abate: reduce or lessen abdicate: give up a position aberration: something unusual, different from the norm abhor: to really hate abstain: to refrain from doing something adversity: hardship, misfortune aesthetic: pertaining to beauty amicable: agreeable anachronistic: out of the context of time, out of date arid: very dry asylum: sanctuary, place of safety benevolent: friendly, helpful bias: a prejudice towards something or against something boisterous: enthusiastic, loud brazen: bold brusque: short, rude camaraderie: togetherness, trust, group dynamic of trust canny: careful capacious: very large, spacious capitulate: surrender clairvoyant: can predict the future collaborate: work together compassion: sympathy compromise: meeting in the middle, settling differences condescending: patronizing conditional: contingent upon something else, contingent upon conformist: someone who follows the majority convergence: coming together deleterious: harmful demagogue: rabble-rousing leader digression: straying from main point diligent: hard-working, dedicated discredit: dishonor someone, prove something untrue disdain: to regard with scorn divergent: moving apart, going in different directions empathy: feeling someone else’s feeling emulate: following someone else's example enervating: tiring ephemeral: fleeting, temporary evanescent: not lasting long exemplary: outstanding extenuating: something that makes the situation not as bad florid: ornate forbearance: patience, restraint fortitude: strength fortuitous: lucky foster: promote, aid fraught: filled with frugal: thrifty hackneyed: clichéd haughty: being arrogant, talking down to people hedonist: person who acts in pursuit of pleasure hypothesis: unproven theory, educated guess impetuous: rash, impulsive impute: to assign or attribute to someone inconsequential: without consequence, trivial, doesn't matter inevitable: unavoidable, definitely going to happen intrepid: fearless intuitive: knowing something by instinct jubilation: extreme happiness, joy lobbyist: person who takes one side or the other, and persuades government officials longevity: long (particularly long life) mundane: boring, ordinary nonchalant: casual, calm, at ease opulent: wealthy orator: speaker ostentatious: flaunting wealth parched: freed from water, dried up perfidious: disloyal pragmatic: practical precocious: gifted/talented beyond one's years pretentious: being self important, thinking you are better than others procrastinate: to delay, often unnecessarily prosaic: ordinary prosperity: wealth provocative: causes a fuss, inflammatory, likely to get people riled up prudent: careful, wise querulous: irritable, prone to argument rancorous: hateful, unpleasant reclusive: hermit, withdrawn reconciliation: coming back together after a disagreement renovation: being new, being redone restrained: controlled, not free reverence: deep respect sagacity: wisdom scrutinize: to look at carefully spontaneous: being impulsive, acting without thinking spurious: false, untrue submissive: mild, meek substantiate: to confirm, prove subtle: shy, small, not showy superficial: shallow superfluous: unnecessary, too much surreptitious: secret tactful: polite tenacious: persistent stubborn transient: temporary, impermanent venerable: respectable because of its age vindicate: to free from blame wary: careful, watchful Read more at http://education.yourdictionary.com/for-students-and-parents/100-most-common-sat-words.html#DlTSHAR1g7VDAUDL.99