RxPG - Word List for GRE: Words starting with P-Q

paean - song of praise or triumph
palate - roof of the mouth sense of taste
palatial - magnificent
palliate - lessen the severity of
palpability - can be felt touched understood
palpitate - tremble beat rapidly and irregularly
panegyric - formal praise eulogy

paradigm - a model example or pattern
parenthesis - sentence within another one something separated
pariah - an outcast a rejected and despised person
parsimonious - too economical miserly
partisan - one-sided committed to a party biased or prejudiced
patron - regular customer person who gives support
paucity - scarcity a lacking of
peccadillo - small sin small weakness in one's character
pedantic - bookish showing off learning
pedestrian - commonplace trite unremarkable
pellucid - transparent easy to understand
penchant - strong inclination a liking
penitent - feeling or showing regret
penurious - poor/stingy
penury - extreme poverty
peregrination - travelling about wandering
peremptory - urgent imperative unchallengeable ending debate
perfidious - treacherous faithless
perfidy - treachery breaking of faith
perfunctory - done as a duty without care
perilous - dangerous
peripatetic - wandering
perish - be destroyed decay
perjury - wilful FALSE statement unlawful act
permeate - spread into every part of
pernicious - harmful injurious
perpetrate - be guilty commit (a crime)
personable - pleasing in appearance attractive
perspicacity - quick judging and understanding
pertain - belong as a part have reference
pest - destructive thing or a person who is nuisance
petrified - taken away power (to think feel act)
petrify - to make hard rocklike
petrous - like a rock hard stony
petulant - unreasonably impatient
philistine - a smug ignorant person one who lacks knowledge
phlegmatic - calm sluggish temperament unemotional
picaresque - involving clever rogues or adventurers
pied - of mixed colours
pinch - be too tight take between the thumb and finger
pine - waste away through sorrow or illness
pious - dutiful to parents devoted to religion
piquant - agreeably pungent stimulating
pique - hurt the pride or self-respect stir (curiosity)
pitfall - covered hole as a trap unsuspected danger
pith - essential part force soft liquid substance
pivotal - of great importance (others depend on it)
placate - soothe pacify calm
plaintive - mournful melancholy sorrowful
plaque - flat metal on a wall as a memorial
platitude - a trite or banal statement unoriginality
plea - request
plead - address a court of law as an advocate
plethora - glut
pliant - pliable easily bent shaped or twisted
plod - continue doing something without resting
pluck - pull the feathers off pick (e.g.. flowers)
plumb - get to the root of
plummet - fall plunge steeply
plunge - move quickly suddenly and with force
poignant - deeply moving keen
poncho - large piece of cloth
ponderous - heavy bulky dull
portent - omen marvellous threatening
precarious - uncertain risky dangerous
precepts - rules establishing standards of conduct
preclude - prevent make impossible
precursory - preliminary anticipating
predilection - special liking mental preference
predominate - have more power than others
preen - tidy/show self-satisfaction
premature - doing or happening something before the right time
preponderance - greatness in number strength weight
presage - warning sign
presumption - arrogance
preternatural - not normal or usual
prevalent - common
prevaricate - to equivocate to stray from the truth
prim - neat formal
pristine
probity - uprightness incorruptibility principle
proclivity - inclination
procrastination - keeping on putting off
prodigal - wasteful reckless with money
prodigious - enormous wonderful
profane - worldly having contempt for God
profligacy - shameless immorality
profligate - wasteful prodigal licentious extravagant
profundity - depth
profuse - abundant/lavish
proliferate - grow reproduce by rapid multification
prolix - tiring because too long
prone - prostrate inclined to (undesirable things)
propagation - increasing the number spreading extending
propinquity - nearness in time or place affinity of nature
propitiatory - conciliatory appeasing mitigating
propitious - auspicious presenting favourable circumstances
prosaic - everyday mundane commonplace trite pedestrian
proscribe - denounce as dangerous
protracted - prolonged
provident - frugal looking to the future
provisional - of the present time only
provoke - make angry vax
prudence - careful forethought
prudish - easily shocked excessively modest
prune - dried plum silly person
pry - get something inquire too curiously
pucker - wrinkle
pugnacious - fond of in the habit of fighting
puissance - strength
punctilious - precise paying attention to trivialities
pundit - pedant authority on a subject
pungency - sharpness stinging quality
purvey - provide supply
pusillanimous - cowardly craven
putrefaction - becoming rotten
pyre - large pile of wood for burning
quack - person dishonestly claiming to something
quaff - drink deeply
quail - lose courage turn frightened
qualm - feeling of doubt temporary feeling of sickness
quandary - state of doubt or perplexity
quell - suppress subdue
quibble - try to avoid by sophistication
quiescence - state of being passive/motionless
quiescent - at rest dormant torpid
quirk - habit or action peculiar to somebody or something
quixotic - generous unselfish
quotidian - banal everyday
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