Vocabulary for CAT

Word PrimaryMeaning/S

Usage Example Add To My List

Anguish Agony The anguish over the separation from her boyfriend was only temporary; she forgot all the pain and sorrow within a few months.

Annihilate destroy The nuclear bomb explosion was so enormously powerful that it annihilated livings beings and property within a radius of 15 kms from the site where it was dropped by the aircraft.

Appellation Name Probably nobody remembers the formal name Ulugh Khan, but if you mention his more popular appellation Balban, everybody instantly recognizes him.

Benevolent charitable The benevolent Dildaar Singh gave me a house to live in, food to eat and money to go back to my village despite the fact that he was a total stranger to me.

Brawn muscular strength Prem is a hard-to-find combination of brain and brawn as is proved by his winning the weightlifting gold and topping the degree examination.

Breach a break inanything

Gunnu accused Munnu of a breach of trust when he learnt that Munnu had leaked all his secrets to their common friends.

Catalyst a person or thingthat causes a

change

The spread of literacy is bound to catalyze the transformation of India from a developing to a developed country.

Commentary a set of remarks The running commentary on radio used to be a major source of attraction for cricket enthusiasts in the good old days.

Compliance giving up A novel suggestion has been mooted by Bibek Debroy that to encourage compliance with tax laws in India, the government should give a tax diary to each IT payee wherein all his tax payments are recorded and once he reaches the age of 65, a part of it be returned to him as social security payment.

Congruent in agreement His views and mine on most issues are hardly congruent; we always have some differences.

Cryptic Secret The Indian Army has tried its best to decode the cryptic message, supposedly sent by the Al-Qaida to the ISI.

Culinary of cooking His culinary knowledge was confined to making tea, rice and a couple of commonly eaten dishes.

Dauntless fearless Porus’ dauntless fighting in his war with Alexander The Great earned him the praise of his enemies.

Debonair Genial 1. The hostess’ debonair manners, in sharp contrast to her husband’s almost rude disposition, served to make the guests completely at home.2. Mr. Light’s debonair behaviour made me wonder if he ever exhibited seriousness in any matter.

Degression going down The availability of thousands of well-built houses waiting for buyers but finding none, has led to a degression in their prices.

Descent a fall While rising up the popularity chart, Kaler Sehndi had never thought that his descent from the top spot to the bottom would be as quick.

Disregard neglect In complete disregard of official norms, the CM’s cousin was appointed even though he did not have the qualifications or the experience for the job.

Empathy sharing another'sfeeling

Kiran’s empathy for the poor was not confined to public utterances, in fact, she ran a charitable trust, an orphanage and a free school to help such people.

Encyclopedic comprehensive Garib Dass had expected the book to be a brief account of psychology, but contrary to his expectations, it was quite encyclopedic in terms of coverage.

Enormity vastness Research tells us that most people have an exaggerated idea of the enormity of their problems, until they meet someone whose misfortunes happen to be bigger than theirs.

Entice Allure The smart salesman tried to entice the reluctant customer into buying the spurious-looking gold chain by offering him a huge discount.

Fanciful imaginary I have heard of such fanciful schemes before also; the tragedy is that they never get implemented because of being unrealistic and too idealistic.

Flirt to play lightly,about courtship

No, there is nothing serious about the boss’ latest affair; he’s just flirting with the new secretary.

Frivolous non-serious,casual

The frivolity with which Mr. Casual treated the whole affair earned him the title of being non-serious even in serious matters.

Gesticulate to gesture withthe arms

Since he could not speak during the chairman’s speech, he gesticulated to me by hand, indicating me to come in the front row for some consultation.

Grandeur splendor The grandeur of the Taj on a moonlit light is simply beyond description.

Gyrate to rotate Naturally, you will not take kindly to Amitabh and Jaya gyrating to a peppy Bhappi Lahiri tune at this mature age.

Humility humbleness Such terrific talent and so much humility! It is rightly said that fruit-bearing branches always droop downwards with their weight.

Icon a religiousfigurine, idol

It is amazing how today’s film actors become youth icons overnight, worshipped like gods, unlike their counter-parts in the fifties, sixties and seventies, who had to prove themselves over a long period before winning public respect and adulation.

Idiosyncrasy Peculiarity oftemperament,

whims

The objective, multiple choice tests are a big safeguard that protect the test-takers from falling a prey to the examiner’s idiosyncrasies, moods and whims, which can lead to many wrong judgments.

Impatience restlessness Why should you show such impatience in knowing the results now? You have waited for four months and waiting for a couple of more weeks will not harm you in any way.

Impertinent insolent Mr. Faaltu Prasad, instead of giving to-the-point answers to the interviewers’ questions, introduced several impertinent details, which did not impress the panel.

Incarnate made of flesh Mother Teresa, compassion incarnate, devoted her entire life to serving the poor, the sick and the destitute.

Irradiate to use x-rays on All these foodstuffs are irradiated at least twice before being shipped to ensure that they are germ-free.

Isothermal constanttemperature

Whichever way the outside temperature moves, this Air Conditioner will provide an isothermal temperature inside according to your setting.

Lascivious Lustful The movie, with its lascivious scenes, which sometimes bordered on soft-porn, was bound to raise the hackles of the Censor Board.

Magnanimity generosity Bill Gates’ act of donating $5 billion for helping the underprivileged in their education will go down as an act of extreme magnanimity of heart and spirit.

Meditate Ponder The satsang starts with a musical rendition of devotional hymns followed by a 1-hour silent period of meditation over the exact meaning of those hymns.

Mete to distribute,measure

The ill treatment meted out to the cinegoers that day has resulted in a great decline in the popularity of this cinema-hall.

Muddle confuse Mr. Confused says something only to retract it later, again goes back to what he said originally, his mind is nothing but a great muddle of ideas.

Omniscient knowing all things No human being can claim to be omniscient, after all, there is a limit to one’s capacity to learn and retain different things.

Pagan person with a folkreligion

In ancient times, apart from many mainstream religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, which drew huge followings, there also were some dissenting, small-base pagan religions, which preached different ideas.

Palatial like a palace The palatial Maharaja’s Haveli, comprising 300 rooms, 5 banquet halls and 3 swimming pools, was auctioned last week.

Periodicity regularoccurrences

Earlier, the periodicity of the programme was twice a week, but in deference to persistent audience requests, it has been changed to 7 times a week.

Proficient expert ability Hoshiar Singh has considerable proficiency in Mathematics apart from English, which is his pet subject.

Propagate make known The benefits of the scheme should be propagated to the villagers suitably so as to create awareness among them.

Prostrate lie down The Guru told him “Please! you do not need to prostrate before me like a sinner, just stand upright and listen to my advice carefully”

Psychopathic a mentallydisturbed person

Such psychopathic characters as portrayed in movies like Shart and Darr, pose grave social dangers as these anti-social elements have little regret over their misdeeds.

Quack impostor Spend more on going to a qualified doctor to seek advice on your problem rather than visiting a quack, who is likely to do more harm than good in the long run.

Rarefied made less dense(of a gas)

The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere goes on decreasing sharply as we move up; it becomes so rarefied in the upper reaches that we are forced to use an oxygen cylinder to breathe.

Redemptive something thatfrees or extricates

from harm

Thanks to the redemptive steps taken by him, we have been saved from a big disaster.

Reiterate to say again Let me reiterate that we shall not tolerate any interference in the internal affairs of our country by anybody.

Repress to hold back Owing to the repressive steps taken by the police, the residents shied from making any public statements against the police to the visiting media team.

Revive to bring back tolife

The doctor tried his best to revive the heart attack victim’s heartbeat, but perhaps it was too late.

Revolving rotating “The revolving chair will enable you to have a 360 degree view of everything in your field of vision”, the salesman told the doctor.

Robust healthy The Indian software industry has been showing very healthy growth rates of more than 30% each year and the expectations of a more robust growth next year are not overambitious.

Signet a seal The king’s order will not be considered valid because it must have both his signature and the royal signet, bearing his name and designation.

Sloven Untidy A slovenly lady, probably not bathed for months together, with uncombed hair and tatters in the name of clothes, sat by the lakeside.

Smoulder to burn withoutfire

The earlier fire of revenge in his mind may have come down considerably, nevertheless, it is still smouldering and may flare up any moment.

Strategy Plan The Foka Cola Company is hammering out a new marketing strategy to counter the attack initiated by Taxi Cola.

Stultify to make useless,to make a fool of

Kshitija’s arrival this morning has stultified the need for us to go all the way to her residence and bring her here.

Underling a subordinateperson

Just an underling in the department, he had hardly any powers and to boot, he was always supposed to lick the boots of his bosses.

Uniformity consistency We must maintain uniformity in applying these rules to each and every government department lest any department should accuse us of being partial.

Unreserved Frank In an unreserved interview, the Pintustan Fever chairman spoke candidly regarding the failures of the co. and the self-analysis it was doing to improve its performance.

Unspeakable marvelous, verybad

The villager, out of fear, failed to give complete details of the almost unspeakable atrocities committed by the police when he was in police custody.

Villain scoundrel Prem Chopra, the perfect Hindi movie villain, the guy who is always a rapist, underworld don, mafia chief or drug peddler, very surprisingly, is a gentleman to the core in real life.

Virtue goodness A marriage is for keeps; be it heaven or hell, plenty or paucity, virtue or vice - till death does the partners apart.

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