SAT High Frequency Words : 71-80

1. Consensus (n) . general agreement. Every time the garden club members had nearly reached a consensus about what to plant, Mistress Mary, quite contrary, disagreed.
2. Constraint (n) . compulsion; repression of feelings. There was a feeling of constraint in the room because no one dared to criticize the speaker.
3. Contend (v) . struggle; compete; assert earnestly. Sociologist Harry Edwards contends that young black athletes are exploited by some college recruiters.
4. Contentious (adj) . quarrelsome. Disagreeing violently with the referee's’ ruling, the coach became so contentious that they threw him out of the game.
5. Contract (v) . compress or shrink; make a pledge; catch a disease. Warm metal expands; cold metal contracts.
6. Conviction (n) . judgment that someone is guilty of a crime; strongly held belief. Even her conviction for murder did not shake Peter’s conviction that Harriet was innocent of the crime.
7. Cordial (adj) . gracious; heartfelt. Our hosts greeted us at the airport with a cordial welcome and a hearty hug.
8. Corroborate (v) . confirm; support. Though Huck was quite willing to corroborate Tom’s story, Aunt Polly knew better than to believe either of them.
9. Credulity (n)  . belief on slight evidence; gullibility; naivete. Con artists take advantage of the credulity of inexperienced investors to swindle them out of their savings.
10. Criterion (n) . standard used in judging. What criterion did you use when you selected this essay as the prizewinner?