Sentence #23

When positioned in contrast to the erudite Ravenclaws students, audacious and intrepid Gryffindor students, and the iconoclastic Slytherin students, Hufflepuff students seemed at most credulous in the gradation of student houses at Hogwarts. They were castigated for their cowardice but never appreciated for having such epicures in their midst such as the legendary Hufflepuff ghost, the Fat Friar. While no one disagreed that Hufflepuff's argument in terms of bravery was quiescent when compared to Gryffindor, the argument about Hufflepuff students' desultory interests was attenuated and deemed as precipitate when people actually studied the genius of founder, Helga Hufflepuff. Helga and other Hufflepuff students' seemingly reticent nature was, in fact, a dilatory measure in order to display humility and kindness to other students. When amalgamated with Hufflepuff students' tough and honest work-ethic, people should begin to see the honor that being a Hufflepuff carries.



erudite: learned; scholarly; bookish
audacious: fearless and daring
intrepid: fearless; resolutely courageous
iconoclast: one who opposes established beliefs, customs and institutions
credulous: too trusting; gullible
gradation: process occurring by regular degrees or stages; variation in color
castigate: to punish or criticize harshly
epicure: person with refined taste in food and wine
quiescent: motionless
desultory: jumping from one thing to another; disconnected
attenuate: to reduce in force or degree; weaken
precipitate: to throw violently or bring about abruptly; lacking deliberation
dilatory: intended to delay
amalgamate: to combine; to mix together

Sentence #22

Nobody acted circumspect or reticent when presented with Mrs. Weasley's cooking. On the contrary, they would act querulous and lack deference if they were not the first in line to try her delicious food. Even though waiting in line meant forestalling the scrumptious concoctions, those waiting in line husbanded their energy so they may later propitiate their appetite. When the food reached their mouth, all the recipients' gastronomical cavities were very plastic which enervated all other senses except the sense of taste. Listless and melancholy when all the food had disappeared, all guests at the Weasley kitchen glibly recited numerous elegies and dirges remembering the food while it lasted. But how was such a beautiful meal to be reincarnated? All members of the table, even dilettantes such as Hermione's cat Crookshanks, partook in a machination to encourage Mrs. Weasley to cook more...muahahaha.


circumspect: cautious; aware of potential consequences
reticent: silent; reserved
querulous: inclined to complain; irritable
deference: respect; courtesy
forestall: to prevent or delay; anticipate
husband: to manage economically; to use sparingly
propitiate: to conciliate; to appease
plastic: able to be molded, altered or bent
enervate: to reduce in strength
listless: lacking energy and enthusiasm
glib: fluent in an insincere manner; offhand; casual
elegy: a sorrowful poem or speech
dirge: a funeral hymn or mournful speech
dilettante: someone with an amateurish and superficial interest in a topic
machination: plot or scheme

Sentence #21

Charlie Weasley and Hagrid both had an obstinate panache about them: they loved dragons. Not only did they not believe that dragons' molting was the most noisome smell in the world (as do most individuals), but they also thought it a euphony when dragons cried in a surly crescendo. Living with such convoluted creatures developed a sense of obdurate confidence and plebeian manners in these gentlemen, who mitigated the fears of novice dragon tenders by convincing them that dragons were not the typical misanthropes that people thought them to be. While most people consider dragons' mere presence to be an opprobrium, Charlie and Hagrid's unconditional love for these creatures gradually rarefied most peoples' intolerance. At least in Romania where Charlie lives, whenever a dragon is insulted in public, it has now become an exigent feature of society to respond with the neologism: "Dragons are hawt, and you're not...burrrrn".



obstinate: stubborn; unyielding
panache: flamboyance or dash in style and action; verve
molt: to shed hair, skin, or an outer layer periodically
noisome: stinking; putrid
surly: rude and bad-tempered
crescendo: steadily increasing in volume or force
euphony: pleasant, harmonious sound
convoluted: intricate and complicated
obdurate: hardened in feeling; resistant to persuasion
plebeian: crude or coarse; characteristic of commoners
mitigate: to soften; to lessen
neophyte: novice; beginner
misanthrope: a person who dislikes others
opprobrium: public disgrace
rarefy: to make thinner or sparser
exigent: urgent; requiring immediate action
neologism: new word or expression

Sentence #20

Rita Skeeter's journalistic chicanery was hardly estimable in the eyes of educated Daily Prophet readers. In fact, most of these readers repudiated her work, believing her intentions to be inimical and her work as inchoate garbage. By eulogizing certain individuals such as Harry Potter and, in fact overpraising them through her panegyric, Rita obviated the need for others' criticism: she was destroying her own career in the long-run. Rita attempted to aggrandize her own self, garnering in her address book the names of numerous celebrities and famous people, but in reality she occluded and desiccated from her own life the potential of probity and well-deserved, meaningful work. When eventually faced with a beetle-licious life, Rita found herself in such an impasse that she had no choice but to change her bombastic ways.



chicanery: deception by means of craft or guile
estimable: admirable
repudiate: to reject the validity of
inimical: hostile; unfriendly
inchoate: not fully formed; disorganized
eulogy: speech in praise of someone
panegyric: elaborate praise; formal hymn of praise
obviate: to prevent; to make unnecessary
aggrandize: to increase in power, influence, and reputation
garner: to gather and store
occlude: to stop up; prevent the passage of
desiccate: to dry out thoroughly
probity: complete honesty and integrity
impasse: blocked path; dilemma with no solution
bombastic: pompous in speech and manner

Sentence #19

Harry failed at learning how to control his mind which his enemy filled with his evil mirth and malediction. Harry lumbered to Snape's office, overwrought at his inability to combat these negative thoughts through Snape's lessons. Snape, well-meaning at heart but slimy in person, attempted to foment Harry's urgency but tired him out out even more, leaving Harry in a state of utter lassitude. Angered at Snape's inability to placate Harry's concerns, Harry deemed Occlumency lessons onerous and a waste of time and he jettisoned them for good.



mirth: frivolity; gaiety; laughter
malediction: a curse; a wish of evil upon another
lumber: to move slowly and awkwardly
overwrought: agitated; overdone
foment: to arouse or incite
lassitude: a state of diminished energy
placate: to soothe or pacify
onerous: troublesome and oppressive; burdensome
jettison: to discard; to get rid of as unnecessary or encumbering

Sentence #18

Even while the prodigal Dudley nettles Harry with his nominally funny jokes and attacks, Harry generally acts phlegmatic and perfunctory, pretending to study for Potions. He responds to his cousin in a politic manner by prevaricating that nothing his cousin does will ever seriously get to him.



prodigal: lavish or wasteful
nettle: to irritate
nominal: existing in name only; negligible
phlegmatic: calm and unemotional in temperament
perfunctory: done in a routine way; indifferent
politic (adj): shrewd and practical in managing or dealing with things; diplomatic
prevaricate: to lie or deviate from the truth

Sentence #17

At the end of their journey, Harry and Voldemort had both become restive to meet their ostensible fate. Each devised a strategem in his mind believing in its sublime nature to overcome the other. Little did each of them know that they were beginning to show taciturn aloofness from their friends due to the stress involved in being the victor. Their emotional stability and receptiveness to their peers had become opaque, and when anyone wanted to come close, sometimes they would respond with tirades. While the novels show Harry as a paragon of goodness and heroism and highlight Voldemort's salient evilness, it is an irony how similar these two seemingly divergent personalities really are.



restive: impatient, uneasy, or restless
ostensible: apparent
stratagem: trick designed to deceive an enemy
sublime: lofty or grand
taciturn: silent; not talkative
opaque: impossible to see through; preventing the passage of light
tirade: long, harsh speech or verbal attack
salient: prominent; of notable significance
paragon: model of excellence and perfection

Sentence #16

Already an international magnate in the Quidditch world, Viktor Krum displayed pithiness and propriety when dealing with teammates, opponents and teachers at Hogwarts. However, Krum was not as passionate of a pedant or student so he was known back at Durmstrang Institute to malinger from his classes by flying in the rustic hills behind his school. When asked by his teachers where he was, Krum chuckled and equivocated with his love for studying about the history of brooms.


magnate: powerful or influential person
pithy (adj): profound or substantial yet concise, succinct and to the point
propriety: the quality of behaving in a proper manner; obeying rules and customs
pedant: someone who shows off learning
malinger: to evade responsibility by pretending to be ill
rustic: rural
equivocate: to use expressions of double meaning in order to mislead

Sentence #15

Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, a group of keenly libertine students and chums, exchanged furtive glances as they used the Marauder's Map to escape the banal castle during lectures. They knew nobody in the group was perfidious enough to use their loquaciousness to reveal the latent workings of the map. For that reason, the Marauder's Map remains until today an impervious creation. For the rest of us Muggles and non-groupies, it is a hapless thing that we cannot utilize its wonders.


keen: having a sharp edge; intellectually sharp; perceptive
libertine: a free thinker, usually used disparagingly; one without moral restraint
furtive: secret, stealthy
perfidious: willing to betray one's trust
loquacious: talkative
latent: potential that is not readily apparent
impervious: impossible to penetrate; incapable of being affected
hapless: unfortunate; having bad luck

Sentence #14

Dobby the house elf made the egregious mistake of trying to keep Harry from going to Hogwarts in his second year. But since then, he's been obsequious to Harry, doing everything possible to serve him. Dobby's dismal living conditions before Harry freed him inspired Hermione's S.P.E.W. (Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare) campaign. However, her exacting demands for 2 sickles for membership from every student wasn't very cogent-people payed mostly to shut her up, not because they believed in the cause.

obsequious: characterized by servile complaisance; obedient.
tendentious: having a definite tendency, bias or purpose.
egregious: extraordinary in a bad way.
exacting: demanding, strict; not easily satisfied
cogent: having power to compel conviction

Sentence #13

Although Snape showed obvious antipathy towards Harry, Hermione just wouldn't believe he was trying to kill the Boy Who Lived. She thought the evidence against Snape was meretricious and didn't corroborate with Dumbledore's view of him. Hermione wanted an inquest into his true motives and thought Ron and Harry were being ingenuous when they refused to entertain Snape's loyalty to the Order.


inquest: investigation, inquiry
meretricious: falsely attractive, gaudy
corroborate: to support with evidence
antipathy: extreme dislike, animosity
ingenuous: showing innocence or childlike simplicity

Sentence #12

An immaculate young lady at the time, Moaning Myrtle died while still a student at Hogwarts at the hands of Tom Riddle. With few accepting her seemingly incredulous claims that it was indeed brilliant Tom Riddle who killed her, the shiftless Myrtle resigned to her apropros position of iring the attendees of the boys' bathroom with her insipid sarcasm and moodiness.

immaculate: pure, faultless
incredulous: skeptical; unwilling to believe
shiftless: lacking resourcefulness or lacking in ambition
apropos: appropriate to the situation; apt
ire: to anger
insipid: without taste or flavor

Sentence #11

Buckbeak will always be remembered as a halcyon creature who showed forbearance even while Draco Malfoy hectored her. Malfoy's ignominious hubris during class displays the need for mandatory etiquette classes for Slytherin students to avoid such future gaucherie.

halcyon: calm and peaceful
forbearance: patience; willingness to wait
hector: to bully
ignominious: shameful; dishonorable; undignified; disgraceful
hubris: arrogant pride
gaucherie: socially awkward, tactless behavior

Sentence #10

Draco Malfoy mostly left the pugilism to his cronies Crabbe and Goyle. He preferred to make invidious remarks against people like the Weasleys who he liked to abase for being much poorer than him. While his comments occasionally stung, the Weasleys had the satisfaction of knowing that they were much richer in love, friends, and family than a puerile ingrate like Malfoy would ever be.

pugilism: fighting, sparring, boxing
invidious: envious, obnoxious, or offensive; likely to promote ill-will
abase: to disgrace, to humble, demean, humiliate
puerile: childish, immature, silly
ingrate: ungrateful person

Sentence #9

Fleur didn't think Mrs. Weasley was officious in planning her and Bill's wedding. The phalanx of things to do seemed to accrete daily and would have left an acidulous taste in the pit of Fleur's stomach if her mother-in-law-to-be wasn't there to help make sure no one's contributing energies lay fallow and wasted.


officious: too helpful, meddlesome
phalanx: a compact or close-knit body of people, animals, or things
accrete: to grow in size, to increase in amount
acidulous: sour in taste or manner
fallow: dormant, unused

Sentence #8

As the first year students sportively paraded into Honeydukes, they did not notice the Spartan and stolid cashier warning them of the specious Explosive Tarts. The tarts were so soporific that they caused the students to remain in a state of torpor until Hagrid called them.

sportive: frolicsome, playful
stolid: unemotional, lacking sensitivity
specious: deceptively attractive; seemingly plausible but fallacious
Spartan: highly self-disciplined; frugal; austere
soporific: causing sleep or lethargy
torpor: extreme mental and physical sluggishness

Sentence #7

At their acme during O.W.L. exams, the students' stress levels were further amalgamated with fears of Death Eaters on the run. As the students sank into a greater emotional abyss, they realized these aberrations could only be alleviated or abated with the anodyne of Hagrid's homemade treacle fudge.

acme: highest point, summit, the highest level or degree attainable
amalgamate: to combine, to mix together
anodyne: something that calms or soothes pain
aberration: deviation from the norm
abate: to reduce in amount, degree or severity
alleviate: to make more bearable
abyss: an extremely deep hole

Sentence #6

Argus Filch lugubriously accepted that he wouldn't be able to hang Fred and George up by their thumbs for filching the confiscated items from the coffer in his office. As much as he tried to ingratiate himself to Dumbledore to bend the rules, the headmaster was intractable in his decision and made rejoinders about such things as 'human rights' and the like.

lugubrious: sorrowful, mournful, dismal
coffer: strongbox, large chest for money
ingratiate: to gain favor with another by deliberate effort, to please somebody so as to gain an advantage
intractable: not easily managed or manipulated, stubborn, unruly
rejoinder: response, retort, riposte

Sentence #5

As Professor Cuthbert Binns waffled throughout his arcane history lectures, he hardly noticed the lack of plaudit from his second-year students. Hermione Granger was the only vivacious student among the otherwise torpid class who considered Binns' accounts to be yarns full of gems, each word of which she scribbled frugally with her blue ink quill.

waffle: to talk vaguely and without much result
arcane: concerning obscure knowledge
plaudit: praise, approval
vivacious: lively; high spirited
yarn: long entertaining story
torpid: sleeping; sluggish; lethargic; dormant
frugal: careful; economical

Sentence #4

Using mendacity, Crabbe and Goyle always managed to pass their final exams, innocuous to none but themselves, by bilking off of Draco Malfoy's exam. Thankfully Professor Snape caught them and excoriated them. However, that did not last too long as Lucius Malfoy exculpated them by bribing Snape. Slytherin's internal workings remain a mystery to us all...

mendacity: dishonesty
innocuously: causing no harm
bilke: cheat
excoriate: severe criticism/self-righteously correcting
exculpate: to set free from blame/to clear from a charge of guilt

Sentence #3

Professor McGonagall's polemic against unruly students often leaves them so contrite that it makes them ill enough to seek help from Madam Pomfrey to make them salubrious again. However, while McGonagall may come off as a martinet, she can also be surprisingly blithe at times.

polemic: controversy, argument, verbal attack, denunciation, refutation.
contrite: deeply sorrowful, repentant for a wrong
salubrious: healthful, curative
martinet: strict disciplinarian, one who rigidly follows rules
blithe: joyful, cheerful, or w/o appropriate thought, carefree

Sentence #2

Neville Longbottom, an extremely timorous individual, gains temerity mercurially upon rediscovering his parents' courageous past; no longer obsequious, Neville changes into a percipient character who offers moral support for Dumbledore's army.

timorous: afraid
temerity: boldness/brashness/intrepidness
mercurial/ly: quick/changeable in characater/fleeting
obsequious: seeking to please/falsely flattering (others)
percipient: insightful

Sentence #1

I postulate that Dumbledore is indeed a sagacious and rather hoary man. His perspicacity is unequivocal. He never upbraids corybantic students and doesn't show umbrage at Professor Umbridge, though she deserves it. He also never vacillates in his morals, nor is he prone to solecisms- he is a vestige of classier times.

postulate: to claim the existence of truth of
sagacious: shrewd, wise
hoary: very old
perspicacity: (see sagacious)
unequivocal: absolute, certain
corybantic: frenetic, frenzied
umbrage: offense, resentment
vacillate: to be indecisive, or to physically sway
solecism: grammatical mistake, blunder in speech

Salutations!

Welcome to our GRE vocabulary blog! We'll be using common GRE words in made-up sentences about Harry Potter to help you and ourselves study for the exam. Enjoy, and auspicious studying!





Disclaimer: Harry Potter and it's affiliations belong exclusively to J.K. Rowling. We do not claim any ownership of the characters, settings, plots, themes, etc. of the Harry Potter novels or films.