SAT Vocab: Compass

Bombast (Bombastic)

Pompous; high sounding language w/ meaning, used to impress people

Convoluted

Extremely complex or difficult to follow

Magnanimous (Magnanimity)

Very generous or forgiving

Munificence (Munificent)

very generous or more generous than is necessary

Pragmatic

dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations

Reticent (Reticence)

Not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily

Altruistic (Altruism)

unselfishly generous; distinterested in self-concern for the well-being of others

Astute

Having an ability to assess situations or people and use them to one's advantage

Circumspect

Wary and unwilling to take risks

Circumvent

To overcome in a clever and surreptitious way

Commonplace

Ordinary

Complacent (Complacency)

Showing smug or uncritical satisfaction with one's achievements

Compunction

A feeling of guilt or moral scruple that follows the doing of something wrong

Conjecture

An opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information

Convention (conventional)

Based on or in accordance with what is generally done or believed

Debilitating

Making someone weak or infirm

Delude

Deceive; fool

Dilettante

A person who cultivates an area of interest, such as the arts, without real commitment or knowledge

Disingenuous

Not candid or sincere

Dogmatic

Inclined to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true

Disparage (Disparaging)

To regard of as little worth

Edifying (Edified)

To instruct or improve (someone) morally or intellectually

Enigma (Enigmatic)

A person, place or thing that is puzzling, mysterious or difficult to understand

Expedite (expeditious)

To make an action or process happen sooner or be accomplished more quickly

Ineffable

To great or extreme to be expressed in words

Innocuous

Not harmful or offensive

Inscrutable

Impossible to understand or interpret; abstruse

Jocular (Jocularity)

Humorous or playful; droll

Laud (Laudatory; Lauded)

To praise highly, especially in a public context; extol; hail; applaud

Mercurial

Subject to unpredictable changes in mood; capricious; volatile

Mitigate

Make less severe or painful

Mollify (Mollification)

To appease the anxiety or anger of someone

Obfuscate

To render unclear, obscure or unintelligible

Objective (Objectivity)

Not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts; actual

Precocious

Having developed certain abilities or proclivities at an earlier age than usual; mature; gifted; talented

Prescriptive

Dictatorial; authoritarian

Proliferate (Proliferation)

To increase rapidly in numbers; multiply

Resilient

Flexible; Able to recoil or reflex after bending, stretching or being compressed

Succinct

Briefly and clearly expressed; concise

Tacit (Taciturn)

Implied or understood without being spoken

Verbose

Used or expressed in more words than necessary

Versatile (Versatility)

Able to adapt to many different functions or activities

Abate

To lessen, remove or reduce

Acclaim

To praise enthusiastically and publicly

Alacrity

Brisk or cheerful readiness

Avuncular

Of or relating to an uncle

Banal (Banality)

Boring; trite; cliche

Beguiled

Charmed or enchanted, sometimes in the deceitful way

Belabor

To argue or elaborate; dwell on

Belied

Failed to give a true notion of something; disguise; contradict

Bereft (Bereavement)

lacking or deprived of something, especially in a nonmaterial asset

Callous

Having or showing an insensitive or cruel disregard for others; unfeeling; cold-hearted

Callow (Callowness)

Inexperienced; immature

Cantankerous

Bad-tempered; argumentative; uncooperative

Cathartic

Providing psychological relief through the open expression of strong emotions; causing catharsis

Charlatan

A fraud

Chicanery

The use of trickery to achieve a financial, political or legal purpose

Clandestine

Kept secret or done secretively