Vocabulary College Prep Advanced — Set 4: In Context flashcards
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Fill the blank: 34 of the Set 4 words, each in a fresh sentence whose clues point to one word (where a second also fits, the back says so), with the deciding clue and the tempting rival explained.
Learn deck · part of Vocabulary Level 9 · College Prep Advanced · written against: Our own grade placement (VOCABULARY-PLAN.md): word frequency (wordfreq, CC BY-SA 4.0) and editorial review; no publisher's grade or word list is reproduced. Updated 2026-10-10.
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The soup's secret is a spoonful of bone marrow, which gives the broth an ______, silky body that coats the lips.unctuousCharacter & Behavior
Rich, smooth, almost oily texture in food is unctuous, the word's kitchen sense. Saccharine would need sugary sweetness, and luxuriant describes thick growth, as of plants or hair. -
With his pencil mustache, silk scarf and rumored unpaid debts, the ______ stranger who rented the old mill cottage set every gossip in the village whispering.rakishCharacter & Behavior
Dashing style with a hint of scandal is rakish. Roguish needs mischief or dishonesty, and jaunty a cheerful, lively manner; the stranger is stylish and slightly disreputable. -
After forty years at sea, the old sailor sat among the tomatoes in his garden with a ______ smile, utterly at peace, as if he had reached heaven.beatificFeelings & Attitudes
A smile of calm, blissful peace is beatific. Ebullient joy bubbles over with energy, the opposite of his stillness. -
Ivy bargains hard on every used car on her lot, but one ______ always stops her short: she will never sell a car she wouldn't let her own grandmother drive.scrupleFeelings & Attitudes
A point of conscience, a line she won't cross even when crossing it would pay, is a scruple. Compunction is the uneasy, guilty twinge your conscience gives you, a feeling, not a rule she holds to, and a dictum is an authority's pronouncement, which stops no one short. -
At the end of each chapter, the textbook pauses to ______ its key ideas in a short box, so students can review them in two minutes.recapitulateThinking & Knowing
Going back over the key ideas in a few words is to recapitulate. Inculcate means drilling an idea or value into someone by teaching it again and again, more than one short summary box. -
Don't ______ a cat's slow blink as drowsiness; animal behaviorists suggest it works more like a friendly smile.misconstrueSpeaking & Arguing
Reading a gesture wrongly, taking a friendly signal for sleepiness, is to misconstrue it. Disabuse means to correct someone's false belief, the opposite of making a mistake. -
Racing to finish before the guests arrived, Dev gave the fence a ______ coat of paint, splashing the roses and missing half the boards.slapdashActions & Effort
Work rushed and careless is slapdash. Lackadaisical implies low-energy, half-hearted effort, but Dev is racing; the fault is haste. -
When the earthquake struck, the ground seemed to ______, heaving the parked cars into the air and splitting the road down the middle.convulseChange & Growth
Violent, uncontrolled shaking is to convulse. Undulate means to rise and fall in smooth waves, far too gentle for ground that splits. -
The cavers dropped a stone into the central shaft and never heard it land; to them the black pit seemed ______.fathomlessSize & Amount
So deep that no one can find the bottom is fathomless. Inestimable describes worth so large no figure could capture it, such as a debt of gratitude, not depth. -
The company's claim that its sugary cereal counted as a full serving of vegetables was so ______ that the judge laughed out loud in court.risibleQuality & Judgment
A claim so absurd it draws laughter is risible. Vacuous describes a remark, look or mind so hollow it shows no real thought; this claim means something clear, just something ridiculous.
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Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- Senses, parts of speech and sense order checked against Merriam-Webster.com, the American Heritage Dictionary and the frequency-ordered Oxford, Longman and Cambridge learner's dictionaries; all definitions, notes and example sentences are original.
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