SAT vocabulary for Juniors Lesson Three

#1 Pedestrian: adj. ordinary or dull syn: commonplace; mediocre / ant: imaginative; compelling Stan did all he could to hype the essay, but he delivered only a pedestrian and unsatisfying result. “Say what they will of the glowing independence one feels in the saddle, give me the first morning flush of your cheery pedestrian!” -Henry Melville

#2 Bona fide: adj. in good faith syn: legitimate; genuine / ant: fraudulent; phony Although the team put forth a bona fide effort, they suffered their eighth straight loss. "Don't learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them be bona fide falls in the rough and tumble of the world." -Samuel Butler

#3 Adventitious: adj. accidental; nonessential syn: incidental Adventitious nostalgia and patriotism have made the Gettysburg Address more famous than it was when Lincoln first gave it. “If intellection and knowledge were mere passion from without, or the bare reception of extraneous and adventitious forms, then no reason could be given at all why a mirror or looking-glass should not understand; whereas it cannot so much as sensibly perceive those images which it receives and reflects to us.” -Ralph J. Cudworth

#4 Fecund: adj. fertile; productive syn: prolific / ant: sterile Gwen’s fecund imagination has produced many books that have brought critical and popular acclaim. “I call to the spirits of other lands to make fecund my existence” -Frank O’Hara

#5 Deviate: v. to turn aside from a course; to stray syn: digress He thought in a linear fashion, with no room to deviate. “Keep on adding, keep on walking, keep on progressing: do not delay on the road, do not go back, do not deviate.” -St. Augustine

#6 Obfuscate: v. to confuse; to bewilder syn: muddle; obscure / ant: clarify; elucidate For a dedicated writer, it is a serious error to obfuscate, not clarify, with language. “Life has a tendency to obfuscate and bewilder, Such as fating us to spend the first part of our lives being embarrassed by our parents and the last part being embarrassed by our childer.” -Ogden Nash

#7 Impale: v. to pierce with a sharp stake through the body Punji sticks are very sharp bamboo stakes placed in holes to impale unsuspecting soldiers. In Lord Of The Flies, the boys on the island went from innocent children to savages who impaled pigs.

#8 Extenuate: v. to lessen seriousness by providing partial excuses In law, circumstances that extenuate a crime may call for less punishment. “Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice.” -Shakespeare

#9 Parochial: adj. local; narrow; limited syn: provincial; narrow-minded / ant: universal; catholic Bret’s parochial notions about art and history disappeared after he visited several museums. “Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century.” -Lewis Mumford

#10 Glower: v. to stare angrily syn: frown; scowl / ant: grin Although he often seemed to glower, he claimed to be smiling in his heart. The five year old glowered at the other child who took her place at the front of the line.

#11 Edify: v. improve someone morally Always edify, never stupefy, the veteran teacher advised. The corrections officer always looked to edify his new charges so that they would become upstanding citizens.

#12 Ambiguous: adj. open to more than one interpretation syn: unclear; uncertain; vague / ant: explicit; definite The ambiguous orders misled the platoon into a minefield. “Even a cow creates ambiguous signifiers. The moo of mystery.” -Mason Cooley

#13 Cataclysm: n. a violent change syn: disaster; catastrophe / ant: triumph; boon An island volcano, Krakatoa, exploded in a cataclysm that produced a tidal wave 120 feet high. “Well, from what you tell me I should say that it was not only a landslide but a tidal wave and holocaust all rolled into one general cataclysm.” -William Howard Taft

#14 Optimum: adj. best; most favorable; ideal After tasting the bears’ bowls of porridge, Goldilocks found one that was the optimum temperature. When traveling long distances, one must check for optimum conditions for the journey.

#15 Importune: v. to ask persistently; to beg syn: appeal; badger Her friends seldom refused when Kim importune them for a ride to school. “Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune, He had not the method of making a fortune.” -Thomas Gray