Up Your Score (16 page)

fiendish; devilish; nastily scheming

The
diabolical
demon devised a deadly dungeon.

translucent; gossamer

His
diaphanous
dinner dress caused much discussion.

to detect by the use of the senses

The watchman
dis-earned
his pay by not
discerning
the thieves.

lack of harmony

“I won’t use
dis chord
’cause it would create
discord
,” said Mozart.

to belittle; to reduce in esteem

“
Dis porridge
is too hot,” Goldilocks
disparaged
.

to dispense objects, such as seeds, newspapers; to distribute

While making his stock boy walk the plank, the captain explained, “
Dis seaman ate
all of the supplies that he was supposed to
disseminate
.”

anxious; worried;
distr
essed

Snow White became
distraught
when the dwarfs drank booze and fought.

several

distinct; varied; differing

William Shakespeare’s
divers
verses
were about
diverse
subjects.

sad; mournful

You will be
Dole-full
and sick if you eat 98 cans of pineapple chunks.

severe

If your swimsuit strap breaks, you are in
drastic
need of elastic.

energetic; vigorous; forceful

The
dynamic
duo fell into the Joker’s
dynami
te trap.

And on to a story:

Dan was
distraught
. He knew he’d soon have to go up to the
dais
and declare his candidacy for dogcatcher. He knew he was
devoid
of charisma and not a
dynamic
speaker. He wasn’t even
dexterous
at catching canines. Doubtless, he would
debase
himself by speaking like a
deranged
fool.

Trying to appear
dauntless
, he shambled forward with a
dearth
of enthusiasm. He tried to picture his audience all in
diaphanous
gowns, but it did not help his mood at all.

“Ahem,” he began, but was
deterred
from continuing when he
descried
the
diabolical
Great Dane that was rapidly
depleting
his audience by devouring them. Feeling that this
devastation
might
derogate
his speech, Dan’s thoughts were
thrown into sudden
discord
, and he felt a
drastic
need to
defenestrate
himself. Using himself as a
decoy
to get the beast’s attention, he
demurred
, “Ummm . . . please stop!” People
discerned
his foolishness.

Later that day, a supporter
disparaged
Dan’s speech. “It was rather
desultory
.
Divers
diverse
rumors have been
disseminated
that he is
depraved
. We’ll have trouble
deluding
the public into believing the contrary.”

bubbly; overflowing with excitement

The chef took a hefty swig of cooking sherry and then
ebulliently
tossed
bouillon
cubes into the soup.

to enlighten; educate

Ed defi
ed the edict against education by trying to
edify
his pupils.

to elicit

He tried to
educe
as much information as possible from the suspects before he
deduced
who the murderer was.

to erase; rub out

Be sure to completely
efface
any answer circle you wish to change.

weak; barren; decadent

By the time the authors had finished writing the E word list, they were
effete
. (Their readers had been
effete
ever since
aardvark
.)

dummy (mannequin), usually for symbolic torturing

The E words got together to burn
F and G
in
effigy
.

exhilaration; joy

The jolly mountaineers found
elation
on high
elevations
.

excessively thin; weak

In May she ate it
, but now it’s June and she’s still
emaciated
.

to imitate closely

When the tornado began, Dorothy called out, “Aunty
Em, you late
.
Emulate
Toto and hurry up.”

memorial text carved on a tombstone

I read the
epitaph
, “Here lies a politician and an honest man,” and wondered how they could fit two people in one grave.

something that perfectly represents an entire class of things; embodiment (pronounced “eh-pit’-oh-me”)

“You’re the
epitome
of stupidity,” she screeched after I spilled baloney dip all over her dress.

pertaining to horsemanship; on horseback

The
equestrian
knights went on
a quest
to
Rion
, but they were turned away because of a no-horses policy.

equality; balance; equilibrium

Note:
This is one of those words that isn’t often seen in print but might be on the test anyway because it is highly decodable.

An
equipoise
of speed and comprehension must be acquired in order to succeed on the critical reading section.

capable of two interpretations; ambiguous

Note:
This word is decodable, too.

“A good meal from this cook is a rare treat,” is an equivocal statement.

to diminish or destroy by small amounts

When
a road erodes
, there are potholes all over the place.

scholarly

Erudite
people say things like,
“Ere you diet
, would you partake of the torte?” instead of “Want some cake?”

avoid; shun

“Eschew!”
he sneezed loudly. “Gesundheit,” she replied, while
eschewing
the globules of his sneeze juice.

known only by a few people

Now you are one of the few people who knows this
esoteric
word.

not of the material world

The lisping child saw the
ethereal
ghost and asked,
“Ith he real?”

praiseful speech at a funeral

In Santa’s
eulogy
, the priest explained that Santa had died of high cholesterol because of all those
Yule logs he
ate.

nice way of saying something unpleasant

“Moved on to the next world” is a
euphemism
for “keeled over and bought it,” which is a
euphemism
for “died.”

On the SAT, the Serpent will use the secondary definition of this word, which is: to demand

The Stamp Act
exacted
from the colonists
taxes
they could not afford to pay. So they “
X
’d” the
act
.

to remove from a grave; disinter (see
POSTHUMOUS
)

Note:
Another one to decode:

They
exhumed
the coffin, but there was no cadaver in it.

urgent; requiring immediate attention

It is
exigent
that I find a s
exy gent
to escort me to the prom.

ex
cessively demanding;
ex
cessively
ex
acting

I made
exigent
demands on my fairy godmother to find me a debonair prom date and a diaphanous dress.

I want to know which
erudite
vegetable maker invented eggplant. If he is dead, I will
exhume
his coffin and
efface
the
epitaph
from his tombstone. If he is alive, I will burn him in
effigy
and ensure he will not be
eulogized
when he dies. Eggplant is the
epitome
of bad vegetables and its destruction is
exigent
. I
eschew
eating it. Its badness is almost
ethereal
. I would rather become
emaciated
than eat eggplant. This is an
exacting
demand, but would someone please
edify
me, without being
esoteric
or
equivocal
, as to one good thing about eggplant? It is mushy, it has seeds, it makes my tongue itch, it has a dopey name, and it tastes like the droppings that an
equestrian
slob forgot to clean up. I wish all the soil on the world’s eggplant farms would
erode
. Just thinking about eggplant makes me
effete
. Oh, and get this—when eggplants fertilize each other, the round ones with lots of seeds are the female ones and the long, narrow ones are the males. (No
euphemism
can soften this picture.) And they do it
ebulliently
in public, in front of all the other vegetables. What would happen if humans
emulated
this behavior?