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Zyzzyva

Zestfully

Zigzagged up to the

Zenith
.

Following are lists of synonymous SAT words. Actually, they aren’t exact synonyms, but they are closely related. When one of these words shows up on the test, it is usually enough to recognize that it’s one of the
Slander
words, for example. However, sometimes you have to know the word’s specific connotations. Use these lists only as aids; you should know the particular meaning of each word.

Steal/Plunder

depredate

filch

loot

peculate

pilfer

pillage

plunder

purloin

ravage

rob

swindle

Soothe/Make Better

allay

alleviate

ameliorate

appease

assuage

conciliate

mitigate

mollify

palliate

placate

sedate

Lusty

bawdy

lascivious

lecherous

lewd

licentious

salacious

Stingy

frugal

parsimonious

penurious

Lacking Interest or Spirit

lackadaisical

languid

listless

lethargic

insinuate

malign

vilify

Slander Wealth

calumniate

be captious

denigrate

impugn

make innuendo

affluence

opulence

ostentation

superfluity

Bill Gates

Proverb

adage

aphorism

axiom

dictum

maxim

Excessively Flattering

adulatory

fawning

fulsome

laudatory

obsequious

To Free from Responsibility

absolve

exculpate

exonerate

vindicate

To Hate/Dislike

abhor

abominate

detest

execrate

loathe

repudiate

Brief/To the Point

concis

laconic

pithy

terse

Deceptive Action
ploy

ruse

stratagem

subterfuge

Secret/Stealthy

clandestine

furtive

surreptitious

ETS

Without Preparation

extemporaneous

impromptu

improvised

The following is a list of pairs of words that look similar and are easily confused with each other. Make sure you know the difference between them. Trying to confuse you with these pairs is one of the ETS’s favorite tricks.

• adulate and adulterate
  
• adverse and averse
  
• anachronism and anarchism
  
• antipathy and apathy
  
• ascent and assent
  
• ascetic and aesthetic
  
• baleful and baneful
  
• censure and censor
  
• capitulate and recapitulate
  
• demure and demur
  
• discreet and discrete
  
• disparate and desperate
  
• divers and diverse
  
• elicit and illicit
  
• heterogeneous and homogeneous
  
• illusion and allusion
  
• imbibe and imbue
  
• imminent and eminent
  
• ingenious and ingenuous
  
• mendicant and mendacious
  
• mettle and meddle
  
• penury and penurious
  
• peremptory and preemptory
  
• pestilence and petulance
  
• qualitative and quantitative
  
• zyzzyva and aardvark
  

If you’re taking the SAT, you might not see any of the following literary terms or you might see all of them (no, not really), but you should probably expect to see at least a few. You’re probably familiar with most of these terms since they’re pretty standard fare for English class. But in case you had an English teacher who thought
Captain Underpants
was deep reading, we present ...

Literary Terms Guaranteed to Enrich Your Life*

(*This statement has not been evaluated by the people who evaluate such things.)

A story or narrative that is an extended metaphor in which characters and objects have symbolic meanings. An allegory’s symbolic message is usually pretty obvious. In other words, you don’t have to read
too
deeply to get it. Think: George Orwell’s
Animal Farm
.

The repetition of sounds, usually consonants or stressed syllables, within a group of words. For example: “Sally sells seashells by the seashore.”

A writer’s brief reference to another work, person, place, or event within their own writing, left for the reader to notice and understand. Many literary texts allude to Greek classics (think:
The Odyssey
), canonized texts (think: Shakespeare), and, of course, the Bible.

The use of a word or a phrase to mean two or more different things. For example, if your girlfriend tells you, “I can’t stop thinking about you. And believe me I’ve tried,” her meaning is somewhat ambiguous. (Advice: Dump her before she dumps you.)

A brief unelaborate story, often interesting and humorous. Something we all wish we could tell.

The opposition to the main character (or protagonist). This can be a person, a thing, a feeling, a force. For example, The Winklevoss twins are the antagonists of
The Social Networ
k, while Moby Dick is the antagonist in Herman Melville’s novel. (Important: The antagonist is not
alway
s the bad guy or villain.)

A direct address to an absent person, object, animal, or even a concept. For example, “Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are” is an apostrophe where the speaker addresses an object that can’t respond.

A book written about the author’s own life.

A book written about another person’s life. (If you didn’t know those two, close this book, lift it above your head, and drop it.)

How an author establishes a distinctive character in a book.

The high point of the continuing action, usually just before the turning point and ending of the story. (And of other things, too.)

A genre of writing where stories and plays are amusing and funny (or supposed to be) and usually have happy endings.

The outcome or ending of the story.

Opposition between characters or forces in a story. The three main types of conflicts are (1) person vs. person; (2) person vs. nature; (3) person vs. self.

An idea or meaning that’s implied with a word but has nothing to do with what it actually is. For example, “eagle” connotes liberty and freedom, but these ideas have nothing to do with an actual live eagle.

“A dialogue is a written conversation.”

“Really? No way!”

“You betcha.”

An author’s choice of words and conversational style that helps set the mood of a piece. For example, if your teacher changed her diction and started talking like a drill sergeant, the feel of your classroom would change.

A long, sprawling literary work told in a formal style about the journeys of a hero or divine figure. The fate of a tribe, a nation, or even the entire human race is usually dependent on the result of the hero’s journey. A modern example of an epic story is
The Lord of the Rings
trilogy.

A quotation that’s put at the beginning of a work.

A phrase that replaces a less pleasant one. For example, we say, “Your barn door is open” when we really mean “Your pants are unzipped.”

A type of anecdote or short story with a moral lesson, usually on human behavior, at the end. Aesop’s . . . er . . . Fables, and Joe Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus stories, are familiar examples.

Events that happen after the climax.

A comedy in which impossible plots, slapstick humor, and exaggerated characters are used.
The Hangover
and
Bridesmaids
are farces.

Language that uses figures of speech to convey a point. A speaker or writer using figurative language doesn’t mean
exactly
the words they say. For example, if you say, “I ran faster than the wind to get here,” you simply mean, “I ran very fast to get here,” not that you
actually
ran faster than the wind.

A reference to an event that took place in a previous part of the story, or before the story even began.

Someone who serves as a sharp contrast to another person. For example, the characters Darth Vader and Yoda in
Star Wars
are foils of each other. Characters that are foils don’t have to be enemies, although many times they are.

Different types of literature, such as satire, comedy, mystery, tragedy, or science fiction, each having its own qualities.

A gross overstatement or exaggeration. For example, “I was so embarrassed I wanted to die.”

Using words that appeal to the senses in order to create a vivid description.

A conclusion reached by evaluating the given facts. For example, if your friend is running at you with a red face, steam pouring out of his ears, and a raised baseball bat, you can
infer
that he is probably very angry at you. (You could also infer that the best thing for you to do is to start running.)

The incongruity between what might be expected to happen and what actually happens. There are many different types of irony but the two most commonly used are dramatic irony and verbal irony. Dramatic irony involves a situation where a character performs an action that results in the exact reverse effect desired. For example, when Shakespeare’s Juliet drinks a potion to appear dead so that she can run away and marry Romeo, it’s dramatic irony when Romeo believes she is really dead and commits suicide. Verbal irony is when someone says something but really means the exact opposite. When your mom says, “Oh, you sure cleaned up your room!” she’s using verbal irony.