GRE Vocab

Markedly different from an accepted norm; deviating from the norm | Sitting in a bathtub and singing show tunes all day long might be considered aberrant behavior.

Open and honest | When a company's business dealings are aboveboard, they act in an honorable, open manner.

To depart clandestinely; to steal off and hide | As a kid, you may have absconded from your lemonade stand — with the coffee can of cash in hand, and your bewildered sister still filling cups for your customers.

Choose not to consume or take part in (particularly something enjoyable) | People usually abstain from things that are considered vices — like drinking alcohol or eating chocolate.

Difficult to understand; incomprehensible | It might be hard to figure out how a toilet flushes but the technology that goes into making the Internet function is abstruse.

An award or praise granted as a special honor | Today, an accolade is more than a way to bestow knighthood, it is a form of praise or an award.

Harsh in tone | If you say something acerbic, or harshly bitter, to someone, it can leave a bitter taste in your own mouth that lingers, and the acerbic, or acidic, words can eat away at the person on the receiving end too.

The highest point of achievement | A brilliant violinist might reach the acme of her career, but eventually she might become unstrung.

Bitterness and ill will | Acrimony is a spiteful word. It sounds bitter, like acid.

Refusing to change one's mind | If you stubbornly refuse to change your mind about something, you are adamant about it.

To warn strongly, even to the point of reprimanding | If you want to show someone you're not happy with his behavior, admonish him.

Serving to warn; expressing reproof or reproach especially as a corrective | If you're caught throwing paper airplanes in class, your teacher will probably give you an admonitory lecture.

Speak, plead, or argue in favor of (or) a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea | Health advocates argue that such flavors entice young people, who are then more inclined to move to cigarettes.

One who professes great sensitivity to the beauty of art and nature | The sun was the blessing of the morning, the one celebrating element, an aesthete with no purpose except to shed radiance.

Concerned with the appreciation of beauty (or) a set of principles underlying and guiding the work of a particular artist | A velvet painting of dogs playing poker might have minimal aesthetic appeal.