SAT Vocabulary Word List – the 100 most important words you must know

What is the SAT?

The SAT is an annual standardized test for admission to American universities and colleges. The test is intended to provide comparability in the study ability of prospective students, as the American school system is inconsistent. The test is carried out by the non-profit organization College Board.

The abbreviation stands for

SAT = Scholastic Assessment Test.

The test has been taken for over 100 years and is almost always mandatory for American students. Each of the three sections of the general SAT is scored from 200 to 800. The maximum score is the sum of the individual scores.

SAT Sections

The test lasts a total of 2 hours and 24 minutes (including a 10-minute break) and is divided into 3 sections:

Mathematics : For the most part, there are multiple choice
questions as well as some tasks without given answer options.

Critical reading : This section is based on text passages and focuses on the test taker’s ability to read through and interpret them to answer multiple-choice questions. Some of the questions relate to a word’s meaning in the context of the passages, so having a strong vocabulary (in addition to good reading comprehension skills) will help you ace this section of the test.

Writing : The task here is to write an essay and correct sentences in the context of the whole paragraph or text. The passages to be read are generally shorter than in the Reading section.

In addition to the main areas, there are other subject-specific test areas, the so-called SAT Subject tests (duration 60min)

Preparation through SAT Wordlists

To increase the score of your test, it is recommended to learn essential vocabulary words and their definitions several months in advance by using word lists. Certain words are likely to appear repeatedly on the SAT. If you expand your vocabulary with the most important SAT words, you will understand the questions better and be able to answer more eloquently. In addition, your newly acquired vocabulary will help you in your future college and work life.

What are the 100 most common SAT words?

Here is a list of the most common SAT words that are often tested on the SAT vocabulary exam.

Word	Definition	Example
Abandon	give up completely	“We had to abandon the car.”
Abate	become less intense or widespread	“Gains in oil prices are unlikely to abate within the next few months.”
Abet	encourage or assist	“In these circumstances, physicians can play a crucial role if they choose to abet draft evasion.”
Accede	accent or agree to a demand	"He graciously acceded to our request."
Berate	scold or criticize	"As he left the meeting, he was berated by angry demonstrators."
Bovine	of or relating to cattle	“a bovine virus”
Braggart	a person who boasts about achievements	"They carried themselves offhandedly, like connoisseurs and braggarts."
Burnish	polish by rubbing	"The company is currently trying to burnish its socially responsible image."
Cache	a collection of similar items stored in a secret place	"a cache of weapons"
Cacophony	harsh discordant mixture of sounds	"What a cacophony!"
Catalyst	substance the increases the rate of chemical reaction	"The high suicide rate acted as a catalyst for change in the prison system."
Censorious	severely critical of others	"his censorious attitude to those who do not share his opinions"
Dearth	scarcity or lack of something	"a dearth of new homes in the region"
Demagogue	a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires rather than reason	“Twenty-six years ago it was my privilege to fight the greatest and most able demagogue this country has yet produced.”
Diluvial	of or relating to a flood	"He made no mention of fossils, but inspired other diluvial theories that did."
Dispassionate	not influenced by strong emotion	“He spoke in the flat, dispassionate tone of a lecturer.”
Effluvia	an unpleasant or harmful odor	“The ravioli without their pustular effluvia are rather nice.”
Emulate	match or surpass	“Sons are traditionally expected to emulate their fathers.”
Epochal	extremely significant	“It took on an epochal importance, which is worthy of more detailed investigation.”
Expound	explain or present	“Schmidt continued to expound his views on economics and politics.”
Facile	appearing comprehensive by ignoring the complexities of the situation	“This subject is admittedly too complex for facile summarization.”
Fictive	created by imagination	“She has developed two fictive female characters”
Flippant	not showing serious attitude	"Don't be flippant! This is serious!"
Gauche	lacking grace	“We're all a bit gauche when we're young.”
Gregarious	outgoing or social	“She is such a gregarious and outgoing person.”
Grotto	small cave or cave-like structure	"Water trickles through an underground grotto."
Hedonist	person who believes the pursuit of pleasure is the most important aspect of life	"He gets bored with his hedonist lifestyle, but can't escape from it either."
Heretical	practicing religious heresy	"The Church regards spirit mediums and people claiming to speak to the dead as heretical."
Hubris	excessive pride	"Commissioning one seems an act of hubris."
Hypocrite	a person who says one thing and does another	"The magazine wrongly suggested he was a liar and a hypocrite."
Ignoble	not honorable in character	"A monster consists of brutal, ignoble and vile thought forces."
Imbibe	drink alcohol	“They were used to imbibing enormous quantities of alcohol.”
Imperious	assuming power without justification	"Her attitude is imperious at times."
Importunate	persistant	"His secretary shielded him from importunate visitors."
Jettison	throw or drop for an airplane or ship	"The crew jettisoned excess fuel and made an emergency landing."
Jocular	humorous or playful	"He was in a less jocular mood than usual."
Junta	military group that rules after taking by force	"The one good result was that the military junta could not hope to stay in power much longer."
Kismet	destiny	"Adan and I were meant for each other. It was kismet."
Lexicon	vocabulary of a person	"I suspect that there is a new phrase entering the lexicon as well."
Licentious	immoral	“…licentious dancing on the dance floor..”
Limber	flexible	"I need to limber my fingers before playing the piano."
Loquacious	talkative	"She was, after all, an American woman summarizing the views of the loquacious French, mostly men."
Malapropism	mistaken use of a word in place of a similar sounding word	"He has a tendency to use malapropisms and misinterpret figures of speech."
Malfeasance	wrongdoing	"The criminal charges are obstruction of justice and malfeasance in office."
Mawkish	sentimental in a sickening way	"The stories are so silly and sentimental and mawkish anyway."
Misnomer	wrong or inaccurate name in designation	"Herbal 'tea' is something of a misnomer because these drinks contain no tea at all."
Modicum	small or minimal portion	"I'd like to think I've had a modicum of success."
Mote	tiny piece of a substance	"Bolls at the middle and top parts of the plant had lower mote frequencies than bolls at the bottom of the plant."
Necromancy	practice of communicating with the dead	“Practices such as these, varying from the mundane to the grotesque, were commonly associated with necromancy.”
Nihilism	rejection of religion	"Why should a great community like a university be afraid of nihilism?"
Nomenclature	the choosing of names for things	"…the internationally agreed rules of chemical nomenclature."
Novel	fictitious prose narrative	“...historical novels set in the time of the Pharaohs.”
Obfuscate	to confuse	"They are obfuscating the issue, as only insurance companies can."
Olfactory	of or relating to the sense of smell	“This olfactory sense develops in the womb.”
Opprobrious	compressing scorn	"We denied the opprobrious charges published against us."
Ostracize	exclude from a society or group	"His colleagues ostracized him after he criticized the company in public."
Palatial	resembling a palace	"They lived in a palatial apartment."
Pandemic	disease prevalent over an entire country or multiple countries	"In some parts of the world malaria is still pandemic."
Paramount	more important than anything else	"There are many priorities, but reducing the budget deficit is of paramount importance."
Patrician	an aristocrat	"He nodded firmly, acknowledging the presence of a fellow patrician."
Polyglot	knowing or using several languages	“He was reading a polyglot bible, with the text in English, Latin and Greek.”
Prestidigitation	magic tricks performed for entertainment	“Blaine's feats of prestidigitation mesmerize audiences.”
Provincial	of or concerning a province or country	"Jeremy, was the house manager for a provincial theatre for ten years."
Rancor	bitterness or resentfulness	“They cheated me, but I feel no rancor against them.”
Rarefy	to make or become more dense or solid	“…the rarefied mountain air”
recapitulate	summarize and state again the main points	“Let's just recapitulate the essential points.”
Refute	prove to be wrong or false	“It was the kind of rumour that it is impossible to refute.”
Repose	a state of rest	"He had a still, almost blank face in repose."
Resilient	able to withstand	“They had to demonstrate resilience.”
Revile	criticize in an abusive manner	“He was just as feared and reviled as his tyrannical parents.”
Rife	of common occurrence	“Dysentery and malaria are rife in the refugee camps.”
Sanctimonious	making a show of being morally superior	“To people outside, some of us may appear to be sanctimonious. ”
Scrupulous	diligent attention to details	“The nurse told him to be scrupulous about keeping the wound clean.”
Sedition	conduct or speech inciting people to rebel	"He himself was tried for sedition and sentenced to ten years in jail."
Sinecure	position requiring little or no work	"I never thought of my job as a sinecure."
Stint	supply inadequate amount of something	“He has just finished a stint of compulsory military service.”
Sybarite	self indulgent person	"Morocco is a haven for backpackers and sybarites alike."
Tawdry	showy but cheap	“...tawdry jewellery.”
Tenacious	keep a firm hold on something	"The baby took my finger in its tenacious little fist."
Terse	sparing in use of words	""No!" was the terse reply."
Tout	attempt to sell something by aggressively pestering	"The minister has been touting these ideas for some time."
Trounce	defeat heavily in a contest	“He trounced his rivals in the election.”
Tutelage	authority over someone or something	“Under the tutelage of Professor Roberts, the 900 delegates assessed and discussed the social market economy.”
Unconscionable	not right or reasonable	“To make people feel shame or guilt for being ill is unconscionable.”
Untoward	unexpected	"Unless anything untoward happens we should arrive just before midday."
Usury	lending money at unlawful rates	"The payday loans, exempt from usury laws, carry an annual interest rate of 390%. "
Vehemently	showing strong feeling	"The president has vehemently denied having an extra-marital affair."
Veritable	using as an intensifier	“My garden had become a veritable jungle by the time I came back from holiday.”
Vilify	write or speak in an abusively disparaging way	"He was vilified by the press as a monster."
Vociferous	vehement	"A vociferous opponent of gay rights, he is well-known for his right-wing views."
Wan	pale with appearance of illness	"All she could manage was a thin, wan smile."
Wield	hold and use typically a weapon or tool	“..a lone assailant wielding a kitchen knife.”
Winsome	attractive appearance or character	“She gave him her best winsome smile.”
Wry	using dry or mocking humor	“A wry sense of humor.”
Xenophobe	fear or dislike for people of different countries	"He has been denounced as a xenophobe and an extreme nationalist."
Yeoman	a man holding and cultivating a field	“As a result, the number of yeomen was halved.”
Yen	Japanese monetary unit	“She earns 400,000 yen a month as an English teacher in Tokyo.”
Yowl	loud waining cry	"On the hills, the foxes yowled and yelped."
Zenith	peak	"The summer sun was at its zenith in a cloudless sky."
Zephyr	soft gentle breeze	"So far it has only been a gentle zephyr."

How Important Are SAT Vocab Words?

Even though isolated vocabulary items are no longer asked since 2016, the SAT word lists are still important to achieve good results on the test. Vocabulary is still asked in the reading and writing sections, but vocabulary is now asked in the context of text passages.

SAT Reading Section

The reading sections include questionnaires that may contain unknown words, as well as the corresponding answers. The texts to be read are also written by several authors. They can come from literature but also from natural, social or world history. Thus, there will be some words that you will not know right away. Again, it is very helpful to prepare yourself with the word lists.

SAT Writing Section

The writing section is all about your editing and proofreading skills. Unlike the reading section, all writing passages are non-fiction in the form of narratives, arguments, and explanatory texts.

The main task in the writing section is to proofread words and sentences in these passages. The following skills will be asked: Reasoning, Words in context, Expression of ideas, Standard English conventions.

Thus, the SAT Wordlists are also of great importance here.

How do I improve my SAT vocabulary?

Besides the important SAT word lists, other preparations for the test are useful:

read a lot - books, newspaper, magazines, everything is helpful and pay special attention to unknown words
practice with flashcards - use little cards and write down new words to memorize them better
use general dictionaries - in addition to word lists because it is better to memorize different definitions of words
practice reading passages - use official SAT practice tests. College Board offers mock SAT tests with many realistic reading passages that mimic the style and form of the passages.