GRE Analogies

C. Equivocation is speech used to hedge one's point or to avoid getting pinned down. An affidavit is speech used to swear that something is true.

A. A valedictory is someone who says goodbye (like the valedictorian at a graduation), not someone who greets an audience.

C. A peroration is a very long speech. It does not summarize anything.

D. A homily is a sermon which gives a moral lesson. It may or may not praise someone. No defining relationship.

E. An exhortation is speech used to encourage an audience, not dismiss it.

D. A miscreant is a person with a base or villainous nature. A tyro is a beginner, someone who is green.

A. harridan : charming. Opposite relationship. A harridan is a scolding, shrewish woman.

B. magistrate ; lax - No defining relationship.

C. adjudicator : dismissive - No defining relationship.

D. regent : stately. A regent may or may not be stately, but being a regent does not mean having a stately demeanor. No defining relationship.

C. A quarry (like a buck or a fox) is the goal of a hunt. A terminus is the endpoint, or goal, of a voyage.

B. A guerdon is a reward, which is not the goal of repetition. No defining relationship.

C. accolade : campaign - No defining relationship.

D. epitome : culture - No defining relationship.

E. anomaly : puzzle - No defining relationship.

D. Someone who is impeccable is not deserving of reproach. Something indeterminate is not deserving of certitude because it is not certain.

A. No defining relationship. Implacable is beyond pleasing, not undeserving of stoicism.

B. No defining relationship. Something interminable is endless, but not undeserving of a sojourn, a brief stay.

C. Someone who is impotent lacks puissance (strength, power), but is not undeserving of it.

E. No defining relationship. A quagmire may be impenetrable, but impenetrable does not mean undeserving of a quagmire.

B. Abdicate is to formally demit and ratify is to formally approve. Besides that, demit and abdicate go in the same direction.

A. enter : disembark. These words go in the opposit direction.

C. maintain : supply - No defining relationship.

D. unfetter ; liberate. These words go in the same direction, but it's the formality that makes B. better.

E. receive : rescind - No defining relationship. rescind means to take back, like repeal or cancel, or void.

B. A mercenary is a hired soldier and an amanuensis is a hired stenographer. But you arrive at that answer by POE.

B. A soubrette is not a hired maid. It's a flirtatious maid.

C. botanist : researcher - No defining relationship.

D. academician : professor - An academician may or may not be a professor. No defining relationship.

E. A culinarian is a cook.

A. A dupe is someone who is easy to cozen, or trick. A churl is a rude and boorish person who would be easy to contemn, or to treat with contempt or scorn.

A. navigate : martyr - No defining relationship.

B. ensconce : mercenary - No defining relationship.

C. A narcissist is someone who likes to panegyrize, or bestow praises upon himself.

D. inflame : alchemist - No defining relationship.

A. pipe : steam. A current runs through a wire and steam runs through a pipe.

B. truce : peace. Respite is a time of temporary rest and a truce is a time of temporary peace.

D. A saga is a long story.

C. umpire : biased. A deceiver is a person who is not honest and an umpire is a person who is not biased.

A. Terse means sparing in the use of words or abrupt.

D. A connoisseur is an expert judge in matters of taste.

B. strident : sound. Noisome means having a harsh or bad odor and strident means having a harsh sound.

B. Judicious means having good judgement.

C. Dispersive means to go or distribute in different directions or over a wide area.

B. superfluity : necessity. Temerity means excessive confidence or boldness. So temerity is a lack of trepidation, or fear. Superfluity (like superfluous) means unnecessary, especially through being more than enough. So superfluity is a lack of necessity.

A. An oration is a formal speech, especially one given during a ceremony.

D. An axiom is a self-evident truth or an unprovable truth. It must be assumed to be true and then an abstractly defined structure is based on it.

E. An indemnity is a security or protection against a loss. It can also mean a sum of money paid as compensation.

A. certainty : certified. Diaphanous means light, delicate and translucent. So something diaphanous is characterized by delicacy. Something certified is characterized by certainty.

C. ligneous : wood. MArtial means of or relating to the military. Ligneous means relating to wood.

B. Perennial means lasting for a long time, enduring or continually recurring.

C. Ballistic means relating to projectiles, not just missiles.

D. imprint : publisher. A hallmark is the signature or logo of a silversmith and an imprint is the signature or logo of a publisher.

B. Marquee as an adjective means leading or pre-eminent.

C. vain : appearance. Pedantic means annoyingly proud of learning and vain means annoyingly proud of appearance.

D. Mendacious means deceptive or diverging from the truth.

D. listen : eavesdrop. To plagiarize is to copy without permission and to eavesdrop is to listen without permission.

D. implausible : credibility. Eternal means without end and implausible means without credibility.

A. A precursor is one that precedes and indicates the approach of another. It's a predecessor.

B. swarm : bee. A stand is a group of trees and a swarm is a group of bees, but you get this one through POE.

Check your parts of speech – all the first words in the answer choice pairs are nouns. This may help you make a good sentence, such as “a STAND is a group of TREEs.” Eliminate B, D, and E based on this sentence. If you know that a RAPTOR is not a group of BIRDs, then you can also eliminate C. If you could not make a sentence for STAND : TREE, you could have used Clear and Necessary and Working Backwards to eliminate B and E, and possibly D. This gets you down to two answers on what is a difficult problem. You may have to guess and move on.

C. manner : grandiose. To be effusive is to display a lot of emotion. To be grandiose is to display an exaggerated manner.

B. Licentious means lacking moral or legal restraints. It is showing a disregard for the rules of correctness.

E. remunerate : compensation. To advise is to give counsel and to remunerate is to give compensation.

C. Enervate means to lessen the vitality, strength or power of something.

A. dancer : agility. A sage demonstrates wisdom and a dancer demonstrates agility.

A. pristine : corruption. Ponderous means oppressively dull or having great weight, or lack of lightness. Pristine means original or not spoiled, in other words, not corrupted.

D. penguin : bird. A dolphin is a mammal that can swim and apenguin is a bird that can swim.

C. daguerreotype : photograph. Papyrus is a primitive form of paper and a daguerrotype is a primitive form of a photograph.

B. A hatchet is a short-handled axe.

E. soliloquy : speech. An aria is a song performed by one person and a soliloquy is a speech performed by one person.

B. A fable is a fictitious or legendary story.

D. effusive : demonstrative. Officious means to be extremely obliging and effusive means to be extremely demonstrative.

B. Maleveolent means having vivious ill will. A corrupt person may or may not be malevolent.

C. remorse : rue. To pine means having longing for something and rue means having remorse for something.

B. Seethe means to boil, stew or suffer violent internal excitement (to seethe with jealousy).

C. Forbearance means to show patience or leniency.

A. appropriate : property. Supersede means to gain priority and appropriate means to gain property.

A. Feign means to pretend or dissemble. Intrigue is a secret, scheme or machination.

A. bracket : shelf. A buttress supports a wall and a bracket supports a shelf.

D. bite : gnaw. To gripe is to complain repeatedly and to gnaw is to bite repeatedly.

A. To vilify someone is to talk trash about her or to lower her importance.

C. Appease means to calm or pacify. Mitigate means to alleviate, amke less harsh or hostile, mollify.

B. usurp : power. To disarm means to take away weapons and usurp means to take away power.

E. indemnity : secure. Mollification is a process meant to soothe and an indemnity is protection. It's meant to secure.

E. duel : combat. Ratify is to formally give approval and a duel is a formal combat.

E. Tribulate means to cause tribulation, or distress.

A. zealous : fanatical. A visionary is someone whose ideas or projects are impractical or unrealistic, someone who is extremely idealistic. SOmeone who is zealous is marked with fervent partisanship, or is fanatical.

B. Someone who is officious is kind, obliging, dutiful or even meddlesome. Officious could also mean informal or unofficial. In any case, officious does not mean extremely obliging.

B. synthesize : combine. Collaborate means to work together and synthesize means to combine together.

E. snow : avalanche. A deluge is a lot of water and an avalance is a lot of snow.

B. ludicrous : buffoon. A rake is a libertine, or a dissolute person. A buffoon is a clown, or a ludicrous person.

D. expressive : artist - No clear relationship.

C. discomfit : confusion. To gall means to cause irritation and to discomfit means to thwart, perplex, embarass and disconcert.

B. Beleaguer means to beseige, trouble or harass.

E. Inculcate means to teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions.