SAT® vocabulary in context
112 entries. Memorising definitions is the wrong preparation for this test, because the words are ordinary and the sense being asked for is usually not the first one you would give. Every entry below pairs the meaning the test wants with the everyday meaning it offers as a distractor.
The method behind these is in the Craft & Structure guide; the rules for the rest of the section are in the grammar reference.
Ordinary words, uncommon senses
The most heavily tested group, and the one where knowing the word is no help at all. Each of these has an everyday meaning that is offered and wrong.
qualify
Tested sense: to limit or narrow a claim
Confused with: to become eligible
The author qualifies her earlier claim by noting that it held only in coastal regions.
appreciate
Tested sense: to understand fully
Confused with: to be grateful for
Only after the second reading did she appreciate how carefully the argument was built.
sustain
Tested sense: to support or keep going
Confused with: to suffer an injury
A weekly market sustained the village economy through the winter.
reserve
Tested sense: restraint or holding back
Confused with: a stored supply
He described the performance with unusual reserve, praising it in a single sentence.
novel
Tested sense: new or unfamiliar
Confused with: a work of fiction
The technique was novel enough that no established method covered it.
discriminating
Tested sense: perceptive about fine differences
Confused with: prejudiced
A discriminating listener can hear where the two recordings diverge.
exhaustive
Tested sense: thorough and complete
Confused with: tiring
Her exhaustive survey covered every parish record in the county.
compromise
Tested sense: to weaken or undermine
Confused with: to reach an agreement
Damp had compromised the structure long before the survey found it.
arrest
Tested sense: to stop or halt
Confused with: to detain a person
A layer of clay arrested the water before it reached the foundation.
economy
Tested sense: efficiency of means
Confused with: a financial system
The drawing achieves its effect with striking economy: four lines and no shading.
reservations
Tested sense: doubts
Confused with: bookings
The committee approved the plan but recorded reservations about its cost.
affect
Tested sense: to adopt or put on
Confused with: to influence
He affected an indifference he plainly did not feel.
Words that signal an argument
These describe what a writer is doing rather than what they are saying. Purpose questions turn on recognising them.
concede
Tested sense: to grant a point before disagreeing
Confused with: to surrender entirely
She concedes that the sample was small, then argues the pattern still holds.
undermine
Tested sense: to weaken indirectly
Confused with: to attack openly
The second study undermines the first without ever mentioning it.
substantiate
Tested sense: to support with evidence
Confused with: to make substantial
Nothing in the report substantiates the claim about rising numbers.
refute
Tested sense: to disprove
Confused with: to deny or reject
To refute the theory you need a counterexample, not an objection.
presuppose
Tested sense: to take for granted in advance
Confused with: to guess
The question presupposes that the two effects are separable.
reconcile
Tested sense: to make two things consistent
Confused with: to make peace
The paper reconciles two findings that had appeared to conflict.
attribute
Tested sense: to assign a cause to
Confused with: a characteristic
She attributes the recovery to a change in water temperature.
anticipate
Tested sense: to address in advance
Confused with: to look forward to
The essay anticipates the obvious objection and answers it in the third paragraph.
complicate
Tested sense: to make less simple than claimed
Confused with: to make difficult
The new data complicate a picture that had seemed settled.
illuminate
Tested sense: to clarify
Confused with: to light up
One well-chosen example illuminates the whole distinction.
Describing tone and stance
Answer choices in Craft and Structure are often single adjectives. Confusing two of these is the most common way to lose the question.
measured
Tested sense: careful and restrained
Confused with: quantified
His measured response neither accepted nor rejected the proposal.
ambivalent
Tested sense: holding two opposed feelings
Confused with: indifferent
She is ambivalent about the move: eager for the work, sorry to leave.
sceptical
Tested sense: doubtful but open
Confused with: hostile
The reviewer is sceptical of the method without dismissing the result.
wry
Tested sense: dryly humorous
Confused with: bitter
A wry footnote observes that the machine worked best when unplugged.
candid
Tested sense: frank, including about oneself
Confused with: kind
The memoir is candid about the years when nothing sold.
detached
Tested sense: emotionally uninvolved
Confused with: uninterested
The account is detached, reporting the disaster without adjectives.
earnest
Tested sense: sincere and serious
Confused with: naive
His earnest defence of the old timetable convinced the committee.
guarded
Tested sense: cautious in what is revealed
Confused with: defensive
The statement is guarded, promising a review rather than a decision.
exuberant
Tested sense: energetically enthusiastic
Confused with: excessive
The exuberant opening chapter runs through six cities in nine pages.
dismissive
Tested sense: treating as unworthy of attention
Confused with: disagreeing
A dismissive aside calls the objection a distraction and moves on.
Pairs that are nearly synonyms
When two choices are both close, the question is testing the difference between them. These are the pairs that come up.
imply vs infer
Tested sense: a writer implies; a reader infers
Confused with: using them interchangeably
The passage implies a connection; the reader infers one from it.
cause vs correlate
Tested sense: correlation is movement together, not production
Confused with: treating them as the same claim
The study shows the two rose together; it does not show one caused the other.
ensure vs insure
Tested sense: ensure means make certain
Confused with: the financial sense of insure
Careful labelling ensures the samples are not confused.
comprise vs compose
Tested sense: the whole comprises the parts
Confused with: reversing the direction
The collection comprises four volumes; four volumes compose the collection.
continual vs continuous
Tested sense: continual repeats; continuous does not stop
Confused with: using either for both
Continual interruptions differ from a continuous hum.
principle vs principal
Tested sense: principle is a rule; principal is chief
Confused with: the spelling alone
The principal objection rests on a principle of fair notice.
elicit vs illicit
Tested sense: elicit is to draw out
Confused with: the sense of unlawful
The question elicited a longer answer than expected.
discreet vs discrete
Tested sense: discreet is tactful; discrete is separate
Confused with: the spelling alone
The data fall into three discrete groups.
Words for evidence and method
Science and social-science passages argue about how something was found out, not only about what was found. These are the words that carry that argument, and they are the ones an answer choice will hinge on.
corroborate
Tested sense: to support with independent evidence
Confused with: to agree with
A second dig corroborated the dating, which one dig alone could not settle.
anecdotal
Tested sense: drawn from individual reports rather than systematic collection
Confused with: untrue
The evidence is anecdotal, which makes it a reason to look rather than a reason to conclude.
replicate
Tested sense: to repeat a study and get the same result
Confused with: to copy
Three laboratories failed to replicate the finding before it was withdrawn.
confound
Tested sense: to make two causes impossible to separate
Confused with: to bewilder
Age and length of service were confounded: everyone senior was also older.
extrapolate
Tested sense: to extend a finding beyond the range it was measured over
Confused with: to estimate
The model was fitted below 30 degrees, so extrapolating to 40 is a guess with a graph attached.
systematic
Tested sense: following a fixed method throughout
Confused with: thorough
A systematic search records where it did not look as well as where it did.
robust
Tested sense: holding up when the assumptions are varied
Confused with: strong or large
The result is robust: it survives dropping any one year from the series.
spurious
Tested sense: apparent but not real
Confused with: deliberately faked
The correlation is spurious, produced by both series rising with population.
salient
Tested sense: standing out as most relevant
Confused with: important in general
The salient difference between the two sites is drainage, not soil.
provisional
Tested sense: held for now, pending better evidence
Confused with: temporary
The attribution is provisional and will change if the letters are found.
plausible
Tested sense: reasonable on the face of it, not established
Confused with: probable
Two plausible explanations remain, and the passage does not choose between them.
converge
Tested sense: to arrive at the same conclusion from different starting points
Confused with: to meet
Tree rings and ice cores converge on the same date, which is why it is trusted.
Words for change and degree
Answer choices often differ only in how much they claim. These words are how a passage marks the size and direction of a change, and misreading one turns a modest claim into a sweeping one.
attenuate
Tested sense: to weaken gradually
Confused with: to shorten
The effect attenuates with distance and is undetectable beyond a mile.
marginal
Tested sense: small enough to be near the limit of notice
Confused with: unimportant
The gain was marginal but consistent across all nine trials.
negligible
Tested sense: small enough to be ignored
Confused with: careless
The difference is negligible beside the year-to-year variation.
precipitous
Tested sense: steep and sudden
Confused with: reckless
A precipitous fall in numbers followed the winter of 1963.
incremental
Tested sense: proceeding in small steps
Confused with: increasing
The improvement was incremental: a few seconds a year for a decade.
offset
Tested sense: to cancel out in part or whole
Confused with: to delay
Higher yields were offset by the cost of the fertiliser they required.
compound
Tested sense: to make worse by adding to
Confused with: to combine neutrally
The delay compounded a shortage that was already acute.
plateau
Tested sense: to stop rising and stay level
Confused with: to fall
Enrolment rose until 2015 and has plateaued since.
disproportionate
Tested sense: larger than the related quantity would lead you to expect
Confused with: unfair
A disproportionate share of the finds came from a single trench.
nominal
Tested sense: in name only, or unadjusted for inflation
Confused with: small
Nominal wages rose while real wages did not.
appreciable
Tested sense: large enough to be measured
Confused with: welcome
There is no appreciable difference between the two methods.
threshold
Tested sense: the level at which something begins to happen
Confused with: a limit or maximum
Below the threshold the drug does nothing at all; above it the response is steep.
Words that limit a claim
The commonest wrong answer on this test is a true statement made too strongly. These are the words a careful writer uses to stop short, and recognising them is how you tell the supported choice from the overreaching one.
suggest
Tested sense: to point towards without establishing
Confused with: to prove
The pollen record suggests clearance, and a single core cannot establish it.
consistent with
Tested sense: compatible with, but not evidence for
Confused with: evidence of
The damage is consistent with frost, and with several other causes.
may
Tested sense: is possible, with no claim about likelihood
Confused with: probably does
A smaller effect may exist that this trial was not built to detect.
tend to
Tested sense: usually, with exceptions expected
Confused with: always
Coastal dialects tend to keep the older vowel, though two villages do not.
in part
Tested sense: some of the explanation, not all
Confused with: largely
The decline is explained in part by drainage; the rest is unaccounted for.
apparent
Tested sense: seeming, possibly not real
Confused with: obvious
The apparent rise disappears once the change of method is allowed for.
largely
Tested sense: mostly, admitting exceptions
Confused with: entirely
The collection is largely nineteenth century, with a handful of earlier pieces.
at least
Tested sense: a floor, with more possible
Confused with: exactly
At least thirty gears survive, and the corroded section may hide more.
suggests otherwise
Tested sense: points against the claim just made
Confused with: disproves it
The burial register suggests otherwise, though it is incomplete for those years.
account for
Tested sense: to explain, or to make up a share of
Confused with: to cause
Three sites account for most of the finds, which says where people dug.
if anything
Tested sense: the opposite direction, weakly
Confused with: strongly
The second study found no effect, and if anything a slight fall.
need not
Tested sense: is not required to, though it might
Confused with: does not
A record made later need not be less accurate, but it has to be argued for.
Words for how a text is built
Text structure and purpose questions ask what a sentence or paragraph is doing. The answer choices are usually one of these verbs, and choosing between them is the question.
reframe
Tested sense: to restate something in different terms so it reads differently
Confused with: to repeat
The final paragraph reframes the closure as a choice rather than a misfortune.
digress
Tested sense: to leave the main line and return to it
Confused with: to lose the thread
The author digresses for a page on paper-making and picks the argument up again.
illustrate
Tested sense: to give an instance of something already claimed
Confused with: to prove
The anecdote illustrates the pattern; the table is what establishes it.
frame
Tested sense: to set the terms in which something is understood
Confused with: to describe
The opening frames the closure as a loss rather than a decision.
foreground
Tested sense: to give prominence to
Confused with: to mention first
The essay foregrounds the cost, returning to it in every section.
situate
Tested sense: to place in a wider context
Confused with: to locate physically
The chapter situates the invention among a dozen near-simultaneous attempts.
enumerate
Tested sense: to set out one by one
Confused with: to count up
The report enumerates the failures rather than summarising them, which is the point.
echo
Tested sense: to repeat an earlier element on purpose
Confused with: to repeat by accident
The last line echoes the first, and the difference between them is the argument.
undercut
Tested sense: to weaken from beneath, often quietly
Confused with: to attack directly
A footnote undercuts the claim the chapter has just spent ten pages making.
juxtapose
Tested sense: to place side by side so a contrast shows
Confused with: to compare at length
The two photographs are juxtaposed and the caption says nothing.
recapitulate
Tested sense: to restate what has been established
Confused with: to repeat needlessly
The closing paragraph recapitulates the argument before extending it.
pivot
Tested sense: to turn to a different line of argument
Confused with: to change the subject
The article pivots from the design of the law to its effects.
Words that compare
Data questions turn on which two things are being set against each other. These words each name a specific comparison, and choosing the wrong one changes the claim rather than merely blurring it.
respectively
Tested sense: in the order just given
Confused with: individually
The two sites yielded 40 and 96 finds respectively, so the second was the richer.
per capita
Tested sense: divided by the population
Confused with: in total
The county spends less in total and more per capita, because fewer people live there.
relative to
Tested sense: measured against a stated baseline
Confused with: connected with
Rainfall was high relative to the 1990s and unremarkable relative to the century.
order of magnitude
Tested sense: a factor of about ten
Confused with: a large amount
The two estimates differ by an order of magnitude, which is a disagreement about method.
proportion
Tested sense: a part expressed against a whole
Confused with: a quantity
The proportion fell while the number rose, because the population grew faster.
net
Tested sense: after opposing amounts are subtracted
Confused with: total
Ninety arrived and eighty left, a net gain of ten.
median
Tested sense: the middle value once sorted
Confused with: the average
One very large estate lifts the mean and leaves the median where it was.
outlier
Tested sense: a value far from the rest
Confused with: an error
The outlier was checked and found to be genuine, which made it the interesting reading.
baseline
Tested sense: the value later ones are measured from
Confused with: the lowest value
Choosing 2019 as the baseline makes every later year look like a recovery.
cumulative
Tested sense: adding up across the whole period
Confused with: current
Cumulative rainfall was above average although no single month was.
twofold
Tested sense: multiplied by two
Confused with: increased by two
A twofold rise takes 300 to 600, not to 302.
margin
Tested sense: the size of a difference
Confused with: an edge or border
The result held, but by a margin small enough that a single site would overturn it.
Words that place things in time
History and science passages argue constantly about what came before what, and a wrong reading here usually produces a wrong answer about cause. Each of these fixes an order, not just a date.
antedate
Tested sense: to come before in time
Confused with: to postdate
The stone tools antedate the settlement by two thousand years.
contemporary
Tested sense: belonging to the same period
Confused with: modern
The letter is contemporary with the building, which is why it can be trusted on the cost.
subsequent
Tested sense: coming after
Confused with: resulting from
Subsequent excavations found nothing, which is not the same as the first one being wrong.
concurrent
Tested sense: happening at the same time
Confused with: agreeing
The two declines were concurrent, and the paper does not claim either caused the other.
hitherto
Tested sense: until now
Confused with: therefore
A species hitherto known only from a single valley has been found across the range.
protracted
Tested sense: drawn out over a long time
Confused with: delayed
The protracted rebuilding took eleven years and never stopped.
abrupt
Tested sense: happening suddenly
Confused with: rude
The abrupt fall in the pollen record marks a single season, not a slow change.
precede
Tested sense: to come before
Confused with: to proceed, to go on
The charcoal layer precedes the cereal pollen, which is the whole basis for the argument.
interim
Tested sense: covering the time between
Confused with: final
The interim report was published in 1971 and the conclusions changed by 1974.
retrospective
Tested sense: looking back at what already happened
Confused with: thoughtful
The study is retrospective, which is why it can show association and not sequence.
nascent
Tested sense: just beginning to exist
Confused with: natural
The nascent industry employed forty people and would employ nine thousand.
obsolete
Tested sense: no longer in use, superseded
Confused with: broken
The mechanism was obsolete rather than worn out, and it still worked when removed.
A list is not practice
Reading these will not make the questions easy. Meeting the same words inside a sentence that has to be read carefully is what does, and that is what the practice bank is for.