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Time to test yourself! The definitions
are at the end of this page so you don't have to go far to find
out what the words mean.
Top 10 words you should know:
abstemious
bellicose
chromosome
filibuster
gauche
gerrymander
interpolate
irony
plagiarize
suffragist
Just as any current high school
student preparing for the SAT college admissions test can tell
you, words sometimes contain hints as to their meanings either
through spelling or sound. For example, "abstemious"
means to eat or drink in moderation. It sounds a lot like
"abstain," so on a multiple-choice test, you might be
able to figure this out from the sound of the word.
"The words we suggest are not
meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates
and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use
these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command
of the language," Steven Kleinedler, senior editor of
"100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know," says
in a news release announcing the book. But he admitted to the
Detroit Free Press that few people actually know all 100.
Confession time: He told the paper that one of the words on the
top 100 list, "quotidian," was completely new to him.
(It means commonplace or ordinary.)
The meanings of the 10 words
above (on the off chance you need to bone up on your vocabulary):
abstemious:
eating and drinking in moderation; self-denying
bellicose: warlike or hostile; belligerent
chromosome: a strand of DNA;
genetic material
filibuster: the use of
obstructionist tactics, especially prolonged speechmaking
gauche: lacking grace or
social polish; vulgar
gerrymander: to divide
voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party
interpolate: to insert or
introduce between other elements or parts; to butt-in
irony: the use of words to
express something different from and often opposite to literal
meaning
plagiarize: to use and pass
off the ideas or writing of another as one's own
suffragist: an advocate of
voting rights, especially for women
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