If You Get 29/35 on This Vocabulary Quiz, You Can Fake Your Way Through Harvard

By: Torrance Grey
Estimated Completion Time
2 min
If You Get 29/35 on This Vocabulary Quiz, You Can Fake Your Way Through Harvard
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About This Quiz

Vocabulary: It's so important that most college-entrance exams have a whole section devoted to it. And the pressure's not off once you get into university! Even if it's not really fair, people will judge you on how well you express yourself in job interviews, on dates and in day-to-day life. Unfortunately, the world is full of people who blow a gasket over use of the word "irregardless." Which, we'd like to point out, Merriam-Webster has recognized as a word!

Maybe you're one of those "irregardless"-hating persons. Maybe you've made a study of the English language. There's a lot to learn, and a lot to know. The English language is a mix of Latinate words  -- by way of the French language, which came over with the invading Normans in 1066 -- and earlier Anglo-Saxon words. But the diversity of vocabulary doesn't stop there. English later became the language of an empire, and in its global travels picked up words from the countries it colonized, like India. "Avatar" and "juggernaut" are among the Hindi terms. Some of English's mathematical terms come from Arabic, because of the Arab world's supremacy in math in Europe's Dark Ages.  

Whether you know etymological roots or not, we've got a quiz that'll test you on English's more obscure terms. Ready? Good luck!


Contempt:
curiosity
friendship
low status
scorn
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This word also has a legal meaning. "Contempt of court" is a charge that means a person is not cooperating as required with a court proceeding, and can result in jail time.

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Pugnacious:
credulous
eager to fight
mountainous
resembling a dog
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This word comes to us from the Latin "pugnare," or "to fight." It's related to the word "pugilist," a fancy term for "fighter."

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Paradox:
the last in a set of numbers
a commonly-repeated proverb
an organism that is half-developed
something that seems like it can't be true, but is
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A well-known one is the French paradox. The traditional French diet includes a lot of fat (oh, those cheeses!), but they have a low rate of heart disease. It's thought to have to do with their consumption of olive oil and red wine, smaller portions, and active lifestyles.

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Precocious:
advanced beyond one's years
lively
low-priced
high-priced
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

It's usually children or teenagers who are thought of as precocious. They could be clever, emotionally mature or unusually talented.

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Pensive:
dark-complexioned
athletic
humorous
thoughtful
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

If you got this one right off, you might have been helped by the "Harry Potter" books. Remember the "pensieve" in Dumbledore's study? It was where he held his memories for later review.

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Monocle:
a bike with one gear
a single-railed train track
an eyeglass for just one eye
a piece of land under sole ownership
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

When monocles went out of fashion, filmgoers were deprived of a great sight gag: the toff who is drinking at his club when a shocking sight makes his eyes widen and his monocle fall into his martini.

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Idiom:
train of thought, mental chatter
specific location
unknown cause
a way of speaking specific to a group or culture
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

What separates "idiom" from "dialect"? The second one is often geographical; "idiom" is for speakers united by something else. Gen-Zers might have a certain idiom; so would wine aficionados, and so on.

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Ersatz:
dark in color
fake
humorous
youthful
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This word comes to us from German, and gained popularity in the World Wars, where shortages required a number of "ersatz" products, like coffee and flour. (Thanks to Merriam-Webster's site for this bit of etymological trivia).

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Bosky:
frightening
like or of a forest
rotund
unlikely to be true
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The romantic poems of yesteryear are full of "bosky glades." It is etymologically related to "bush."

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Translucent:
between transparent and opaque
growing quickly
dimly lit
well-known
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This word uses the prefix "trans-" and the Latin word "lux" to mean a substance that lets light through, but is not transparent. You can only see through a translucent substance in a cloudy, obscure way.

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Palpate:
to compensate
to lift overhead
to understand completely
to touch or feel in an exploratory way
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

You most often find this used in a medical setting, like a doctor palpating for a tumor. However, it makes us wonder about the name of "Emperor Palpatine" in the Star Wars movies. Maybe he was a serial groper?

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Diurnal:
active in the daytime
happening once a week
frequent
vessel
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

"Diurnal" is the less-used companion to "nocturnal." Actually, it's used as frequently in animal biology and related fields, but it just hasn't made its way into everyday language the way "nocturnal" has, perhaps because of our fascination with night and its phenomena.

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Impervious:
completely resistant
short-lived
seen from a distance
tone-deaf
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

You might hear about a person being "impervious to criticism." It's also used in relation to water; for example, in water-repelling fabrics.

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Bawdy:
funny
fat
short
sexual in theme and tone
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Entertainments are usually described as "bawdy." Often, there's a comic sense to the word, but not necessarily. A dance revue where you'll see a lot of skin can be described as "bawdy" even if it's not funny.

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Collective:
expensive
attractive
pre-sorted
shared by a group
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

"Collective" is often used in the meaning of "workers' collective," in which a group shares both tasks and earnings. Or in "collective memory," an idea from psychology in which a group with a shared history has shared memories.

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Luster:
a glow or shine
a long trip
to prop up
to fail to understand
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This sounds like it could be a verb, but it's a noun. It's often used as the phrase, "lose its luster," meaning that the shine has gone off something once desirable.

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Bigamy:
division of cells
farsightedness
marriage to two people at once
talent for music
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

You might be more familiar with the term "polygamy," which means, "married to several people at once." That word comes up in the news whenever the government cracks down on a separatist religious group that practices it.

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Pre-empt:
to cause to not happen
to make a path smooth
to serve as as a prologue (in a movie or play)
to make space for something
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

You might be most familiar with this phrase as "pre-emptive strike." That term originated in military language, and means to attack an opponent before they attack you.

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Vernal:
related to autumn
related to spring
related to summer
related to winter
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This one is easy to remember because of the vernal equinox. That's the day in springtime when night and day are of equal length.

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Contrive:
to devise or create, usually with difficulty
to be dishonest
to survive
to think hard about (something)
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

If somebody "contrived" to get a job, you know it wasn't just a matter of filling out an application. This word can have a negative meaning: In a review, a movie's "contrived plot" is not a good thing.

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Cartographic:
having to do with cartoons
having to do with laws
having to do with maps
having to do with zoos
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A cartographer makes maps. The word comes from the French "carte," for "card," and is related to the name "Magna Carta."

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Autonomic:
related to vehicles
happening without conscious effort
happening regularly
the science of consciousness
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

When a bodily function is "autonomic," it happens without conscious control. Fun fact: Most people would say that the balancing of one's head on one's neck is autonomic, but it's not. What happens when you start to fall asleep in church or during a lecture? Your head tips over!

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Pristine:
fearful
in like-new condition
parabolic in shape
see-through
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

You'll often hear this word in the sense of "pristine beach" or "pristine forest." Some word lovers object to this because these parts of nature, no matter how clean, are millions of years old, and therefore not in "like-new" condition.

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Forego:
to encircle
to pass up (an opportunity or similar)
to precede
to prevent
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

"Forego" and "forgo" are often mixed up. The second term means "to pass up or give up" something. It's really unfair how alike these two words are.

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Parse:
to define narrowly or quibble over a definition
to be vigiliant
to feed generously
to trim back
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

"Parse" had a heyday during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Talking heads on cable news were always referring to "parsing" President Clinton's statements, especially, "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."

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Promulgate:
to discount
to seek promotion or advancement
to promote or spread
irresponsible with money
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This word gained unexpected prominence in mid-2018 when President Trump used it in a tweet. He used it in relations to "Fake News," which should surprise no one following the president's Twitter feed.

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Vernacular:
informal language
related to nearsightedness
related to farsightedness
perfectly round
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Surprise! This is not an adjective, despite the -r ending. Vernacular is everyday or nonstandard language, but not quite slang. For example, "parameter" is a specific word from computer science, but in everyday speech, it just means a defining boundary.

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Canoodle:
to consume alcohol only lightly
to make an absurd suggestion
to make out or cuddle
to splash around in a bath or pond
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This old-fashioned and whimsical word doesn't get a lot of use today. It still comes into play as a euphemism, when the speaker can't bring himself or herself to say anything more explicit.

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Cerulean:
ocean blue
easily broken
old-fashioned
sincere
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

"Cerulean" often comes into play describing the ocean or a sea. But you'll also find it in romantic novels, usually describing a heroine's eye color.

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Tertiary:
coming third in order
related to soil
high-risk
low-risk
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

We're used to hearing "primary" and "secondary," especially in medical settings. However, if you hear someone refer to a "tertiary effect," it's one that comes third in severity, or perhaps third in time of onset.

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Stellate:
beautiful
extraordinary
ordinary
shaped like a star
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Don't confuse this with "stellar." That more broadly used term means "like or of a star" and can also mean "outstanding." But "stellate" is specifically for star-shaped things. Exit wounds from gunshots, for example, can be stellate.

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Choleric:
quick to laugh
given to anger
thin
round
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

"Choler" was one of the four bodily "humours" that supposedly gave people their dispositions -- at least, according to early European thought. Choler was a fluid which, if it was dominant in one's body, made a person quick to get angry.

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Defenestrate:
to repel an attacker
to unclog, as in a sink
to unwrap, as in a gift
to throw from a window
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This comes to us from the Latin 'finistra,' meaning window. In early modern Europe, unpopular political leaders were sometimes killed by defenestration; it was like an early-retirement plan without the golden parachute.

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Parvenu:
a cooking method involving steaming
a glade of trees and bushes
a person who enjoys watching sports
a person who is new to having money or position
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The French call this either "arriviste" or "noveau riche." It's the sort of person who can afford the sailboat, but doesn't fit in at the Marina Club.

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Peripatetic:
bristly
half-asleep
in love
traveling widely
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Aristotle and his disciples were known as the peripatetic philosophers, not because they traveled widely, but because they walked back and forth as they debated. To this day, "peripatetic" the common adjective is as likely to mean "walking a lot" as it is "globetrotting."

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You Got:
/35
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