• Exculpate: To exculpate is to set a person free from blame. It also means to clear charges cast against a person, to declare that the person is innocent and free from the accusation made against him. Can you think of any such situation wherein a person was initially charged for a crime and later exculpated? Please do think on this and share with us. Either here or the forums.

• Deprecate: To deprecate is to censure something. Did not get it? OK it means to criticize something severely and giving out the reasons for the criticism too. It usually happens during elections in any democratic country, where in political parties denounce each other to highlight their own position. Well, the other synonyms for the word are deplore, denigrate etc.

• Carp: Do you know nitpicking? It is all about nagging, taunting, grumbling. When a person carps he/she tries to find faults unreasonably. A person who does that becomes a pain in others’ neck. People usually avoid people who carp.

• Extol: To extol is to praise in an excessive way. To extol the beauty of Tintern Abbey is to praise the beauty of Tintern Abbey in an excessive way. The other synonyms of the word are praise, commend, eulogize and worship.

• Aggrandize: Aggrandize is a beautiful word. You can in fact deduce the meaning of it intelligently, in case you do not know the right meaning. It’s like this: Grand means something that is majestic and imposing. Ag -a prefix means to strengthen, magnify something. –ize- a suffix, shows the process involved. I guess now you will never forget the word. Aggrandize is to increase the intensity of something. It also means to strengthen, magnify and exalt something to greater heights.

• Extricate: Extricate is to set something free. It means to disentangle something, also untangle. It’s also liberating a gas from a combination of chemicals. For example: The process extricates Hydrogen Sulphide. It means the process liberates that particular gas. Hope you all got it right.

• Filch: To filch is to steal something that has a minor value. Something like filching spoons and forks in small restaurants, filching ashtrays in coffee shops etc. The word ‘filch’ has some interesting synonyms. They are purloin, pilfer, pinch, snaffle, lift, swipe etc.

• Badger: To badger is to urge a person over something persistently. It might be something close to vexing, pester, and nag. Some other synonyms of this word that usually appear in GRE are chagrin, vexation, mortification etc.

These words are to be worked on. Spend some qualitative time with them imagining various situations wherein you can apply them effectively. Share all those situations with us. Use them in the form of meaningful sentences. These words certainly and frequently keep appearing in GRE (Antonyms, Analogies and Sentence Completion). Try to recollect or conjure many visuals that relate to a specific word from the above list.

Some GRE Vocabulary Aerobics:

Do not just read but work on these words. Use a notebook to jot them down and a dictionary to understand the meaning and the context better. As I always tell: Utter the words aloud- each word five times!!

Things you should never forget:

1. Work with the word.

2. Expand its meaning into a suitable context.

3. Relate it to the person or situation you know.

4. Share the word with your friends, colleagues

5. Try to pronounce the word aloud at least five times

These words help you make or break GRE. It all depends on your level of interest. If you dream bigger and louder you will learn them with a lot of commitment and passion, or you will fall a prey to some ineffective, lackluster techniques. The choice is obviously yours, for the future is yours, Do get back to us with queries in case you have any. And do share with us some high frequency GRE words that you know.

Wishing you all, success!!

Regards,

Anu Veluri

Manager- learnwordlist.com