Hot SAT Words

Lessons

21-30

LESSON # 29

Tricky Twins & Triplets!

Words that Sound and Look Alike but Have Different Meanings

ACRID

Adj. bitter, harsh

ACRIDACRID exhaust fumes from the

traffic inside the tunnel made me cough.

The comedian’s ACRID humor rubs salt into many wounds.

ARID

Adj. dry, lacking water

ARIDThe arroyo once had running

water in it, but now it is ARID.ARID air inside the plane dries

my skin.

AESTHETIC

Adj. having to do with artistic beauty

AESTHETICBetty gets her sense of

AESTHETICS from her mother, who is a successful artist and designer.

There is something AESTHETICALLY wrong with that painting; it pushes you away instead of drawing you in.

ASCETIC

n. A person who refrains from indulging in earthly pleasures

ASCETICWhy would anyone claiming to

be an ASCETIC own five wristwatches and a suitcase full of jewelry?

ATHEISTICAdj. Without belief in any god

ATHEISTICAlthough James was reared a

strict Catholic, he became an ATHEIST in college.

Communism is ATHEISTIC.

AMBIGUOUSAdj. hard to understand;

unclear; open to more than one interpretation

AMBIGUOUSThe author leaves the passage

AMBIGUOUS because he wants you, the reader, to decide what it means.

AMBIVALENTAdj. having conflicted feelings or opinions about something; unsure

AMBIVALENTRose feels AMBIVALENT about the

trip. Part of her wants to go; part of her wants to stay home.

AMBIVALENCE paralyzes Penny; she can’t make up her mind about anything.

COALESCEv. To have different

opinions join together; fuse; converge

COALESCEBy the end of the meeting, the

various viewpoints had somehow COALESCED into a coherent policy.

Gravity forced billions of atoms to COALESCE into a single lump of rock.

CONVALESCE

V. To recover from an illness

CONVALESCEA CONVALESCENCE of two

months kept Joe from his job.Grandma is CONVALESCING

from a broken hip.

DELUSIONN. A false opinion or

belief

DELUSIONTo expect to get into Yale with

an 880 SAT score is nothing but a DELUSION.

The story tells of a lowly clerk who has DELUDED himself into thinking he’s the king of Spain.

ALLUSIONAdj. an indirect reference, often

to literature or a source with which an educated person

would be familiar

ALLUSIONThe book is hard to read unless you

understand the author’s ALLUSIONS to Greek and Roman mythology.

She ALLUDED to Jefferson’s penchant for architectural design.

ILLLUSIONAdj.

Something unreal that gives the appearance of reality

ILLUSION

ILLUSIONAlthough he can barely draw a

straight line, Morris developed the ILLUSION that he’s a great artist. He’s DELUDED!