A Glance at SAT Vocabulary List: 20 Most Common Words

The SAT Vocabulary (words in context) section consists of questions that test a student's vocabulary skills. These words generally appear as a part of the reading passages with context clues.

The SAT is designed to make things tricky, but practicing with an SAT vocabulary book can help you ace the section. A general vocabulary preparation book may have at least 300 to 500 most commonly asked words. Students should not follow the approach of cramming difficult words to build an SAT vocabulary list. They should focus on familiarizing (not memorizing) and implementing innovative vocabulary words in their daily use.

SAT Vocabulary Words with Meaning and Sentences 

Below is an SAT vocabulary list of the 35 most common words that appear during the examination. The meaning of each word, along with a sentence using the same, is given. 

1. Abate 

Meaning – to lessen in intensity 

Sentence – The airlines expected the storm to abate in an hour, after which flight operations could resume. 

2. Accede 

Meaning – to give one’s consent to a demand

Sentence – His seniors did not accede to his request for a deadline extension. 

3. Berate 

Meaning – to scold in anger 

Sentence – The car owner berated his chauffeur for the theft. 

4. Cacophony 

Meaning – harsh and jarring to the ears

Sentence – The cacophony from across the street made it difficult for her to concentrate on the work. 

5. Diluvial 

Meaning – associated with floods

Sentence – The diluvial rain converted the dry and barren land into a mini lake.  

6. Catalyst 

Meaning – a thing or a person acting as a stimulus 

Sentence – Her controversial speech acted as a catalyst for a heated debate. 

7. Dearth 

Meaning – shortage or scarcity

Sentence – The dearth of customer information made it difficult for the company to improvise the product. 

8. Emulate 

Meaning – to imitate something 

Sentence – The company introduced some new measures to emulate the success of its competitor firm. 

9. Epochal 

Meaning – momentous 

Sentence – Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation worldwide was an epochal voyage in history. 

10. Fictive 

Meaning – a figment of one’s imagination

Sentence – Alice found that writing fictive stories gave her more joy than autobiographies. 

11. Flippant 

Meaning – frivolous and shallow 

Sentence – Her flippant attitude signified a lack of understanding of the gravity of the situation. 

12. Gregarious 

Meaning – relating to someone who is social 

Sentence – Dolphins are gregarious creatures who form strong bonds with others of the same species. 

13. Gauche 

Meaning – socially awkward or gawky 

Sentence – Sabrina’s gauche table manners, especially talking with a mouth full of food, made others cringe. 

14. Hubris 

Meaning – self-conceit or excessive pride

Sentence – He made much progress as long as he was humble, but the hubris of fame has led to his downfall. 

15. Jocular    

Meaning – Funny and humorous

Sentence – Seema has many friends in school, given her cheerful, jocular, and kind manners.

16. Lexicon

Meaning – vocabulary

Sentence – The contemporary English lexicon consists of many words that the great William Shakespeare coined.

17. Knave

Meaning – a scoundrel or dishonest person

Sentence – The church knave volunteered to work only to have access to the offering box.

18. Lackadaisical

Meaning – with a general sense of disinterest

Sentence – The restaurant’s delectable food could not compensate for the lackadaisical customer service.

 19. Lachrymose

Meaning – teary-eyed 

Sentence – Ishan, the music composer, is more famous for lachrymose ballads than hip-hop or jazz.

 20. Malfeasance

Meaning – wrongdoing committed by a public official

Sentence – Despite being accused of malfeasance, the two officials were not tried until several years later. 

21. Modicum

Meaning – a tiny quantity of

Sentence – People laughed at him, knowing that his story did not have a modicum of truth.

 22. Necromancy

Meaning – black magic 

Sentence – The cottage had been locked up for ages and its walls reeked of necromancy.

 23. Nihilism

Meaning – the belief that life is purposeless 

Sentence – Rita lived with a sense of nihilism and apathy after losing her mother.

 24. Obfuscate

Meaning – being unclear or confusing

Sentence – She was disqualified from the annual debate as her arguments tend to obfuscate the main topic.

 25. Ostracize

Meaning – to be shunned from society

Sentence – Her radical political views had her ostracized from the community.

 26. Paramount

Meaning – supremacy over anything else

Sentence – Giving work-life balance paramount importance, the company introduced a four-day workweek.

 27. Polyglot

Meaning – someone who is fluent in multiple languages

Sentence – Anita, a polyglot, was hired as a US government translator.

 28. Patrician

Meaning – someone who belongs to the aristocracy

Sentence – The people bowed in reverence as they perceived the presence of a fellow patrician.

 29. Rancor

Meaning – long-standing bitterness

Sentence – Everyone in the court was astonished as she responded to her accusers without rancor.

 30. Refute

Meaning – to prove something to be false 

Sentence – The prosecutor refuted the alibi of the defendant with circumstantial evidence.

 31. Revile

Meaning – to insult or criticize someone harshly

Sentence – The students worked silently, in fear of being reviled by the professor.

 32. Sanctimonious

Meaning – a self-righteous attitude

Sentence – His sanctimonious sense of self-made him blind to his shortcomings.

 33. Sinecure

Meaning – an easy job

Sentence – Being the son of the company’s CEO, Sushant was given a sinecure.

34. Sybarite

Meaning – someone who loves indulgence and luxury

Sentence – He could not stand being in a non-air-conditioned office, having been raised as a sybarite by his parents.

 35.  Scrupulous

Meaning – paying careful attention to details

Sentence – His scrupulous research enabled him to create the best project in class.

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