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Beatific (adj.) vs. Beautiful (adj.)

A beatific person is one who radiates bliss. This person is so happy, they almost seem blessed and holy (think of a saint, or the Buddha). As for beautiful, well you may be beatific if you are beautiful, or you may be totally unhappy. The two words are totally unrelated. Marred by the ravages of time, the idols were hardly beautiful, yet each seemed to emanate a beatific aura that not even 500 years could diminish.

Perfunctory (adj.) vs. Preemptive (adj.) vs. Peremptory (adj.)

Ever done dishes before? As far as daily experiences go, this one represents the nadir for most. As a result, when we do dishes, we do them in a routine way. We are hardly inspired. To do something in such a manner is to be perfunctory. The word also carries with it the connotation of carelessness. That is, if you do something in which you are merely going through the motions, you are probably not doing your best (as far as my perfunctory dish-cleaning goes, my wife can attest to this). To act before someone else does is to act preemptively. Just as Martha was about to take the only cookie left on the table, Noah preemptively swiped it. Preemptive is often times heard in a political context. A country that strikes before another country can do so is launching a preemptive strike. If you are peremptory you are bossy and domineering. My sister used to peremptorily tell me to do the dishes, a chore I would either do perfunctorily or avoid doing altogether.

Histrionic (adj.) vs. History (n.)

Histrionic is totally unrelated to history. It comes from the Latin for actor. To be histrionic is not to have a penchant for bad Pacino or Brando imitations, but to be overly theatrical. Though she received a B- on the test, she had such a histrionic outburst that one would have thought that she'd been handed a death sentence.

Indigent (adj.) vs. Indigenous (adj.) vs. Indignant (adj.)

Indigent word means poor, having very little means. In the so-called Third World, many are indigent and only a privileged few have the wherewithal to enjoy material luxuries. Indigenous means relating to a certain area. Plants and animals are often indigenous, as are people. The flora and fauna indigenous to Australia are notably different from those indigenous to the U.S— one look at a duckbill platypus and you know you're not dealing with an opossum. Imagine you are waiting in line to order your morning coffee. Right as you are about to ask for a nice steaming cup, someone cuts in front of you and places an order for six people. How would you feel? Indignant. When you're indignant, you're angry about an unfair situation. If you discovered that a teacher gave ten extra points on a test to all students who sat in the front row, you'd be indignant. Indignant is from Latin indignus "unworthy," and it refers to anger based on unworthy or unfair behavior rather than merely injury to one's own interests. You may be angry, even furious, if someone shoves you, but you are indignant if the shove is directed at someone weak or helpless. The related noun is indignation, and something that arouses indignation is an indignity.

pernicious

Pernicious means harmful and subtle, such as a poison gas that causes cancer in those exposed to it over the course of years. Pernicious comes from the Latin perniciosus, for destructive, which in turn comes from pernicies, for death or ruin. You might have heard your parents and teachers talk about the pernicious effects of watching too much TV and playing video games all day--they'll turn your brain to mush. adj exceedingly harmful Synonyms:baneful, deadly, pestilentnoxious injurious to physical or mental health adj working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way Synonyms:insidious, subtleharmful causing or capable of causing harm

Censure (v.) vs. Censor (v.)

Speaking of beeping out the F-word, we have a synonym for expurgate: censor. Censure, the much more common GRE word, has nothing to do with removing objectionable words and/or material. However, if you decide to start dropping the F-bomb in public and I don't mean facetious then you can easily expect someone to censure you. To censure someone is to express strong disapproval of that person.

Miserly (adj.) vs. Frugal (adj.)

This is one of the most commonly confused pairs. These words, despite popular opinion, are not the same. Frugal has a positive connotation, i.e. you spend money wisely, and miserly has a negative connotation, i.e. you pinch every penny. Monte was no miser, but was simply frugal, wisely spending the little that he earned.

Errant (adj.) vs. Arrant (adj.) vs. Errand (n.) vs. Err (v.)

To be errant is to be wandering, not sticking to a circumscribed path. It can also connote deviating from accepted behavior or standards. Unlike his peers, who spent their hours studying in the library, Matthew preferred errant walks through the university campus to help his brain function. Arrant means complete and utter. It usually modifies a noun with a negative connotation, e.g. liar, fool, etc. An arrant fool, Lawrence surprised nobody when he lost all his money in a pyramid scheme that was every bit as transparent as it was corrupt. An errand is a small chore. Maria carried out her errands with dispatch, completing most before noon. To err is (surprise!) to make an error. He erred in thinking that errant and arrant were synonyms.

Demur (v.) vs. Demure (adj.)

To demur is a verb meaning to object or show reluctance. Wallace dislike the cold, so he demurred when his friends suggested they going skiing in the Alps. To be demure is to be modest and shy. This word is typically used to describe a woman, so don't call a man demure, as they will surely demur.

Expurgate (v.) vs. Expunge (v.)

To expurgate is to censor, to remove objectionable material. Usually, people talk about expurgating bad words from something written or on TV. On TV, if you hear some words bleeped out, those words have been expurgated. In print, we can expurgate by using dashes ( — — ) or random characters like %&$#. Sometimes we can expurgate just by rewriting something so that the entire sentence with the naughty parts is gone, or by putting it into mild words. When it comes to things children read or watch, there's often the difficult question of what to expurgate and what to leave alone. To expunge is to cross out or eliminate. After Nicholas proved he had been in school on the day in question, the absence was expunged from his record. Expunge is often something you do to a document. When government censors block out text in documents before making them public, they are expunging the text. You can also use the word in a more metaphorical sense. The principal tried to expunge all traces of bullying from the school by implementing a kindness initiative and treating all complaints as serious.

Prevaricate (v.) vs. Variance (n.)

To prevaricate is to speak in an evasive way. Prevaricate does not mean to vary before; indeed, it is totally unrelated to variance, which simply means the quality of varying. A good synonym for prevaricate is equivocate. And that's no lie. The cynic quipped, "There is not much variance in politicians; they all seem to prevaricate".

Ponderous (adj.) vs. Imponderable (adj./n.)

When you call Frankenstein ponderous, it's not because he likes to ponder the great questions of life. It's because he moves like a Mack truck, only slower and less gracefully. Ponderous also describes a person's manner, or their manner of speaking. If it does, this is a person you will want to avoid. They're solemn, speak slowly about things that are boring, and get to the punchline of a joke about seven years after anyone with half a brain has figured it out for themselves. Imponderable is not the opposite of ponderous. It actually relates to thinking. An imponderable is something that is impossible to estimate, fathom or figure out. Say a child was to ask, "How long would it take driving in a car to go from one end of the universe to the other? Unless you have a really big calculator and a very fast car the answer to this question would be imponderable.

Artless (adj.) vs. Artful (adj.) vs. Artifice (n.)

would be reserved for people like me who reached their artistic apotheosis with the drawing of stickfigures. Well, as far as the GRE is concerned, neither word relates to art (both in the lower case and upper case sense). To be artful means to be cunning and wily. To have artifice is to be artful read Dickens, and remember The Artful Dodger. The titular artful dodger did not have a penchant for watercolors, but was instead a devious, wily lad. This trait, presumably, allowed him to dodge tricky situations. If somebody is artless, on the other hand, that person is innocent, guileless. It should come as little surprise, then, that the literary canon is absent an artless dodger, as he would be too innocent and naive to dodge much of anything. Finally, artful and artless can refer back to the original usage of art. Therefore, Picasso is artful and I am artless. However, the GRE rarely, if ever, tests these definitions.