Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
SSAT Study Words III
SSAT Vocab (S through Z)
| Word | Definition | Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| saturate | To fill something to the point where it can hold no more; soak, fill, drench, permeate | Reading the entire encyclopedia will saturate your mind with facts. |
| saucy | Impudent, impertinent, flippant; pert, lively, rude, insolent | She always got in trouble with her parents for her saucy remarks. |
| savor | To enjoy something with relish or delight; taste, relish, enjoy, appreciate | I savored every bite of my father's chocolate cream pie. |
| scald | Burn with hot liquid or steam; scorch, boil | Sharon was scalded when she bumped into a pot of boiling water. |
| scarce | Rare, uncommon; sparse, infrequent | Water is scarce in the Sahara Desert. |
| scathing | Overly critical; searing, crushing, harmful | Walter was depressed by the scathing reviews that his play received. |
| schism | Division or separation between groups of members within an organization; disunity, break, division, conflict, clash | Because half of the student council wanted the jukebox in the cafeteria, and the other half wanted it in the library, the council suffered a schism. |
| scrupulous | Acting in accordance with a strict moral code; thorough in the performance of a task; moral, upstanding, virtuous, principled, ethical; careful, conscientious, thorough, diligent | David could not have stolen Sheila's money; he was too scrupulous to carry out the threat. Roger is a scrupulous editor who checks every word his reporters write. |
| secure | (v) to fasten, make safe; bind, clamp (adj) well-fastened, safe, not likely to fall or come loose | I had secured my luggage in the overhead luggage rack a the beginning of the journey. |
| seethe | To heave or bubble from great inner turmoil, as a volcano; to boil; steam, foam, surge, swell | Immediately after learning about Roger's gossip about me, I began to boil with anger and by the time I reached his house I was seething. |
| sentry | Guard, sentinel, watchman, lookout | Mitchell stood as sentry while the other boys were in the room smoking. |
| sequel | Addition or result; story that continues a previous one; aftermath, outcome, continuation, consequence | |
| shrewd | Clever, keen-witted, cunning, sharp in practical affairs; astute, wily, discerning | She was a shrewd businesswoman and soon parlayed her meager savings into a fortune. |
| significant | Meaningful, important, relevant, consequential, momentous, weighty | A good detective knows that something that hardly seems worth noticing may be highly significant. |
| sinister | Threatening, evil, menacing, ominous, wicked | His friendly manner concealed sinister designs. |
| slack | (n) Lack of tautness or tension; a time of little activity or dullness; lull, relaxation (adj) Sluggish, idle, barely moving, loose, relaxed, lax, remiss, careless, inactive, slow | There was no wind; the sails hung slack and the boat was motionless. The slack atmosphere made it unlikely that anyone would work efficiently. |
| sociable | Friendly, companionable, gregarious, affable, amiable | Although they maintain their independence, cats are sociable creatures. |
| solicit | To seek (something) from another; to make a request of someone; request, petition, beg | The tennis player disagreed with the first judge's decision, so she solicited the opinion of the second judge. I solicited my parents for money, but they said no. |
| specify | To mention, name or require specifically or exactly; detail, identify, stipulate, itemize, define | The report specified the steps to be taken in an emergency |
| splice | To join, bind, attach; in film editing, to join two pieces of film; connect, attach, link, unite | The editor removed all the scenes with the troublesome actress and spliced the remainder together. |
| spurn | Reject with scorn, turn away; refuse, snub | When Harvey proposed to Harriet, she spurned him because she loved another man. |
| squalid | Very dirty or foul; wretched; filthy, sordid, pour, foul | The squalid living conditions in the tenement building outraged the new tenants. |
| squander | To waste (often money) on some worthless purchase or practice; fritter away, consume, exhaust | While I have carefully saved money to buy the piano I have always wanted, my friend Sean has squandered his earnings on thousands of lottery tickets. |
| staunch | Steady, loyal; firm, sturdy, solid, established, substantial, steadfast, faithful, unfailing | My grandfather has always been my staunch supporter. |
| stealthy | Sneaky, secret, furtive, clandestine | The children made a stealthy raid on the refrigerator during the night. |
| suave | Smooth, polished and confident in speech and behavior (sometimes insincerely); smooth, worldly, sophisticated, urbane, cosmopolitan, cultivated, cultured, refined | James was a suave young man who knew exactly how to act in any situation. |
| suppress | Crush, hold in, hide; quell, contain | |
| surfeit | Overly abundant supply, an excess; glut | There certainly is no surfeit of gasoline this year. |
| surmise | (v) to guess, infer; speculate, hypothesize | From his torn pants and bloody nose I surmised that he had been in a fight. |
| surrogate | Person or thing substituted for another; proxy, substitute, alternate | When I was ill, my friend agreed to act as my surrogate and give my speech for me. |
| susceptible | Vulnerable, liable to be affected by something; open, exposed | Because of her weakened state, Valerie was susceptible to infection. |
| suspense | Fear or anticipation of waiting for something; something having to do with fear or mystery, as in a suspense novel; apprehension, anxiety | Carolyn was in an agony of suspense waiting to find out if she'd gotten the lead part in the school play. |
| synopsis | Short summary, outline | Owen wrote a one-page synopsis of a 55-page book. |
| taciturn | Quiet, tending not to speak; shy, reserved, guarded | Helen is a taciturn girl who plays by herself and rarely says a word. |
| tactful | Acting with sensitivity to others' feelings; diplomatic, discreet, Judicious, sensitive, considerate, thoughtful, politic, delicate | I sent Eva to explain our sudden departure to our smelly hosts, for she is the most tactful person I know. |
| taint | To poison, as a drink; to corrupt, as a person; poison, contaminate, infect, spoil, corrupt, debase, pervert, stain, blemish | "I have tainted the princess's wine with a potion that will age her horribly in a few short weeks!" the witch proclaimed gleefully. |
| tamper | Bother, interfere, meddle, tinker, manipulate | Dan tampered with the thermostat and raised the temperature in the room to 85 degrees. |
| tangible | Can be felt by touching; having an actual substance; material, real, touchable, palpable, concrete, perceptible | The storming of the castle didn't bring the soldiers tangible rewards, but it brought them great honor. They would have preferred the rewards. |
| taut | Stretched tightly; tense; tight, strained | The tightrope was taut. |
| temperate | Denying oneself too much pleasure; avoiding extreme positions; moderate, sensible; a mild climate; self-denying; sensible, level-headed, rational, moderate, restrained, mild | Carol is the most temperate student I have ever met; even on Friday night she goes to bed early. The temperate weather of California is a welcome change from the harsh winters and muggy summers of New York. |
| tenacious | Steadily pursuing a goal, unwilling to give up; stubborn, persistent, persevering, untiring, tireless | For years, against all odds, women tenaciously fought for the right to vote. |
| tepid | Neither hot nor cold; lukewarm; lacking character or spirit, bland; mild, temperate; unenthusiastic, halfhearted, indifferent | Roxanne refused to take a bath in the tepid water, fearing that she would catch a cold. Neither liking nor disliking Finnegan's film, the critics gave it tepid reviews. |
| terminate | To stop, end; cease, finish, conclude | Amy and Zoe terminated their friendship and never spoke to each other again. |
| terse | Concise, brief, using few words; succinct, compact | Kate was noted for her terse replies, rarely going beyond "yes" or "no." |
| tether | (n) Chain or rope tied to an animal to keep it within specific bounds; (v) To fasten or confine; tie | The cheetah chewed through its tether and wandered off. I have to tether my dog to the fence to keep it out of the neighbor's yard. |
| token | (n) Sign or symbol; expression, representation; (adj) Existing in name or appearance only, without depth or significance; nominal, superficial, meaningless | I offered him a chocolate bar as a token of my gratitude for his help. He offered me a token handshake, but I knew that we were in fact still enemies. |
| torrid | Extremely hot, scorching; parched, sizzling | The torrid weather destroyed the crops. |
| trepidation | Fear, apprehension; fright, anxiety, trembling, hesitation | Mike approached the door of the principal's office with trepidation. |
| trite | Lacking originality, inspiration and interest; tired, banal, unoriginal, common, stale, stock | Lindsay's graduation speech was the same trite nonsense we've heard a hundred times before. |
| tumult | Noise and confusion; racket, disorder | The tumult of the No Nukes demonstrators drowned out the president's speech. |
| tyranny | Harsh exercise of absolute power, as in the deadly dinosaur Tyrannosaurus Rex; oppression, repression | The students accused Mrs. Morgenstern of tyranny when she assigned seats instead of letting them choose their own. |
| ultimate | Marking the highest point; cannot be improved upon; final; maximum, remotest, conclusive, last, elemental, primary, fundamental | The new fashions from Paris are the ultimate in chic. |
| unanimous | Approved by everyone concerned; unchallenged, uncontested, unopposed, united, harmonious | The student council voted unanimously; not one person opposed the plan. |
| unkempt | Messy, sloppily maintained; sloppy, slovenly, ruffled, disheveled, untidy, ragged | Sam's long hair and wrinkled shirt seemed unkempt to his grandmother; she told him he looked like a bum. |
| usurp | To seize, take by force (most often used of abstract nouns like "power" rather than concrete nouns like "bathrobe"); grab, steal, snatch | The vice principal was power-hungry and tended to usurp the principal's authority. |
| vacate | Leave as in a vacation; depart, go | The police ordered the demonstrators to vacate the park. |
| vacuous | Silly, empty-headed, not serious; shallow, vapid | The book that Victor loved when he was six struck him as utterly vacuous when he was twenty, but he still liked the pictures. |
| vague | Not clear or certain; nebulous, imprecise | It took us a while to find Amanda's house because the directions were vague. |
| vehement | With deep feeling; passionate, earnest, fervent | Susanne responded to the accusation of cheating with a vehement denial |
| vend | To sell goods; peddle, merchandise | Every Saturday in the Summer, craftsmen vend their products in the park |
| vex | To irritate to a great degree, to annoy; tease, provoke, torment, pester, harass, bother, annoy | Your constant sniveling is beginning to vex me. |
| vitalize | To make something come alive; animate | The government's flagrant acts of injustice vitalized the opposition. |
| vivacious | Lively, full of spirit; animated, sprightly, spirited | Quiet and withdrawn at firs, Joan became iincreasingly vivacious. |
| wan | Unnaturally pale, lacking color; ashen, bloodless | The sick child had a wan face. |
| wantonly | Without a reason; randomly, indiscriminately | Instead of singling out appropriate targets for his anger, the crazed robot struck out wantonly. |
| wrath | Extreme anger; ire, fury, rage | He denounced the criminals in a speech filled with righteous wrath. |
| wretched | Miserable, pathetic; dejected, woebegone, forlorn | Steve felt wretched when he failed the test. |
| writhe | To squirm or twist as if in pain | After being hit by a car, the pedestrian was writhing in pain. |
| zealous | Enthusiastic, eager; fervent, fervid, intense, passionate | Heather was a zealous supporter of the cause who never missed a rally. |
| satellite | A small thing going around a bigger thing, for example the moon | A spy satellite can take pictures of the people and things it passes above as it circles the globe. |
Created by:
Karina Geneva
Popular Standardized Tests sets