than the crisis itself.
unctuous	adjective	Excessively flattering or ingratiating; oily in manner or speech.	His unctuous praise of the director's every idea made the other team members visibly uncomfortable.
vitriolic	adjective	Filled with bitter criticism or malice; caustic.	The vitriolic review attacked not just the book but the author's entire body of work.
cupidity	noun	Greed for money or possessions.	The corporation's cupidity led it to cut safety costs until an accident made the savings look catastrophically small.
craven	adjective	Contemptibly lacking in courage; cowardly.	Historians condemned the general's craven retreat as an abandonment of troops who were still fighting.
pernicious	adjective	Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.	The study documented the pernicious influence of early lead exposure on cognitive development decades later.

Movement & Change

(15 words)

Word	Part of speech	Definition	Example sentence
oscillate	verb	To move or swing back and forth at a regular speed; to waver between extremes.	Public opinion on the issue continued to oscillate, making it impossible for pollsters to predict the vote.
vacillate	verb	To waver between different opinions or actions; to be indecisive.	She vacillated so long between the two job offers that the first company withdrew its proposal.
ameliorate	verb	To make something bad or unsatisfactory better; to improve.	New drainage infrastructure significantly ameliorated the flooding that had plagued the neighborhood for years.
exacerbate	verb	To make a problem, bad situation, or negative feeling worse.	The drought exacerbated existing food insecurity in the region, pushing millions toward famine.
metamorphose	verb	To change or cause to change completely in form or nature.	Over two decades, the industrial port metamorphosed into a thriving cultural district.
attenuate	verb	To reduce the force, effect, or value of something; to weaken.	Lead shielding attenuates radiation by absorbing gamma rays before they reach sensitive tissue.
burgeon	verb	To begin to grow or increase rapidly; to flourish.	The city's technology sector began to burgeon after the university established its engineering research campus.
precipitate	verb / adjective	To cause (an event or situation) to happen suddenly or prematurely; acting with excessive haste.	The ambassador's ill-timed remarks precipitated a diplomatic crisis that took months to resolve.
wane	verb	To decrease in vigor, power, or extent; to decline.	As his influence began to wane, former allies distanced themselves from the embattled minister.
disabuse	verb	To persuade someone that an idea or belief is mistaken; to free from error.	Three weeks on the trading floor disabused him of any notion that markets behaved rationally.
transmute	verb	To change in form, nature, or substance.	The poet's grief was transmuted, over years of writing, into a body of work celebrated for its beauty.
abrogate	verb	To repeal or do away with a law, right, or formal agreement.	The new administration moved to abrogate the treaty within weeks of taking office.
mitigate	verb	To make less severe, serious, or painful; to lessen.	Regular physical exercise can mitigate the cognitive decline associated with aging.
catalyze	verb	To cause or accelerate a reaction or event.	The publication of the report catalyzed a national conversation about data privacy.
impede	verb	To delay or prevent by obstructing; to hinder.	Bureaucratic inefficiency impeded the relief effort at a time when speed was critical.

Size & Degree

(15 words)

Word	Part of speech	Definition	Example sentence
minuscule	adjective	Extremely small; tiny.	The researchers detected a minuscule quantity of the compound — fewer than ten parts per billion.
copious	adjective	Abundant in supply or quantity; plentiful.	She took copious notes during the lecture, filling three notebooks by the end of the semester.
prodigious	adjective	Remarkably or impressively great in extent, size, or degree.	His prodigious memory allowed him to recall obscure historical dates without any reference material.
negligible	adjective	So small or unimportant as to be not worth considering; insignificant.	The difference in processing speed between the two chips was negligible under normal operating conditions.
trifling	adjective	Unimportant; not serious; trivial.	The committee dismissed the objection as trifling, not worth delaying the vote.
preponderance	noun	The quality or fact of being greater in number, quantity, or importance.	A preponderance of evidence supported the conclusion that the eruption had been preceded by weeks of seismic activity.
paucity	noun	The presence of something in only small or insufficient quantities; scarcity.	The paucity of reliable data from the region made any broad conclusions premature.
plethora	noun	A large or excessive amount of something.	A plethora of new studies on sleep deprivation appeared in the journals that year, many reaching contradictory conclusions.
immense	adjective	Extremely large or great, especially in scale or degree.	The immense cost of the infrastructure project prompted calls for international financing.
meager	adjective	Lacking in quantity or quality; deficient.	The meager harvest following the drought forced the government to import grain for the first time in a decade.
myriad	adjective / noun	Countless or extremely great in number; a countless or extremely great number.	The ecosystem supports myriad species, many of which have yet to be formally classified.
infinitesimal	adjective	Extremely small; too small to measure.	The margin by which the record was broken was infinitesimal — less than one hundredth of a second.
exiguous	adjective	Very small in size or amount; scanty.	The researcher was forced to draw tentative conclusions from an exiguous sample of only twelve participants.
mammoth	adjective	Huge; of very great size.	The mammoth infrastructure bill proposed spending more than any single legislation in the country's history.
superfluous	adjective	Unnecessary, especially through being more than enough.	The editor removed three paragraphs she considered superfluous without losing any essential argument.

Argument & Logic

(15 words)

Word	Part of speech	Definition	Example sentence
obfuscate	verb	To make obscure, unclear, or unintelligible; to confuse or bewilder.	The company's press release seemed designed to obfuscate rather than explain the accounting irregularities.
garrulous	adjective	Excessively talkative, especially on trivial matters.	The garrulous witness digressed so often that the judge repeatedly had to ask him to answer the question.
laconic	adjective	Using very few words; brief and concise in speech or expression.	His laconic reply — 'No.' — ended the negotiation before it had properly begun.
loquacious	adjective	Tending to talk a great deal; talkative.	The loquacious professor rarely reached the final slide; he was too busy elaborating on the first three.
equivocate	verb	To use ambiguous language so as to conceal the truth or avoid committing oneself.	When asked directly about the accounting discrepancy, the CFO began to equivocate, citing the need for further review.
axiom	noun	A statement or proposition regarded as self-evidently true; an established rule.	It is an axiom of competitive markets that firms producing at lower cost will eventually displace higher-cost rivals.
posit	verb	To assume as a fact; to put forward as a basis for argument.	The paper posits that income inequality, not poverty alone, drives social unrest.
caveat	noun	A warning or qualification; a reservation about a statement.	The study's authors included an important caveat: its findings applied only to urban populations.
polemical	adjective	Of, relating to, or involving strongly critical, controversial, or disputatious writing or speech.	The polemical pamphlet attacked the reform bill with a ferocity that generated as many critics as converts.
belie	verb	To give a false impression of; to fail to give a true impression of.	Her calm demeanor belied the anxiety she felt as the board meeting approached.
refute	verb	To prove a statement, theory, or argument to be wrong or false.	The defendant's alibi was refuted by surveillance footage that placed him at the scene.
corroborate	verb	To confirm or give support to a statement, theory, or finding.	Independent analyses by three separate laboratories corroborated the original findings.
non sequitur	noun	A conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument.	His conclusion that the company should expand to Asia was a non sequitur given the data he had just presented on costs.
fallacious	adjective	Based on a mistaken belief; containing or based on a fallacy.	The argument was fallacious: it conflated correlation with causation in multiple places.
verbose	adjective	Using or expressed in more words than are needed.	The verbose report could have made the same points in a quarter of the pages.

Arts & Aesthetics

(15 words)

Word	Part of speech	Definition	Example sentence
meretricious	adjective	Apparently attractive but having in reality no value or integrity; falsely alluring.	The critic dismissed the film's spectacular visuals as meretricious, obscuring a shallow and manipulative narrative.
austere	adjective	Severe or strict in manner or attitude; having no decoration; plain.	The architect's austere style — bare concrete, no ornamentation — divided critics and the public alike.
florid	adjective	Having a red or flushed complexion; elaborately ornate; using flowery language.	His florid prose style, thick with metaphor and digression, was admired by some and derided by others.
prosaic	adjective	Having the style of prose rather than poetry; lacking imagination; commonplace.	After years of writing experimental fiction, he surprised everyone with a prosaic, straightforwardly realistic novel.
lackluster	adjective	Lacking in vitality, force, or conviction; mediocre; not shining.	The exhibition received lackluster reviews; critics noted that none of the works broke new ground.
sublime	adjective	Of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe.	Standing at the edge of the canyon, she experienced a sublime combination of terror and wonder.
cacophony	noun	A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.	The cacophony of jackhammers, car horns, and voices made it impossible to hold a conversation outdoors.
euphony	noun	The quality of being pleasing to the ear; a pleasing combination of sounds.	The poem's euphony depended on a subtle arrangement of soft consonants and long vowels.
ethereal	adjective	Extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world.	The soprano's ethereal voice seemed to fill the cathedral without any visible effort.
banal	adjective	So lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring; trite.	The script relied on banal dialogue and predictable plot twists that the audience had seen hundreds of times.
evocative	adjective	Bringing strong images, memories, or feelings to mind.	The novel's opening paragraph, evocative of a particular kind of late-summer afternoon, drew readers in immediately.
insipid	adjective	Lacking vigor or interest; dull; lacking flavor.	The insipid production drained all dramatic tension from a source material that should have been riveting.
virtuoso	noun / adjective	A person highly skilled in music or another artistic pursuit; demonstrating exceptional skill.	The violinist's virtuoso performance drew a standing ovation from an audience that rarely showed such enthusiasm.
baroque	adjective	Highly ornate and extravagant in style; relating to the 17th-century artistic style.	His baroque prose style — every sentence encrusted with subordinate clauses — exhausted as many readers as it delighted.
ephemeral	adjective	Lasting for a very short time; transitory.	Street art is by nature ephemeral; even the most celebrated murals are eventually painted over or weathered away.

How to study GRE vocabulary effectively

Learn words in GRE-style sentences

Don't just memorize definitions — study words in the kinds of sentences the GRE uses. Academic, formal prose shows you the precise register in which each word appears on the exam.

Group words by connotation, not just meaning

For Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence, you often need to know whether a word is positive, negative, or neutral. Group your study list by emotional charge, not just alphabetically.

Use spaced repetition

Review new words at increasing intervals — after 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks. Spaced repetition software (like Anki) is highly effective for internalizing hundreds of words.

Know the full word family

Learn noun, verb, adjective, and adverb forms together: equivocate / equivocation / equivocal. This multiplies your usable vocabulary and helps on Reading Comprehension passages.

GRE Vocabulary: Did You Know?

A few facts about the GRE Verbal section that put the vocabulary challenge in perspective.

130–170

GRE Verbal score range (in 1-point increments)

~153

Average GRE Verbal score among all test takers

163+

Verbal score puts you in the top 10%

20 min

Time per Verbal section (20 questions)

TC + SE questions per Verbal section (out of 20)

Verbal sections in the GRE General Test

Source: ETS GRE General Test data. Figures are approximate.

See these words in GRE-style questions

Browse authentic GRE sample questions — Text Completion, Sentence Equivalence, and Reading Comprehension — with full answer explanations.

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