Up Your Score (18 page)

If you believed the above sentence, you sure are
gullible
.

The three Billy Goats
Gruff
met in the
gloaming
near the bridge.

“I’m really scared of that
gruesome
troll,” Billy Goat 1 said,
gesticulating
toward the bridge. “Despite her
gossamer
gown, she doesn’t seem too
gregarious
.”

“I won’t
gainsay
that, and I heard her
gourmet
appetite includes a
grisly
taste for goat’s hooves!” BG 2 added nervously. “I really don’t like
gratuitous
violence.”

“Cowards!” BG 3
gibed
. “I don’t listen to non
germane
garbled
gibberish
that only
gullible
fools like you would believe. I bet that troll is really a cool gal. Watch me cross that bridge!”

“You have a
grandiose
opinion of yourself, but you’re really pretty dumb. So long, bud,” Goat 1 replied with a
grimace
, anticipating the
graphic
goat-mutilation horror that soon followed.

overused; trite

The plot of the movie
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
was
hackneyed
. It was just another horror movie about an axe murderer who
hacked knees
off.

unruly; wild; wasted; worn

After a long voyage with the Vikings,
Hagar
the Horrible looked
haggard
.

holy; sacred

I was hanging out in the cemetery, but I didn’t know I was on hollowed
hallowed
ground until I fell into a grave.

mean, nasty, angry speech (think: a speech that is so loud it impairs your
hearing
)

The zookeeper gave us a lengthy
harangue
about feeding the
orang
utan.

forerunner; something that signals the approach of something; omen

Some words have only one sentence in which they are ever used. The sentence for
harbinger
is: “The robin is the
harbinger
of spring.”

proud; vain; arrogant

He thinks he’s
hot. He
shouldn’t be so
haughty
.

the philosophy of trying to be happy all the time; a funky state of being in which you do your own thing and don’t worry about morality

one who follows the philosophy of hedonism

Note:
Compare these words to STOICISM and STOIC, which are their respective opposites.

You are being a stoic by studying for the SAT so that you can get into college and spend four years being a
hedonist
.

grossly wicked; vile; odious

The scarecrows said, “Because we have
hay in us
, it is a
heinous
crime to invite us to a bonfire.”

social pecking order

As Heather moved
higher
up the
high
school
hierarchy
, she realized that popularity was not all it’s cracked up to be. (This sentence was based on an after-school special.)

hairy (pronounced “her-suit”)

He was
hirsute
in his ape costume, which was really just a
hair
suit
. He borrowed it from his girlfriend Rapunzel; it was
her
suit
.

gray or white from age; old

When someone who is hirsute gets old, he is hairy and
hoary
.

sermonlike speech

The
homely
preacher delivered a
homily
.

a word that sounds like another word but has a different meaning

The German word
sechs,
meaning “six,” is a
homonym
of the English word
sex,
meaning “sex.”

The
hirsute
young priest was preparing his
homily
, and he needed advice from the
hoary
haggard
pastor.

“I gotta give a good talk so I can move up in the church
hierarchy
,” he explained. “Can you help me?”

“You speak on
hallowed
ground,” the pastor began, “so don’t
harangue
and be not
haughty
. Don’t forget to condemn
heinous
hedonism
, though. A good public response to your sermon will be a
harbinger
of your advancement.” The priest worked all night, searching for
hackneyed
expressions and hip
homonyms
. But when dawn came he just said, “Oh, the heck with it.”

destroyer of tradition

When the pope decided that celibacy should no longer be required of the clergy, protesters outside his window yelled “down with the
iconoclast
” while the pope screamed, “
I cannot last
.”

not noble

In Orwell’s
Animal Farm,
the
ignoble
pig nobles
ruin the barnyard utopia.

characterized by
ignominy

dishonor; disgrace

They suffered an
ignominious
defeat.

He couldn’t bear the
ignominy
of getting a 600 on the SAT.

Two similar words:

to drink in; absorb

to make wet; to saturate; to inspire

If you
imbibe
the meanings of all these words you will be
imbued
with wisdom.

about to occur; impending

Note:
Don’t confuse imminent with
eminent,
which means “famous.”

I’m in ent
ertainment and my curtain call is
imminent
.

Note:
The best way to learn this word is to learn the root
mut
, which means “change.” Then you can decode
immutable
to mean “not changeable.” You will also realize that
mutable
= “changeable,”
mutation
= “a change,” and trans
mute
= “to change from one form to another.”

“A fat person uses more soap than a skinny person” is one of the
immutable
laws of physics.

to pierce with a sharp stake or point

The
imp paled
when we took a spike and
impaled
the mushroom he was sitting on.

dead end (think: impassable)

If you are trying to pick someone up, and none of your
passes
is working, you have reached an
impasse
.

without emotion; expressionless

“It looks as if I’ve reached an
impasse
,” Bart muttered
impassively
as he slammed into the brick wall on his skateboard.

flawless and faultless; not capable of sin

Woody is not an
impeccable
woodpecker; he is always making mistakes.

about to take place (see
IMMINENT
)

The dwarf cowered behind Snow White, sensing
imp-ending
doom.

domineering

The
emper
or was
imperious
.

not
prop
er; not displaying
propriety

Howard Stern was fined by the FCC for his
impropriety
.

Here are two words that are sure to confuse you:

to attack as false; criticize

immunity
from
pun
ishment

“You will not have
impunity
if you
impugn
my character with such impudence,” shouted Michael at Manek when Manek suggested that he was speaking oddly.

nonstop; ceaseless

Her
incessant
chatter forced me to throw her
in
to a
cess
pool.

incomplete; only partly in existence or operation

His plan to trek to Saudi Arabia was
inchoate
; he was still only
in Kuwait
.

to arouse; instigate

As soon as the Jonas Brothers came back
in sight
, their groupies’ cheering
incited
the crowd to
ignite
their lighters and demand an encore.

in disguise so as not to be recognized

Note:
Remember the root word “cog”? Well, this is another example of it: