With thousands of words to memorize, the SAT often leads to students to jumble up words in their heads. It’s hard to separate the most common SAT words from the no-shows on test day. And it’s hardly their faults—the English language is consists of many words that either look and/or sound very similar. See if you know the difference between the words below.
Loathe vs. Loath
The first word is the most common one, as in: I loathe you—you ate all my yummy chocolates. An easy way to remember that loathe means ‘to hate intensely’ is to look at the last four letters: lo‘athe’. If you unscramble ‘athe’ you get hate.
I wish I had a fun nifty mnemonic for loath, but alas I don’t. To be loath is to be reluctant.
He was loath to study for the SAT, but realized his future was at stake.
Indigent vs. Indigenous
The first word is an adjective which means ‘very poor’. It can also work as a noun:
The indigents down by the railroad tracks slept in soggy cardboard boxes.
The second word means ‘native to a certain area’.
Despite what many believe, the kiwi is not a fruit indigenous to New Zealand but was originally grown in China.
Discrete vs. Discreet
To be discreet simply means ‘not to draw attention to something’. This word is more commonly used than discrete.
The student discreetly raised her hand and asked softly whether she could leave to use the restroom.
Discrete means ‘broken into distinct groups’. For the word ‘discrete’, I do have a nifty mnemonic: notice the ‘t’ in discrete. It breaks up the two ‘e’s. Now the two e’s are discrete (they are split by the ‘t’).
Extant vs. Extinct
The first word means ‘still existing’. The second means ‘no longer in existence’.
Many of Shakespeare’s original manuscripts are extant—the same cannot be said of Euripides’ works.
Deter vs. Defer
The first word means ‘to prevent something from happen, usually by threat’. The second can mean ‘to submit to another person’s judgment or authority’. It can also mean ‘to put aside for later’.
The word ‘defer’ has many different definitions but don’t let that deter you from learning it.
Hopefully the tricks I used in these words also show how to remember SAT vocabulary in a way that’s better than just remembering or scrolling through SAT vocabulary flashcards.
Leave a Reply