High school vocab: Essential Academic Vocabulary for High School Students
Essential Academic Vocabulary for High School Students
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Vocabulary list:
List 1List 2List 3List 4
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VOCABULARY LISTS IN THIS COLLECTION:
-
- abundant
- ambiguous
- correlate
- differentiate
- anomaly
- meticulous
- discrepancy
- fleeting
- spontaneous
- antagonize
- incremental
- feign
- apprehensive
- relegate
- profound
- proliferate
- relevant
- assessment
- skeptical
- astute
- attribute
- befall
- nonchalant
- bolster
- coherent
-
- potent
- precede
- consecutive
- critical
- trivial
- cumbersome
- deficit
- stringent
- deplore
- digress
- inconceivable
- dynamic
- eclipse
- imminent
- eminent
- superficial
- enigmatic
- tenuous
- ethereal
- perpetual
- ponder
- exacerbate
- adhere
- aloof
- compensate
-
- facilitate
- fervent
- glaring
- haphazard
- impetuous
- contour
- incendiary
- assimilate
- incompetent
- inherent
- inscrutable
- devoid
- integrate
- intuition
- justify
- latent
- lethargic
- melancholy
- exploit
- mishap
- nostalgia
- obsolete
- obstruct
- diffuse
- orient
-
- paradox
- pensive
- precipitate
- contract
- preclude
- complement
- proficient
- disposition
- pungent
- redundant
- corollary
- relinquish
- burgeon
- revitalize
- impervious
- rudimentary
- sensory
- solemn
- condescending
- static
- sustainable
- tentative
- engross
- transient
- superfluous
High School Vocabulary Words with Meanings – A to Z
As the school returns to the routine, even after a year of epidemic and long summer vacations, high school students may find themselves rusty when it comes to using and recognizing all those important words in their textbooks. Fortunately, that is a problem that can be solved with just a little review and reading.
Whether you are a teacher, a parent, or a high school student yourself, you probably know that a good vocabulary is essential for reading, writing, and speaking.
Students make changes in advanced learning that will prepare them for college, careers, and more. These students explore history, science, writing, and writing, and being able to spell and understand many words with many meanings is an important skill.
- Aberration: A state or condition markedly different from the norm
- Abject: Of the most contemptible kind
- Adversity: A difficult or unpleasant situation
- Accede: Yield to another’s wish or opinion
- Acrimony: A rough and bitter manner
- Adulation: Exaggerated flattery or praise
- Abate: Become less in amount or intensity
- Abrogate: Revoke formally
- Accolade: A tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction
- Adamant: Insistent; unwilling to change one’s mind or opinion
- Admonish: Warn strongly; put on guard
- Affable: Diffusing warmth and friendliness
- Allay: Lessen the intensity of or calm
- Altercation: A noisy quarrel
- Anachronistic: Chronologically misplaced
- Antagonism: An actively expressed feeling of dislike and hostility
- Appease: Make peace with
- Aquatic: Operating or living or growing in water
- Artisan: A skilled worker who practices some trade or handicraft
- Assiduous :Marked by care and persistent effort
- Avenge: Take action in return for a perceived wrong
- Aesthetic: Concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty
- Affinity: A natural attraction or feeling of kinship
- Aloof: Distant, cold, or detached in manner
- Amicable: Characterized by friendship and good will
- Anecdote: A short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person
- Anonymous: Not named or identified an anonymous author they wish to remain anonymous
- Antagonist: A person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary
- Antecedent: Preceding in time or order
- Antiquated: So extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period
- Arbitrary: Based on or subject to individual discretion or preference
- Arid: Having little or no rain; too dry or barren to support vegetation
- Ascribe: Attribute or credit to
- Assuage: Provide physical relief, as from pain
- Assiduous: Showing great care and perseverance
- Asylum: He protection granted by a state to someone who has left their home country as a political refugee.
- Austere: Severely simple
- Bane: Something causing misery or death
- Blemish: A mark or flaw that spoils the appearance of something
- Brusque: Rudely abrupt or blunt in speech or manner
- Behemoth: Someone or something that is abnormally large and powerful
- Benevolent: Showing or motivated by sympathy and understanding
- Buttress: Make stronger or defensible
- Camaraderie: The quality of affording easy familiarity and sociability
- Caustic: Harsh or corrosive in tone
- Chide: Scold or reprimand severely or angrily
- Circumlocution: An indirect way of expressing something
- Cognizant: Having or showing knowledge or understanding or realization
- Censure: Express severe disapproval of, especially in a formal statement.
- Circuitous: Longer than the most direct way
- Clairvoyant: A person who claims to have a supernatural ability to perceive events in the future or beyond normal sensory contact.
- Collaborate: Work jointly on an activity or project
- Compassion: Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others
- Compromise: An agreement or settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions
- Condescending: Having or showing an attitude of patronizing superiority
- Conditional: Subject to one or more conditions or requirements being met
- Conformist: A person who conforms to accepted behaviour or established practices
- Congregation: A group of people assembled for religious worship.
- Convergence: The process or state of converging
- Commensurate: Corresponding in size or degree or extent
- Compunction: A feeling of deep regret, usually for some misdeed
- Concoct: Devise or invent
- Calumny: A false accusation of an offense
- Capacious: Large in the amount that can be contained
- Chastise: Scold or criticize severely
- Circumspect: Careful to consider potential consequences and avoid risk
- Coagulate: Change from a liquid to a thickened or solid state
- Compelling: Capable of arousing and holding the attention
- Concede: Give over
- Conflagration: A very intense and uncontrolled fire
- Consign: Give over to another for care or safekeeping
- Contentious: Showing an inclination to disagree
- Convivial: Occupied with or fond of the pleasures of good company
- Credulity: Tendency to believe readily
- Curtail: Terminate or abbreviate before its intended or proper end
- Connive: Form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner
- Contravene: Go against, as of rules and laws
- Convoluted: Highly complex or intricate
- Culpable: Deserving blame or censure as being wrong or injurious
- Debacle: A sudden and complete disaster
- Decry: Express strong disapproval of
- Delineate: Represented accurately or precisely
- Deprecate: Express strong disapproval of; deplore
- Diffuse: Spread out; not concentrated in one place
- Disavow: Refuse to acknowledge
- Disrepute: The state of being held in low esteem
- Divisive: Causing or characterized by disagreement or disunity
- Duplicity: The act of deceiving or acting in bad faith
- Defunct: No longer in force or use; inactive
- Denigrate: Attack the good name and reputation of someone
- Deleterious: Causing harm or damage
- Demagogue: A political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.
- Digression: A temporary departure from the main subject in speech or writing.
- Diligent: Having or showing care and conscientiousness in one’s work or duties
- Discredit: Harm the good reputation of.
- Disdain: The feeling that someone or something is unworthy of one’s consideration or respect.
- Divergent: Tending to be different or develop in different directions.
- Derelict: In deplorable condition
- Devious: Turning away from a straight course
- Discretion: Power of making choices unconstrained by external agencies
- Disparage: Express a negative opinion of
- Divulge: Make known to the public information previously kept secret
- Ebullient: Joyously unrestrained
- Egregious: Conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible
- Emaciated: Very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold
- Emollient: A substance with a soothing effect when applied to the skin
- Enmity: A state of deep-seated ill-will
- Evanescent: Short-lived; tending to vanish or disappear
- Exasperation: A feeling of intense irritation or annoyance
- Exemplary: Serving as a desirable model; very good.
- Extenuating: Serving to lessen the seriousness of an offence
- Evince: Give expression to
- Efficacious: Giving the power to produce an intended result
- Embellish: Make more attractive, as by adding ornament or color
- Emulate: Strive to equal or match, especially by imitating
- Ephemeral: Anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day
- Eschew: Avoid and stay away from deliberately
- Exhort: Force or urge to do something
- Extraneous: Not belonging to that in which it is contained
- Expiate: Make amends for
- Fabricate: Make up something artificial or untrue
- Fetter: Restrain with shackles
- Foil: Hinder or prevent, as an effort, plan, or desire
- Fortuitous: Lucky; occurring by happy chance
- Florid: Having a red or flushed complexion
- Frugal: Sparing or economical as regards money or food
- Fallacious: Based on a mistaken belief
- Fatuous: Devoid of intelligence
- Forestall: Keep from happening or arising; make impossible
- Garish: Tastelessly showy
- Grandiloquence: High-flown style; excessive use of verbal ornamentation
- Goad: Stab or urge on as if with a pointed stick
- Harrowing: Causing extreme distress
- Hiatus: An interruption in the intensity or amount of something
- Hackneyed: Having been overused; unoriginal and trite
- Haughty: Arrogantly superior and disdainful.
- Hedonist: A person who believes that the pursuit of pleasure is the most important thing in life; a pleasure-seeker.
- Hypothesis: A supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.
- Imperative: Requiring attention or action
- Impervious: Not admitting of passage or capable of being affected
- Impetuous: Acting or done quickly and without thought or care
- Impute: Represent as being done or possessed by someone; attribute
- Incompatible: So different in nature as to be incapable of coexisting
- Inconsequential: Not important or significant
- Inevitable: Certain to happen; unavoidable
- Integrity: The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.
- Intrepid: Fearless; adventurous
- Intuitive: Using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive.
- Inane: Devoid of intelligence
- Incontrovertible: Impossible to deny or disprove
- Indomitable: Impossible to subdue
- Innuendo: An indirect and usually malicious implication
- Insipid: Lacking interest or significance or impact
- Imperious: Having or showing arrogant superiority
- Impinge: Infringe upon
- Incumbent: Currently holding an office
- Inextricable: Incapable of being disentangled or untied
- Innocuous: Not injurious to physical or mental health
- Intransigent: Impervious to pleas, persuasion, requests, or reason
- Jubilation: A feeling of great happiness and triumph
- Lobbyist: A person who takes part in an organized attempt to influence legislators
- Longevity: Long existence or service.
- Kudos: An expression of approval and commendation
- Lavish: Very generous
- Licentious: Lacking moral discipline
- Malleable: Capable of being shaped or bent
- Mercurial: Liable to sudden unpredictable change
- Mores: The conventions embodying the fundamental values of a group
- Myriad: A large indefinite number
- Mundane: Lacking interest or excitement; dull.
- Nonchalant: Feeling or appearing casually calm and relaxed; not displaying anxiety, interest, or enthusiasm
- Novice: A person new to and inexperienced in a job or situation.
- Noxious: Injurious to physical or mental health
- Obfuscate: Make obscure or unclear
- Onerous: Burdensome or difficult to endure
- Ostracism: The act of excluding someone from society by general consent
- Opulent: Ostentatiously costly and luxurious.
- Orator: A public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled.
- Ostentatious: Characterized by pretentious or showy display; designed to impress
- Paucity: An insufficient quantity or number
- Pervasive: Spreading or spread throughout
- Poignant: Keenly distressing to the mind or feelings
- Propensity: A natural inclination
- Penchant: A strong liking or preference
- Pinnacle: The highest level or degree attainable
- Plethora: Extreme excess
- Predilection: A predisposition in favor of something
- Prescient: Perceiving the significance of events before they occur
- Promulgate: State or announce
- Procure: Get by special effort
- Pugnacious: Ready and able to resort to force or violence
- Quagmire: A soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
- Raucous: Unpleasantly loud and harsh
- Refract: Subject to change in direction of a propagating wave
- Replete: Deeply filled or permeated
- Rescind: Cancel officially
- Rancor: A feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will
- Regurgitate: Pour or rush back
- Repentant: Feeling or expressing remorse for misdeeds
- Respite: A pause from doing something
- Saccharine: Overly sweet
- Satiate: Fill to satisfaction
- Serendipity: Good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries
- Spurious: Plausible but false
- Sanguine: Confidently optimistic and cheerful
- Stagnate: Stand still
- Surreptitious: Marked by quiet and caution and secrecy
- Stupefy: Make dull or muddle, as with intoxication
- Surfeit: Supply or feed to excess
- Temerity: Fearless daring
- Transient: Lasting a very short time
- Trepidation: A feeling of alarm or dread
- Travesty: A composition that imitates or misrepresents a style
- Tirade: A speech of violent denunciation
- Vacillate: Be undecided about something
- Vestige: An indication that something has been present
- Vilify: Spread negative information about
- Veneer: Coating consisting of a thin layer of wood
- Vitriolic: Harsh, bitter, or malicious in tone
- Wrath: Intense anger
- Wistful: Showing pensive sadness
Quick Links
- Advanced English Vocabulary Words
How many English words should a 11th grade graduate know? – “Cheat sheet of the Unified State Examination”
09/04/2021
How to determine the lexical minimum that an eleventh grade graduate should master? The imposing Oxford Dictionary leads one to sad reflections – is it possible to learn all the words included in it.
But this is not at all required for decent results on the exam. Among the many less voluminous and informative online dictionaries, you can choose the most comfortable for yourself – what dictionaries are.
USE requirements
School education does not provide fluency in English. However, the lexical minimum for a graduate of a complete secondary school, according to state standards, is 1400 words. At the same time, a student of grade 11 should be able to actively use them.
Particular attention is paid not to the knowledge of specific words or the volume of the vocabulary, but to its sufficiency for solving communicative tasks. That is, a high school graduate should be able to:
- understand the meaning of the text;
- to express one’s opinion;
- ask questions about content;
- apply the principles of word formation.
But this is the minimum. For those who associate their future with a prestigious profession and admission to a foreign university for this, alas, this is too little – it is desirable to master at least 3000 English words.
How to expand vocabulary
0003
- catchphrases, phraseological units;
- professional terms;
- set expressions;
- common phrases;
- basic vocabulary and others.
A meager vocabulary is a significant hindrance even for communication, not to mention admission to a prestigious university. Replenishing it regularly, having motivation, is not at all difficult. It is very convenient to use online dictionaries. The ideal number of words for daily memorization is from 5 to 10, this will allow you to master the necessary and important minimum vocabulary within a few months and successfully put your knowledge into practice.
Recommended
Student reviews
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Svetlana Ivanova
I prepared for the exam in mathematics myself, without a tutor. I didn’t do anything supernatural: I crammed formulas and solved problems on the Cheat Sheet of the Unified State Examination website.
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How to expand vocabulary
At one of the recent lessons, a group of students of 12 people, doing my task, issued in 3 minutes allotted 36 names of animals .
At first, the children remembered and wrote down the words on sheets of paper, and then read them one by one. I am sure that the guys would have remembered at least a dozen more words if I had not limited the task by time. Excellent result! But these students are only 7-8 years old! After the lesson I asked myself a question:
“How many foreign words did I know at their age?”.
Two or three at best, none at worst . But, let’s not talk about sad things, but rather let’s talk about how to expand vocabulary from an early age to older age.
First, let’s think about the sources from which a student can replenish his vocabulary. There can be many such sources, but for any age I would single out a few main ones:
1. Special literature,
i.e. any textbooks that teach a foreign language. Here I would include both assignments in the class and the speech of the teacher in the lesson;
2. Fiction.
Favorite books (comics, magazines, etc.
). Starting from the simplest and ending with works in the original;
3. Movies, cartoons, TV shows, programs.
Preferably with subtitles, now many Internet resources are equipped with them.
I consider the maintenance of a personal dictionary to be the most powerful and consistently effective means of memorizing new words. I remember how in high school we lined common notebooks into three columns and diligently wrote down the “word-transcription-translation”. With the development of technology, this process has become much simpler and language learners no longer have to write down words by hand (there are so many computer programs and mobile applications today). The main thing to understand is that this helps to consolidate the word in speech. In order for the word to stick, I strongly recommend that you compose a phrase or sentence with it, or consider the word in an already existing context.
The good thing about keeping a dictionary is that it is actually suitable for students of any age.
Perhaps the main problem is that only adults and high school students can pick up this idea on their own and without the constant support of a teacher to maintain such a dictionary. But if the student is properly organized and motivated by the teacher, and also controlled by the parents, then the vocabulary will be maintained on an ongoing basis, which is success.
The process of working with a dictionary looks like this: In any of the sources you meet a word that is unknown to you. For example, quite recently, I came across the word “a date” in a film, which I probably could not understand from the context. After pausing the movie and looking up the word in an electronic dictionary, I found another meaning of the word that I did not know before. Thus, I wrote down the word “a date – a date” in my personal dictionary. To consolidate, I made a sentence with this word I’ve got a lot of dates from Morocco. Another time I saw the word “gazebo” in a magazine, I understood from the context that this was some kind of building.