GRE Prep: Common GRE Words(Part-6)

arfaqur-rahman (32)in #education • 7 years ago

Got bogged down in the maze of countless vocabs? Having a hard time learning new words for GRE? Well, I'm here to help you out. In this post, we will learn five new words in context from different movies. Let's get cracking!

Amalgam (adjective)

a mixture of multiple things
Something that is an amalgam of two or more things is a mixture of them. In Chemistry, amalgam can also refer to a mixture of mercury and another metal.
—The show was a wonderful amalgam of dance, music, and drama.
—Dentists use silver-colored mercury amalgam (mercury mixed, about 50/50, with a combination of silver, tin, copper and other metals) to fill cavities.

_{_{Excerpt from the Tv Show: Breaking Bad}}

banality(noun)

a trite or obvious remark
Banality is saying "Nice weather", while waiting in the train station, to the guy standing next to you. Overused expressions--like "Live every day like it's your last"--that are used so often that they have become clichéd and tend to annoy people are examples of banalities.
—There is an essential banality to the story he tells.
—To me his speech seemed like a round-robin of banalities, but the Zimbabwe journalists sitting on the floor with me before the dais interpreted it in the light of what had come before.

_{_{Excerpt from the Movie: Se7en 1995}}

capricious(adjective)

determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason
Someone who is capricious often changes their mind unexpectedly and abruptly without apparent reason. Capricious weather means the weather is changing too quickly ,i.e., once it is stormy and an hour later it is sunny again.
—My boss is a capricious personality , treating one employee angrily for making a mistake and another pleasantly for good performance.
—Such capricious investing behaviour often ends in tears.

_{_{Excerpt from the Movie: Clueless 1995}}

demure(adjective)

(of a woman or her behaviour) reserved, modest, and shy
If you describe someone, usually a young woman, as demure, you mean they are quiet and rather shy, usually in a way that you like and find appealing, and behave very correctly.
—Two demure little girls sat near their mother.
—Noted for her fragile and demure appearance, she was usually cast as the little sister or the heroine's best friend in light comedies and adventure films.

_{_{Excerpt from the Tv Show: Spartacus}}

efficacy(noun)

the ability to produce a desired or intended result
If you talk about the efficacy of something, you are talking about its effectiveness and its ability to do what it is supposed to.
—They recently ran a series of tests to measure the efficacy of the drug.
—Well, I don't have a huge list of examples but I've seen enough to convince me of it's efficacy.