SSAT Synonym Practice Questions

Remember how we told you in chapter 6 to start working on your vocabulary skills? Well, having a good grasp of how words are put together will help you tremendously on Synonyms, particularly when you don’t know a vocabulary word. If you can break a word into pieces that you do understand, you’ll be able to answer questions that you might have thought too difficult to tackle.

Do you study a foreign language? If so, it can help you decode lots of vocabulary words on the SSAT or ISEE, particularly if it’s one of the Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese). Look at the example words below. Do you recognize any foreign language words in them?
• FACILITATE
• DORMANT
• EXPLICATE
Facile means “easy” in French and Italian; dormir means “to sleep” in French and Spanish; and expliquer means “to explain” in French.

Sometimes a word might look strange sitting on the page by itself, but if you think about it, you realize you’ve heard it before in other phrases. If you can put the word into context, such as in a cliché, you’re well on your way to deciphering its meaning. Take a look at the following example:
LAURELS:
(A) vine
(B) honor
(C) lavender
(D) cushion
(E) work
Have you heard the expression “Don’t rest on your laurels”? What do you think it might mean? “Don’t rest on your laurels” originated in ancient Greece, where heroes were given wreaths of laurel branches to signify their accomplishments. Saying you shouldn’t rest on your laurels is the same thing as saying you shouldn’t get too comfortable or smug, just enjoying your accomplishment rather than striving for improvement.

Even if you know nothing about the word, have never seen it before, don’t recognize any prefixes or roots, and can’t think of any word it resembles in another language, you can still make a stab at a Synonym question. One useful strategy when you’re stumped is Word Charge.
What do we mean by Word Charge? Are some words electric? Or do they spend too much money on credit cards? No and no. Word Charge refers to the sense that a word gives you as to whether it’s a positive word or a negative one.
VILIFY: This sounds like villain, a word most people would say is bad.
GLORIFY: This sounds like glorious, a word most people would say is good.
Let’s say that vilify has a negative charge (–) and glorify has a positive charge (+). On all Synonym questions, the correct answer will have the same charge as the stem word, so use your instincts about word charge to help you when you’re stuck on a tough word.
Often words that sound harsh have a negative meaning, while smooth-sounding words tend to have positive meanings. If cantankerous sounds negative to you, you would be right. It means difficult to handle.
You can also use prefixes and roots to help determine a word’s charge. Mal, de, dis, un, in, im, a, and mis often indicate a negative, while pro, ben, and magn are often positives.
Not all words sound positive; some sound neutral. But if you can define the charge, you can probably eliminate some answer choices on that basis alone.
Now let’s see how you did on identifying the charge of the words listed above.
Auspicious (+) means favorable; a malady (–) means an illness; noxious (–) means harmful; amiable (+) means agreeable; boorish (–) means rude; melancholy (–) means sadness; and humane (+) means kind.