Introduction to GRE Vocabulary

The first eight questions of each verbal section, as well as four to five questions further on in the section, test sentence completion, which heavily draws upon vocabulary. The key to answering these questions is memorizing the words.

Questions 1-2 have a single blank.

1. Though she generally found tales of romance to be rather _____ and tiresome, Mary enjoyed reading The Wuthering Heights, especially for its 19th century English.

(A) corroborated (B) constrained (C) banal (D) brackish (E) pernicious

Questions 3-5 have two blanks.

3. While prepared to delegate some authority, the mayor was not about to give away _____ control over the city's housing authority budget to the unpredictable committee, especially while facing a _____ reelection year.

(A) poignant (D) redolent (B) unfettered (E) trifling (C) hapless (F) baleful

Questions 6-8 have three blanks.

6. The rise of Ottoman Power in the Mediterranean _____ the ability of western European powers to _____ trade with the Far East in the traditional manner, which would prove to _____ efforts to seek other trade routes utilizing the Atlantic.

(A) prevaricated (D) parlay (G) subdue (B) abrogated (E) effect (H) gratify (C) inundated (F) evince (I) impel

Questions 13-16 or so have one blank to be filled with two words.

16. Mendelev was able to demonstrate the _____ of his theory when he predicted the chemical properties of the missing chemicals in his table of the elements.

(A) contempt (B) obscurity (C) veracity (D) estrangement (E) latency (F) rectitude (G) derision