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Difficult SAT Words: The Scholastic Assessment Test or SAT, conducted by the College Board is the first step towards achieving your dreams of studying in the USA. The SAT exam has a reading and writing part which requires students to have a strong vocabulary to score well on the SAT. In this blog, we cover difficult words along with their meaning along with some tips that will help you prepare for your SAT exam. That said, read the complete blog to learn more about difficult SAT words.
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Why is Studying SAT Vocabulary So Challenging?
Enrolling in US institutions requires taking the SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test), administered by the Educational Testing Service for the non-profit College Board. The SAT presents a challenge for many students, demanding not only strong English reading comprehension but also a strong foundation of specialised vocabulary to complete the reading comprehension and essay sections.
The SAT vocabulary themes centre on the economic sphere and the majority of the words are highly foreign, challenging to learn, and challenging to retain, particularly for Vietnamese students for whom economics was not previously covered in the curriculum. In addition to the “shocking” economic jargon, the SAT also includes sections on literature, law, culture and society, and science (biology, physics, and chemistry), all of which call for test-takers to use their best memorization and application skills.
200+ Most Difficult SAT Words to Conquer the Exam
This is a list of 100 Difficult SAT Words that are a must-know for anyone preparing for this exam:
- Abject: of the most contemptible kind
- Aberration: a state or condition markedly different from the norm
- Abjure: formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief
- Abnegation: the denial and rejection of a doctrine or belief
- Abrogate: revoke formally
- Abscond: run away, often taking something or somebody along
- Abstruse: difficult to understand
- Accede: yield to another’s wish or opinion
- Accost: approach and speak to someone aggressively or insistently
- Accretion: an increase by natural growth or addition
- Acumen: shrewdness shown by keen insight
- Adamant: insistent; unwilling to change one’s mind or opinion
- Admonish: scold or reprimand; take to task
- Adumbrate: describe roughly or give the main points or summary of
- Adverse: in an opposing direction
- Advocate: a person who pleads for a person, cause, or idea
- Affluent: having an abundant supply of money or possessions of value
- Aggrandize: embellish; increase the scope, power, or importance of
- Alacrity: liveliness and eagerness
- Alias: a name that has been assumed temporarily
- Ambivalent: uncertain or unable to decide about what course to follow
- Amenable: disposed or willing to comply
- Amorphous: having no definite form or distinct shape
- Anachronistic: chronologically misplaced
- Anathema: a formal ecclesiastical curse accompanied by ex-communication
- Annex: attach to
- Antediluvian: of or relating to the period before the biblical flood
- Antiseptic: thoroughly clean and free of disease-causing organisms
- Apathetic: showing little or no emotion or animation
- Antithesis: the exact opposite
- Apocryphal: being of questionable authenticity
- Approbation: official acceptance or agreement
- Arbitrary: based on or subject to individual discretion or preference
- Arboreal: of or relating to or formed by trees
- Arcane: requiring secret or mysterious knowledge
- Archetypal: of an original pattern on which other things are modelled
- Arrogate: seize and take control without authority
- Ascetic: someone who practises self-denial as a spiritual discipline
- Aspersion: a disparaging remark
- Assiduous: marked by care and persistent effort
- Atrophy: a decrease in size of an organ caused by disease or disuse
- Bane: something causing misery or death
- Bashful: self-consciously timid
- Beguile: influence by slyness
- Bereft: lacking or deprived of something
- Blandishment: flattery intended to persuade
- Bilk: cheat somebody out of what is due, especially money
- Bombastic: ostentatiously lofty in style
- Cajole: influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
- Callous: emotionally hardened
- Calumny: a false accusation of an offence
- Camaraderie: the quality of affording easy familiarity and sociability
- Candour: the quality of being honest and straightforward
- Capitulate: surrender under agreed conditions
- Carouse: engage in boisterous, drunken merrymaking
- Carp: any of various freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae
- Caucus: meet to select a candidate or promote a policy
- Cavort: play boisterously
- Circumlocution: an indirect way of expressing something
- Circumscribe: draw a geometric figure around another figure
- Circumvent: surround so as to force to give up
- Clamour: utter or proclaim insistently and noisily
- Cleave: separate or cut with a tool, such as a sharp instrument
- Cobbler: a person who makes or repairs shoes
- Cogent: powerfully persuasive
- Cognizant: having or showing knowledge or understanding or realisation
- commensurate: corresponding in size or degree or extent
- Complement: something added to embellish or make perfect
- Compunction: a feeling of deep regret, usually for some misdeed
- Concomitant: following or accompanying as a consequence
- Conduit: a passage through which water or electric wires can pass
- Conflagration: a very intense and uncontrolled fire
- Congruity: the quality of agreeing; being suitable and appropriate
- Connive: form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner
- Consign: give over to another for care or safekeeping
- Constituent: one of the individual parts making up a composite entity
- Construe: make sense of; assign a meaning to
- Contusion: an injury in which the skin is not broken
- Contrite: feeling or expressing pain or sorrow for sins or offences
- Contentious: showing an inclination to disagree
- Contravene: go against, as of rules and laws
- Convivial: occupied with or fond of the pleasures of good company
- Corpulence: the property of excessive fatness
- Covet: wish, long, or crave for
- Cupidity: extreme greed for material wealth
- Dearth: an insufficient quantity or number
- Debacle: a sudden and complete disaster
- Debauch: a wild gathering involving excessive drinking
- Debunk: expose while ridiculing
- Defunct: no longer in force or use; inactive
- Demagogue: a leader who seeks support by appealing to popular passions
- Denigrate: attack the good name and reputation of someone
- Derivative: a compound obtained from another compound
- Despot: a cruel and oppressive dictator
- Diaphanous: so thin as to transmit light
- Didactic: instructive, especially excessively
- Dirge: a song or hymn of mourning as a memorial to a dead person
- Disaffected: discontented as toward authority
- Discomfit: cause to lose one’s composure
- Disparate: fundamentally different or distinct in quality or kind.
- Dispel: cause to separate and go in different directions
- Disrepute: the state of being held in low esteem
- Divisive: causing or characterised by disagreement or disunity
- Dogmatic: pertaining to a code of beliefs accepted as authoritative
- Dour: showing a brooding ill humour
- Duplicity: the act of deceiving or acting in bad faith
- Duress: compulsory force or threat
- Eclectic: selecting what seems best of various styles or ideas
- Edict: a formal or authoritative proclamation
- Ebullient: joyously unrestrained
- Egregious: conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible
- Elegy: a mournful poem; a lament for the dead
- Elicit: call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
- Embezzlement: the fraudulent appropriation of funds or property
- Emend: make corrections to
- Emollient: a substance with a soothing effect when applied to the skin
- Empirical: derived from experiment and observation rather than theory
- Emulate: strive to equal or match, especially by imitating
- Enervate: weaken physically, mentally, or morally
- Enfranchise: grant freedom to, as from slavery or servitude
- Engender: call forth
- Ephemeral: anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day
- Epistolary: written in the form of letters or correspondence
- Equanimity: steadiness of mind under stress
- Equivocal: open to two or more interpretations
- Espouse: choose and follow a theory, idea, policy, etc.
- Evanescent: short-lived; tending to vanish or disappear
- Evince: give expression to
- Exacerbate: make worse
- Exhort: spur on or encourage especially by cheers and shouts
- Execrable: unequivocally detestable
- Exigent: demanding immediate attention
- Expedient: appropriate to a purpose
- Expunge: remove by erasing or crossing out or as if by drawing a line
- Extraneous: not belonging to that in which it is contained
- Extol: praise, glorify, or honour
- Extant: still in existence; not extinct or destroyed or lost
- Expurgate: edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate
- Fallacious: containing or based on incorrect reasoning
- Fatuous: devoid of intelligence
- Fetter: a shackle for the ankles or feet
- Flagrant: conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible
- Foil: hinder or prevent, as an effort, plan, or desire
- Foment: instigate or stir up
- Forbearance: good-natured tolerance of delay or incompetence
- Fortuitous: lucky; occurring by happy chance
- Fractious: easily irritated or annoyed
- Garrulous: full of trivial conversation
- Gourmand: a person who is devoted to eating and drinking to excess
- Grandiloquent: lofty in style
- Gratuitous: unnecessary and unwarranted
- Hapless: unfortunate and deserving pity
- Hegemony: the dominance or leadership of one social group over others
- Heterogenous: consisting of elements that are not of the same kind
- Iconoclast: someone who attacks cherished ideas or institutions
- Idiosyncratic: peculiar to the individual
- Impecunious: not having enough money to pay for necessities
- Impetuous: characterized by undue haste and lack of thought
- Impinge: infringe upon
- Impute: attribute or credit to
- Inane: devoid of intelligence
- Inchoate: only partly in existence; imperfectly formed
- Incontrovertible: impossible to deny or disprove
- Incumbent: necessary as a duty or responsibility; morally binding
- Inexorable: impossible to prevent, resist, or stop
- Inimical: tending to obstruct or cause harm
- Injunction: a judicial remedy to prohibit a party from doing something
- Inoculate: inject or treat with the germ of a disease to render immune
- Insidious: working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way
- Instigate: provoke or stir up
- Insurgent: in opposition to a civil authority or government
- Interlocutor: a person who takes part in a conversation
- Intimation: a slight suggestion or vague understanding
- Inure: cause to accept or become hardened to
- Invective: abusive language used to express blame or censure
- Intransigent: impervious to pleas, persuasion, requests, or reason
- Inveterate: habitual
- Irreverence: a mental attitude showing lack of due respect
- Knell: the sound of a bell rung slowly to announce a death
- Laconic: brief and to the point
- Largesse: liberality in bestowing gifts
- Legerdemain: an illusory feat
- Libertarian: an advocate of freedom of thought and speech
- Licentious: lacking moral discipline
- Linchpin: a central cohesive source of support and stability
- Litigant: a party to a lawsuit
- Maelstrom: a powerful circular current of water
- Maudlin: effusively or insincerely emotional
- Maverick: someone who exhibits independence in thought and action
- Mawkish: effusively or insincerely emotional
- Maxim: a saying that is widely accepted on its own merits
- Mendacious: given to lying
- Modicum: a small or moderate or token amount
- Morass: a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
- Mores: the conventions embodying the fundamental values of a group
- Munificent: very generous
- Multifarious: having many aspects
- Nadir: the lowest point of anything
- Negligent: characterised by undue lack of attention or concern
- Neophyte: any new participant in some activity
- Noisome: offensively malodorous
- Noxious: injurious to physical or mental health
- Obdurate: stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing
- Obfuscate: make obscure or unclear
- Obstreperous: noisily and stubbornly defiant
- Officious: intrusive in a meddling or offensive manner
- Onerous: burdensome or difficult to endure
- Ostensible: appearing as such but not necessarily so
- Ostracism: the act of excluding someone from society by general consent
- Palliate: lessen or to try to lessen the seriousness or extent of
- Panacea: hypothetical remedy for all ills or diseases
- Paradigm: a standard or typical example
- Pariah: a person who is rejected from society or home
- Partisan: a fervent and even militant proponent of something
- Paucity: an insufficient quantity or number
- Pejorative: expressing disapproval
- Pellucid: transparently clear; easily understandable
- Penchant: a strong liking or preference
- Penurious: excessively unwilling to spend
- Pert: characterised by a lightly saucy or impudent quality
- Pernicious: exceedingly harmful
- Pertinacious: stubbornly unyielding
- Phlegmatic: showing little emotion
- Philanthropic: of or relating to charitable giving
- Pithy: concise and full of meaning
- Platitude: a trite or obvious remark
- Plaudit: enthusiastic approval
- Plenitude: a full supply
- Plethora: extreme excess
- Portent: a sign of something about to happen
- Potentate: a powerful ruler, especially one who is unconstrained by law
- Preclude: make impossible, especially beforehand
- Predilection: a predisposition in favour of something
- Preponderance: exceeding in heaviness; having greater weight
- Presage: a foreboding about what is about to happen
- Probity: complete and confirmed integrity
- Proclivity: a natural inclination
- Profligate: unrestrained by convention or morality
- Promulgate: state or announce
- Proscribe: command against
- Protean: taking on different forms
- Prurient: characterised by lust
- Puerile: displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity
- Pugnacious: ready and able to resort to force or violence
- Pulchritude: physical beauty, especially of a woman
- Punctilious: marked by precise accordance with details
- Quaint: attractively old-fashioned
- Quixotic: not sensible about practical matters
- Quandary: state of uncertainty in a choice between unfavourable options
- Recalcitrant: stubbornly resistant to authority or control
How To Improve Your SAT Vocabulary in 7 Days?
The SAT, a crucial hurdle on the path to higher education, demands a strong vocabulary foundation. While the test’s emphasis on obscure terms has waned, the ability to comprehend and utilize nuanced language remains essential. This necessitates a strategic approach to vocabulary development, one that goes beyond rote memorization and fosters genuine understanding. That said, here are some effective tips to help you improve your SAT vocabulary in just 7 days. Have a look.
- Embrace the Power of Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes: The English language is a beautiful mosaic of borrowed and evolved words. By familiarizing yourself with common roots (meaningful word parts), prefixes (added before a root), and suffixes (added after a root), you unlock the ability to decipher unfamiliar terms. For instance, if you recognize the root “cred” signifying “belief,” the prefix “dis” meaning “not,” and the suffix “able” indicating “capable of,” you can readily understand the meaning of “discreditable” (not worthy of belief).
- Befriend the Dictionary: This age-old tool should be your constant companion. Look up unfamiliar words encountered in your reading or practice materials. Pay close attention to not just the definition but also the part of speech and any nuances in meaning. Consider creating your dictionary entries, incorporating synonyms, antonyms, and example sentences for better comprehension.
- Actively Engage with Reading Material: Devour a variety of high-quality texts, from classic literature to scholarly articles. Pay attention to how vocabulary is used in context. Underline or make note of unfamiliar words, then delve into their meaning using your dictionary. Don’t just passively absorb information; actively engage with the text by inferring word meaning based on surrounding sentences and the overall passage.
- Transform Flashcards into Active Learning Tools: While flashcards can be a valuable resource, ensure they go beyond simply presenting the word and definition. Include a synonym, antonym, a sentence demonstrating usage in context, or even a picture to enhance memory. Utilize spaced repetition techniques, revisiting flashcards at increasing intervals to solidify your understanding.
- Incorporate Mnemonics and Visualization: Mnemonics, memory aids that take the form of acronyms, rhymes, or vivid images, can significantly enhance recall. If you struggle with the word “egregious” (flagrant or outrageous), create a mental image of something so outlandish it’s egregious!
- Embrace Everyday Practice: Make vocabulary building a part of your daily routine. Engage in conversations that challenge you to use more sophisticated language. Play word games or online quizzes that test your knowledge. There are even mobile applications designed to make vocabulary learning interactive and engaging.
- Write with Intention: As you write, consciously incorporate the new vocabulary you’re learning. This not only reinforces your understanding but also hones your ability to use these words effectively in expressing yourself.
By adopting these strategies and consistently practising, you’ll transform your vocabulary from a passive collection of words to a dynamic tool for comprehending complex texts and expressing yourself with clarity and precision. Remember, the SAT is not just a test of vocabulary; it’s a window into your critical thinking and communication abilities. By mastering these skills, you’ll not only conquer the SAT but also prepare yourself for academic success and beyond.
Common Mistakes To Avoid While Learning Difficult SAT Words
The SAT verbal sections demand a robust vocabulary, but the path to mastering these often-daunting words can be fraught with errors. While diligent effort is essential, even the most dedicated student can fall prey to common pitfalls. Here, we explore these missteps and illuminate strategies to circumvent them, ensuring your vocabulary acquisition journey is efficient and effective.
1. The Tyranny of Rote Memorization: Memorizing definitions in isolation, devoid of context, is a recipe for forgetfulness. The SAT is not a test of blind recall; it assesses your ability to decipher meaning within a passage. Focus on understanding the word’s essence, its synonyms and antonyms, and how its usage shapes the overall tone and argument of the text.
2. Confusing Similar-Looking Words: The English language is rife with homophones (words that sound alike) and homographs (words spelt alike but with different meanings). Don’t be fooled by superficial similarities. Delve deeper, discerning the subtle differences between “discreet” (careful and prudent) and “discrete” (separate and distinct). Utilize context clues and part-of-speech identification to differentiate these imposters.
3. Misinterpreting Nuances in Meaning: Many SAT vocabulary words boast layered definitions with subtle variations. Grasping these nuances is paramount. For instance, “mitigate” can signify “to lessen the seriousness of something” or “to make something less severe.” Understanding these distinctions equips you to tackle questions that hinge on the precise shade of meaning conveyed.
4. Neglecting Context Clues: The passage surrounding an unfamiliar word is often your greatest ally. Skilled writers embed clues within the text to illuminate meaning. Pay close attention to surrounding sentences, identifying synonyms, antonyms, or explanations that shed light on the unknown term. This detective work is essential for deciphering the author’s intent and answering related questions.
5. Overlooking Part-of-Speech: A word’s part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) significantly influences its meaning and function within a sentence. Misinterpreting a noun for a verb can lead to erroneous comprehension of the entire passage. Practice identifying parts of speech and ensure the vocabulary word you’re considering aligns with the grammatical context.
6. Falling Prey to Distractor Choices: The SAT is notorious for its cunningly crafted answer choices. Many options may appear superficially correct, containing synonyms or near-synonyms of the target word. However, these distractors often miss the mark by a hair’s breadth, lacking the precise nuance or failing to align with the overall context of the passage. Carefully evaluate each answer choice, ensuring it captures the intended meaning with pinpoint accuracy.
By recognizing and avoiding these common pitfalls, you can transform your SAT vocabulary acquisition from a frustrating ordeal into a rewarding intellectual pursuit. Remember, the goal isn’t simply to amass a stockpile of words; it’s to cultivate a deep understanding that empowers you to navigate the complexities of language and excel on the SAT.
So that was all about difficult SAT words. Hope the blog has answered your queries regarding the topic.
FAQs
Memorisation alone won’t do the trick. Focus on understanding the word’s core meaning, its synonyms and antonyms, and how it’s used in context. Create flashcards with the word, definition, a synonym, a sentence demonstrating its usage, and even a picture to jog your memory. Utilize spaced repetition techniques, revisiting flashcards at increasing intervals to solidify your understanding.
Don’t try to cram every obscure word you encounter. Instead, prioritize words you come across frequently in your reading materials or practice tests. Focus on learning roots, prefixes, and suffixes – these building blocks will help you decipher unfamiliar terms.
Pay close attention to the subtle differences. Utilize context clues within the passage and identify the part of speech the word is functioning as (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) This will help you differentiate between similar-sounding words and choose the answer that best fits the sentence’s structure and meaning.
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