SAT Vocabulary Page 24

• pretext n. A fictitious reason or motive.
• prevalence n. Frequency.
• prevalent adj. Of wide extent or frequent occurrence.
• prevaricate v. To use ambiguous or evasive language for the purpose of deceiving or diverting attention.
• prevention n. Thwarting.
• prickle v. To puncture slightly with fine, sharp points.
• priggish adj. Conceited.
• prim adj. Stiffly proper.
• prima adj. First.
• primer n. An elementary reading-book for children.
• primeval adj. Belonging to the first ages.
• primitive adj. Pertaining to the beginning or early times.
• principal adj. Most important.
• principality n. The territory of a reigning prince.
• principle n. A general truth or proposition.
• priory n. A monastic house.
• pristine adj. Primitive.
• privateer n. A vessel owned and officered by private persons, but carrying on maritime war.
• privilege n. A right or immunity not enjoyed by all, or that may be enjoyed only under special
• conditions.
• privity n. Knowledge shared with another or others regarding a private matter.
• privy adj. Participating with another or others in the knowledge of a secret transaction.
• probate adj. Relating to making proof, as of a will.
• probation n. Any proceeding designed to ascertain or test character, qualification, or the like.
• probe v. To search through and through.
• probity n. Virtue or integrity tested and confirmed.
• procedure n. A manner or method of acting.
• proceed v. To renew motion or action, as after rest or interruption.
• proclamation n. Any announcement made in a public manner.
• procrastinate v. To put off till tomorrow or till a future time.
• procrastination n. Delay.
• proctor n. An agent acting for another.
• prodigal n. One wasteful or extravagant, especially in the use of money or property.
• prodigious adj. Immense.
• prodigy n. A person or thing of very remarkable gifts or qualities.
• productive adj. Yielding in abundance.
• profession n. Any calling or occupation involving special mental or other special disciplines.
• professor n. A public teacher of the highest grade in a university or college.
• proffer v. To offer to another for acceptance.
• proficiency n. An advanced state of acquirement, as in some knowledge, art, or science.
• proficient adj. Possessing ample and ready knowledge or of skill in any art, science, or industry.
• profile n. An outline or contour.
• profiteer n. One who profits.
• profligacy n. Shameless viciousness.
• profligate adj. Abandoned to vice.
• profuse adj. Produced or displayed in overabundance.
• progeny n. Offspring.
• progression n. A moving forward or proceeding in course.
• prohibition n. A decree or an order forbidding something.
• prohibitionist n. One who favors the prohibition by law of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic
• beverages.
• prohibitory adj. Involving or equivalent to prohibition, especially of the sale of alcoholic beverages.
• projection n. A prominence.
• proletarian n. A person of the lowest or poorest class.
• prolific adj. Producing offspring or fruit.
• prolix adj. Verbose.
• prologue n. A prefatory statement or explanation to a poem, discourse, or performance.
• prolong v. To extend in time or duration.
• promenade v. To walk for amusement or exercise.
• prominence n. The quality of being noticeable or distinguished.
• prominent adj. Conspicuous in position, character, or importance.
• promiscuous adj. Brought together without order, distinction, or design (for sex).
• promissory adj. Expressing an engagement to pay.
• promontory n. A high point of land extending outward from the coastline into the sea.
• promoter n. A furtherer, forwarder, or encourager.
• promulgate v. To proclaim.
• propaganda n. Any institution or systematic scheme for propagating a doctrine or system.
• propagate v. To spread abroad or from person to person.
• propel v. To drive or urge forward.
• propellant adj. Propelling.
• propeller n. One who or that which propels.
• prophecy n. Any prediction or foretelling.
• prophesy v. To predict or foretell, especially under divine inspiration and guidance.
• propitious adj. Kindly disposed.
• proportionate adj. Being in proportion.
• propriety n. Accordance with recognized usage, custom, or principles.
• propulsion n. A driving onward or forward.
• prosaic adj. Unimaginative.
• proscenium n. That part of the stage between the curtain and the orchestra.
• proscribe v. To reject, as a teaching or a practice, with condemnation or denunciation.
• proscription n. Any act of condemnation and rejection from favor and privilege.
• proselyte n. One who has been won over from one religious belief to another.
• prosody n. The science of poetical forms.
• prospector n. One who makes exploration, search, or examination, especially for minerals.
• prospectus n. A paper or pamphlet containing information of a proposed undertaking.
• prostrate adj. Lying prone, or with the head to the ground.
• protagonist n. A leader in any enterprise or contest.
• protection n. Preservation from harm, danger, annoyance, or any other evil.
• protective adj. Sheltering.
• protector n. A defender.
• protege n. One specially cared for and favored by another usually older person.
• Protestant n. A Christian who denies the authority of the Pope and holds the right of special judgment.
• protomartyr n. The earliest victim in any cause.
• protocol n. A declaration or memorandum of agreement less solemn and formal than a treaty.
• protoplasm n. The substance that forms the principal portion of an animal or vegetable cell.
• prototype n. A work, original in character, afterward imitated in form or spirit.
• protract v. To prolong.
• protrude v. To push out or thrust forth.
• protrusion n. The act of protruding.
• protuberance n. Something that swells out from a surrounding surface.
• protuberant adj. Bulging.
• protuberate v. To swell or bulge beyond the surrounding surface.
• proverb n. A brief, pithy saying, condensing in witty or striking form the wisdom of experience.
• provident adj. Anticipating and making ready for future wants or emergencies.
• providential adj. Effected by divine guidance.
• provincial adj. Uncultured in thought and manner.
• proviso n. A clause in a contract, will, etc., by which its operation is rendered conditional.
• provocation n. An action or mode of conduct that excites resentment.
• prowess n. Strength, skill, and intrepidity in battle.
• proximately adv. Immediately.
• proxy n. A person who is empowered by another to represent him or her in a given matter.
• prudence n. Caution.
• prudential adj. Proceeding or marked by caution.
• prudery n. An undue display of modesty or delicacy.
• prurient adj. Inclined to lascivious thoughts and desires.
• pseudapostle n. A pretended or false apostle.
• pseudonym n. A fictitious name, especially when assumed by a writer.
• pseudonymity n. The state or character of using a fictitious name.
• psychiatry n. The branch of medicine that relates to mental disease.
• psychic adj. Pertaining to the mind or soul.
• psychopathic adj. Morally irresponsible.
• psychotherapy n. The treatment of mental disease.
• pudgy adj. Small and fat.
• puerile adj. Childish.
• pugnacious adj. Quarrelsome.
• puissant adj. Possessing strength.
• pulmonary adj. Pertaining to the lungs.
• punctilious adj. Strictly observant of the rules or forms prescribed by law or custom.
• punctual adj. Observant and exact in points of time.
• pungent adj. Affecting the sense of smell.
• pungency n. The quality of affecting the sense of smell.
• punitive adj. Pertaining to punishment.
• pupilage n. The state or period of being a student.
• purgatory n. An intermediate state where souls are made fit for paradise or heaven by expiatory suffering.
• purl v. To cause to whirl, as in an eddy.
• purloin v. To steal.
• purport n. Intent.
• purveyor n. one who supplies
• pusilanimous adj. Without spirit or bravery.
• putrescent adj. Undergoing decomposition of animal or vegetable matter accompanied by fetid odors.
• pyre n. A heap of combustibles arranged for burning a dead body.
• pyromania n. An insane propensity to set things on fire.
• pyrotechnic adj. Pertaining to fireworks or their manufacture.
• pyx n. A vessel or casket, usually of precious metal, in which the host is preserved.
• quackery n. Charlatanry
• quadrate v. To divide into quarters.
• quadruple v. To multiply by four.
• qualification n. A requisite for an employment, position, right, or privilege.
• qualify v. To endow or furnish with requisite ability, character, knowledge, skill, or possessions.
• qualm n. A fit of nausea.
• quandary n. A puzzling predicament.
• quantity n. Magnitude.
• quarantine n. The enforced isolation of any person or place infected with contagious disease.
• quarrelsome adj. Irascible.
• quarter n. One of four equal parts into which anything is or may be divided.
• quarterly adj. Occurring or made at intervals of three months.