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2 The Independent Education Consultants Association recognizes The Princeton Review as a valuable resource for high school and college students applying to college and graduate school. The Princeton Review, Inc. 111 Speen Street, Suite 550 Framingham, MA 01701 E-mail: [email protected] Copyright © 2012 by The Princeton Review, Inc. Cover art © Brownstock/Alamy Cover design by Andrea Lau All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. The Princeton Review is not affiliated with Princeton University. eISBN: 978-0-307-94503-7 v3.1 3 CONTENTS Cover Title Page Copyright Introduction Chapter 1: Learning New Words Chapter 2: The Words Chapter 3: The Final Exam Chapter 4: The SAT Hit Parade Chapter 5: The GRE Hit Parade Chapter 6: Word Roots You Should Know Chapter 7: Common Usage Errors Chapter 8: Abbreviations Chapter 9: The Arts Chapter 10: Finance Chapter 11: Foreign Words and Phrases Chapter 12: Science Chapter 13: The Answers About the Author 4 INTRODUCTION YOUR VOCABULARY HAS BEEN TALKING ABOUT YOU BEHIND YOUR BACK The words you use say a lot about you. Some words say that you are smart, persuasive, and informed. Others say that you don’t know what you are talking about. Knowing which words to use and understanding how to use them are keys to getting the most out of your mind. People often say in frustration, “I know what I mean, but I don’t know how to say it.” If the right words aren’t there, the right ideas can’t get through. Your vocabulary is the foundation of your ability to share your thoughts with other people. When you improve your vocabulary, you improve your ability to bring your intelligence to bear on the world around you. BIGGER ISN’T NECESSARILY BETTER When people say that someone has a “good vocabulary,” they usually mean that he or she uses a lot of important-sounding words—words like jactitation, demulcent, and saxicolous. But a vocabulary consisting of words like these isn’t necessarily a “good” vocabulary. Why? Because almost no one knows what jactitation, demulcent, and saxicolous mean. If you used these words in conversation, the chances are that no one listening to you would know what you were talking about. Big, di(cid:637)cult words have important uses, but improving a vocabulary involves much more than merely decorating your speech or your writing with a few polysyllabic zingers. The goal of communication is clarity. We write and speak in order to make ourselves understood. A good vocabulary is one that makes communication easy and e(cid:637)cient. One mark of an e(cid:643)ective speaker or writer is his or her ability to express complex ideas with relatively simple words. Most discourse among educated people is built on words that are fairly ordinary—words you’ve heard before, even if you aren’t exactly certain what they mean. The best way to improve your vocabulary isn’t to comb the dictionary for a handful of tongue-twisters to throw at unsuspecting strangers. Instead, you need to hone your understanding of words that turn up again and again in intelligent communication. A person who had a clear understanding of every word in an issue of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, or Harper’s would have a powerful vocabulary—a vocabulary sophisticated enough to impress almost any teacher, admissions officer, colleague, or employer. AN EDUCATED VOCABULARY An educated vocabulary is one that enables you to convey ideas easily. Do you know what inveterate means? Do you know the di(cid:643)erence between flaunt and flout? Do you know why an artist might be insulted if you called his or her work artful? None of these words is particularly di(cid:637)cult. But each has its own meaning or meanings. If you misuse these words, you communicate that you are in over your head. Using them correctly can identify you as a member of that most elite of elites: people who know what they’re talking about. WHAT’S THE PROBLEM? When people get into trouble with words, it usually isn’t because they don’t know the meaning of a seldom-used word like termagant but because they are confused about the meaning of a much more common word—a word they hear, read, and even use with regularity. Take the word peruse, for example. Many people think that it means “skim” or “glance over.” But it doesn’t. In fact, it means very nearly the opposite. To peruse a document is to read it carefully. The number of words you know is less important than the care you take in learning the ones you really use. Speaking or writing well doesn’t require an enormous vocabulary—but it does require a con(cid:633)dent one. And the way to gain con(cid:633)dence in your vocabulary is to buckle down and learn the words you need to make yourself clearly understood. WHY YOU NEED THIS BOOK There are a lot of vocabulary books out there. Most of them, we believe, aren’t that useful. Some contain too many words. Others contain too many absurdly di(cid:637)cult words. Some claim to be based 5 on sure(cid:633)re tricks or “painless” learning methods. Most aren’t very good at helping people learn new words of any kind. This book is different. THE PRINCETON REVIEW APPROACH The philosophy behind The Princeton Review is simple: We teach exactly what students need to know, and we make our courses smart, e(cid:637)cient, and fun. We were founded in the early 1980s, and just a few years later, we grew to have the largest SAT course in the country. Our success is indisputable. We’re proud to compare our results with those of any preparation course in the nation. In addition, our first book, Cracking the SAT, was the first of its kind to appear on The New York Times best sellers. In preparing students for the SAT and other standardized tests, we spend much of our time working on vocabulary. Despite what many people think, many “intelligence” or “aptitude” tests are largely tests of vocabulary. The students who earn high scores on such tests are the students who know the right words. The success of our method is in part a result of our success in teaching vocabulary. NEW WORDS IN A HURRY Because our course lasts only a few weeks, we don’t have much time to teach our students all the words they need to know to do well on the SAT. As a result, we’ve put a lot of thought into how people learn—and retain—new words. The methods we have developed are easy to use and, we believe, extremely e(cid:643)ective. There’s nothing particularly startling about them. They rely mostly on common sense. But they do work. And although they were developed primarily for high school students, these methods can be used by anyone who wants to build a stronger, smarter vocabulary. 6 HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED In Chapter 1, we describe our basic principles of vocabulary building. We also explain our general techniques for learning new words. You should apply these techniques as you work through the rest of the book. The more carefully you work, the more rapidly you’ll enhance your ability to use words effectively. The heart of Word Smart is the large central section containing the thousand or so words we think an educated person ought to know. Each word is accompanied by a de(cid:633)nition and one or more examples intended to help you understand how to use the word properly. Many entries also include discussions of related words or certain shades of meaning. Scattered throughout the book are drills that should help you strengthen your new vocabulary and make it possible for you to assess your progress as you work along. At the end of the book are several specialized lists of words, including our famous Hit Parade. This is the vocabulary list we use to help our students boost their Verbal scores on the SAT. It contains the words most frequently tested on the SAT, in the order of their importance on the test. Sometimes simply knowing that a particular word is included on the Hit Parade is enough to lead our students to a correct answer on the SAT, since the Hit Parade emphasizes words appearing in correct answer choices. Other specialized lists include frequently misused words, useful foreign words and phrases, common abbreviations, and words associated with science, (cid:633)nance, and the arts. If you learn the words on these lists, you’ll be able to follow important articles in the nation’s best-written newspapers, magazines, and websites and to keep up your end of conversations with your (undoubtedly) well- educated friends. Toward the end of this book is a Final Exam covering all the words in the main section. You can use this test to help (cid:633)rm up your new vocabulary knowledge and to help ensure that you’ll retain all the new words you’ve learned. You can also use the test as a diagnostic tool. By trying your hand at the questions before working your way through the book, you’ll give yourself a good idea of which words cause you the most trouble. And if you’re preparing for a major standardized test, such as the SAT or GRE, you and your friends can use the Final Exam as a handy review device. HOW WE CHOSE THESE WORDS We assemble our Hit Parade by entering into a computer all the words from released editions of the SAT; sorting them by frequency; weighting them, as mentioned earlier, to give more emphasis to words appearing in correct answer choices; and eliminating words that are too simple to cause problems for most students. The result is a list of the most important words tested on the SAT. We assemble our other Word Smart lists in much the same way, by monitoring a broad sampling of literate publications and looking for challenging words that appear regularly. For the primary Word Smart list, we selected the 832 difficult words that appeared most frequently. We also sought the advice of teachers, writers, and others. In brief, we assessed all available sources in an effort to compile a powerful working vocabulary that will help you communicate. HOW TO USE THIS BOOK Don’t try to read this book in a single sitting. You’ll learn much more if you tackle it a little at a time. You may feel comfortable with a number of the words already. You don’t need to spend much time on these, but be certain you really do know a word as well as you think you do before you skip ahead. Some of the most embarrassing vocabulary blunders occur when we boldly misuse words we feel certain we understand. The words in Word Smart are arranged alphabetically. You’ll (cid:633)nd a Quick Quiz every 10 words or so. You may (cid:633)nd it convenient to tackle words in the main list in 10-word chunks, pausing at each Quick Quiz to make certain you have retained what you just learned. Don’t forget to check your answers. If you’re trying to build your vocabulary in preparation for a test, you should set a schedule for yourself and work methodically from beginning to end. If you’re simply trying to improve your vocabulary, you may (cid:633)nd it more interesting to dip into the text at random. You can also use the 7 book as a companion to your dictionary to help you zero in on the meanings of new words you’ve encountered in your reading or in conversation. ABOUT MORE WORD SMART If you’re like most people, you want to learn words as e(cid:637)ciently and as rapidly as possible. The list of words that forms the main portion of this book will provide a foundation on which you can build your own educated vocabulary. More Word Smart picks up where this book leaves o(cid:643). So many of you (cid:633)nished this book and looked up from your plate, demanding, “More words!” So we compiled a second list. In More Word Smart we place more emphasis on pronunciation, and we also extend our SAT and GRE Hit Parades. The words in More Word Smart are somewhat more di(cid:637)cult, and they don’t appear quite as frequently, but otherwise they are just as important for you to know. When you (cid:633)nish this book, and certainly when you (cid:633)nish More Word Smart, you will have a working vocabulary better than that of most college graduates. But don’t stop there. Continue to expand your vocabulary by mastering the new words you encounter. Start reading! 8 CHAPTER 1 LEARNING NEW WORDS 9 BUILDING A VOCABULARY IS CHILD’S PLAY Young children learn new words by imitating the speakers around them. When a three-year-old hears a new word that catches her interest, she may use it repeatedly for a day or two until she feels comfortable with it. She establishes its meaning from context, often by trial and error. She adds new words to her vocabulary because she needs them to make herself understood. Children have an easier time learning new words than most adults do. As we grow beyond childhood, our brains seem to lose their magical ability to soak up language from the environment. But adults can still learn a great deal from the way children learn new words. HOW CHILDREN DO IT Young children don’t learn the meanings of new words by looking them up. Sometimes they ask grown-ups directly, but more often they simply infer meanings from context. They (cid:633)gure out what new words mean by paying attention to how they are used. You need to do the same. You need to make your mind receptive to new words by actively seeking to understand them. When you encounter an unfamiliar word in the newspaper, don’t skim over it. Stop and try to (cid:633)gure out what it means. The words that surround it should provide a few clues. Put your mind to work on it. A WORD IS USEFUL ONLY IF YOU USE IT Children learn words by using them. Adults who want to build their vocabularies must do the same. You can’t incorporate a new word into your vocabulary unless you give it a thorough workout, and then keep it in shape through regular exercise. We tell our students to use new words over and over—at the dinner table, at school, among their friends—even at the risk of making themselves annoying, even at the risk of making mistakes and appearing foolish. If a word isn’t useful to you, you’ll never remember it. Our students have a powerful incentive for learning the words we teach them: If they learn them carefully, they’ll do better on the SAT or GRE and improve their chances of being admitted to the schools they want to attend. An added bonus is that their writing and speaking skills improve along with their vocabulary, often leading to better grades. Adults and other nonstudents may have other vocabulary needs, but the same general rule applies. With vocabulary, as with many other things in life, you have to use it if you don’t want to lose it. Remember that the size and quality of a person’s vocabulary correlate powerfully with his or her success in school, at work, and beyond. READ, READ, READ! The best way to build a solid, sophisticated vocabulary is to read voraciously. Careful reading not only brings you into contact with new words, but also forces you to use your head to (cid:633)gure out what those new words mean. If you read widely enough, you will (cid:633)nd that your vocabulary will build itself. New words are contagious if you give yourself enough exposure to them. Reading any good book is better for your vocabulary than watching television. Reading well-written magazines and newspapers can help, too. READING ISN’T ENOUGH, THOUGH We aren’t the only people who think that avid reading is the key to building an educated vocabulary. You’ve probably heard the same thing from your parents and teachers, and with good reason. But reading isn’t enough. In reading, you will come across words you don’t know, and some will be critical to the meaning of the passages in which they appear. If you’re serious about understanding what you read, as well as improving your vocabulary, you’ll have to use the dictionary. THE DANGERS OF RELYING ON CONTEXT ALONE The natural way to learn words, as we observed earlier, is to see how other people use them—that is, to see or hear the word in context. While context may tell you how to use the word, relying on context is not without pitfalls. First, when you encounter a new word, you can’t be certain how to pronounce it unless you hear it 10