Vocabulary College Prep Essentials — Set 1: Meanings flashcards
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The 100 most common of the 400 College Prep Essentials words, from respectively and framework to watershed: pronunciation, a plain academic definition and three example sentences, the most common use first.
Learn deck · part of Vocabulary Level 8 · College Prep Essentials · 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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persona (n.) · pur-SOH-nuhthe character or image a person shows others, which may differ from their private self; a voice an author adoptsCharacter & Behavior
On camera, the shy chef adopts a loud, cheerful persona.
The candidate's folksy public persona hid a sharp legal mind.
In her essays, the author writes in the persona of a skeptical outsider.
Watch out: the public-image sense has the plural personas; characters in a novel or play are personae. -
reliance (n.) · rih-LIGH-uhnsleaning on someone or something for support, or trusting them to supply what you needFeelings & Attitudes
The food bank's heavy reliance on volunteers makes its schedule fragile.
Reliance on a single supplier left the factory idle for weeks.
The court placed little reliance on the witness's shaky memory. -
domain (n.) · doh-MAYNa branch of learning or kind of activity; what someone rules or runs; the name part of a web addressThinking & Knowing
Child development is a domain that draws on psychology, biology and education.
Hiring decisions remain firmly in the dean's domain.
Most American college websites use the .edu domain.
Watch out: a work in the public domain is not under copyright, so anyone may copy it. -
respectively (adv.) · rih-SPEK-tiv-leematching up two lists item by item: first with first, second with second, and so onSpeaking & Arguing
The two samples had pH levels of 4.2 and 6.8, respectively.
Ana and Leo finished first and second in the debate tournament, respectively.
Wages and rents rose by three and nine percent, respectively.
Don't confuse with: respectfully, which means politely, with respect. -
methodology (n.) · meth-uh-DAHL-uh-jeehow a study or field goes about its work, and the principles and reasoning behind its proceduresActions & Effort
The paper's methodology section explains how the samples were collected.
Critics questioned the survey's methodology, not just its conclusions.
A course in research methodology is required for every graduate student. -
stem (v.) · STEMto come from or be caused by something; to keep something from flowing, or make it flow lessChange & Growth
Many of the city's problems stem from decades of underfunding.
Her interest in geology stems from childhood trips to the desert.
Free tutoring helped stem the steady loss of students from the program.
Watch out: as a noun, a stem is a plant's main stalk; STEM means science, technology, engineering and math. -
offset (v.) · AWF-set or awf-SETto even out or cancel one thing's effect using something that pushes the other waySize & Amount
Higher ticket prices offset the drop in attendance.
The firm plants trees to offset its carbon emissions.
A jump in rent partly offset the raise Jordan got in March. -
self-evident (adj.) · self-EV-uh-duhntobvious on its face, with no need for evidence or argumentQuality & Judgment
The Declaration of Independence calls certain truths self-evident.
The plan's benefits seemed self-evident to its authors, but not to voters.
It was a self-evident error that any first-year student would catch. -
fiscal (adj.) · FIS-kuhllinked to how a government taxes, spends and borrows; more generally, financialSociety & Power
Congress debated fiscal policy as the deficit grew.
Several states face a fiscal crisis as pension costs climb.
The university's fiscal year runs from July to June.
Watch out: fiscal policy is about taxes and spending; monetary policy is about interest rates and the money supply. -
configuration (n.) · kuhn-fig-yuh-RAY-shuhnthe way the parts of something are arranged; the settings that set up a computer or deviceNature & Time
The room's tables fold away, allowing several seating configurations.
A molecule's shape depends on the configuration of its atoms.
The laptop's default configuration hides several privacy settings.
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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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