{"id":1709,"date":"2014-03-01T00:58:50","date_gmt":"2014-03-01T00:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/?p=1709"},"modified":"2015-04-14T23:49:33","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T23:49:33","slug":"sat-vocab-friday-super-confusing-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/sat-vocab-friday-super-confusing-words\/","title":{"rendered":"SAT Vocab Friday &#8211; Super Confusing Words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many people learning English claim that our language is illogical. They\u2019ll usually point the finger at spelling, saying that the laws are so irregular that they are not of much use.<\/p>\n<p>You might agree with them\u2014somewhat. But in general, you\u2019ve grown up spelling most words, so it\u2019s not that big of a deal. But now\u2014with the SAT vocab monster bearing down on you\u2014you have all these words to learn. What\u2019s most irritating, though, isn\u2019t the spelling per se, but the fact that many words look awfully similar. In fact, you often think one word means something, when you are actually thinking of another word\u2014one that looks eerily similar.<\/p>\n<p>So, in honor of such galling words, I\u2019ve created a Vocab Friday that is bound to stump you. That is, at least one of the words below doesn\u2019t actually mean what you thought it did.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/80WnthUzBz8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Imprudent vs. Impudent<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The first one is the opposite of \u201cprudent\u201d, which means careful when planning some future course of action. Imprudent is the opposite of prudent. Go on a six-hour hike without any water\u2014imprudent.<\/p>\n<p>Somebody who is <i>impudent<\/i>, on the other hand, is cheeky. Let\u2019s say somebody in your class keeps making fun of the teacher to his or her face. I\u2019d say that is pretty impudent, because a teacher is a person worthy of respect (though you may not always feel that way).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Formidable vs. Formative<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Oh, the first three years of life, when so much of who we become is determined. Formative years or formidable years? Well, unless those years were really intimidating, you probably want to use \u201cformative\u201d, which means having a lasting influence on.<\/p>\n<p>Formidable, on the other hand, means anything that fills you with fear and trepidation, because it so mighty and intimidating. The SAT, 1:1 against Lebron James, hiking Mt. Everest\u2014all are formidable tasks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Devious vs. Deviant<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Want a word that can describe either somebody who is underhanded and unethical, or a road full of twists and turns? Well then, devious is the perfect word for you.<\/p>\n<p>But what exactly is a deviant? Anybody who engages in behavior that society deems immoral is a deviant. Justin Bieber\u2014love him or loathe him\u2014has become quite a deviant, as his latest exploits in Florida suggest.<\/p>\n<p>So be careful not to mix up \u201cdevious\u201d with \u201cdeviant\u201d or you may offend someone.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Conscientious vs. Conscious vs. Unconscionable vs. Unconscious<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Have a strong sense of morality and ethics, right and wrong? Well, then you are conscientious. For instance, somebody who disagrees with war on moral grounds is called a conscientious objector.<\/p>\n<p>To be conscious or have consciousness is to be awake or alert (nobody is going to give you the Nobel Peace prize for consciousness).<\/p>\n<p>If something is totally and utterly unacceptable\u2014a thing you would never do\u2014then that behavior is unconscionable. Drag racing and urinating in public come to mind (okay, sorry, I\u2019ll lay off the Bieb).<\/p>\n<p>Unconscious is the opposite of conscious. Make sure that during the SAT, if nothing else, that you are not unconscious. Hopefully, you\u2019ll get more than 600, which is pretty unconscionable for most.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many people learning English claim that our language is illogical. They\u2019ll usually point the finger at spelling, saying that the laws are so irregular that they are not of much use. You might agree with them\u2014somewhat. But in general, you\u2019ve grown up spelling most words, so it\u2019s not that big of a deal. But now\u2014with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[31,66,32,88,34],"ppma_author":[24882],"class_list":["post-1709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","tag-sat-mnemonics","tag-sat-video-fridays","tag-sat-video-post","tag-sat-vocabulary","tag-sat-word-lists"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SAT Vocab Friday - Super Confusing Words - Magoosh Blog | SAT<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/sat-vocab-friday-super-confusing-words\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SAT Vocab Friday - Super Confusing Words\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many people learning English claim that our language is illogical. They\u2019ll usually point the finger at spelling, saying that the laws are so irregular that they are not of much use. You might agree with them\u2014somewhat. But in general, you\u2019ve grown up spelling most words, so it\u2019s not that big of a deal. But now\u2014with [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/sat-vocab-friday-super-confusing-words\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Magoosh Blog | SAT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshSat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChrisLeleMagoosh1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-01T00:58:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-14T23:49:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Lele\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@chrismagoosh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MagooshSAT_ACT\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Lele\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/sat-vocab-friday-super-confusing-words\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/sat-vocab-friday-super-confusing-words\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Lele\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/#\/schema\/person\/3b6630b4f786513b81a860849cffd546\"},\"headline\":\"SAT Vocab Friday &#8211; Super Confusing Words\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-01T00:58:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/sat-vocab-friday-super-confusing-words\/\"},\"wordCount\":544,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"SAT Mnemonics\",\"SAT Video Fridays\",\"SAT Video Post\",\"SAT Vocabulary\",\"SAT Word Lists\"],\"articleSection\":[\"SAT\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/sat-vocab-friday-super-confusing-words\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/sat-vocab-friday-super-confusing-words\/\",\"name\":\"SAT Vocab Friday - Super Confusing Words - Magoosh Blog | SAT\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-01T00:58:50+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/sat-vocab-friday-super-confusing-words\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/sat-vocab-friday-super-confusing-words\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/sat-vocab-friday-super-confusing-words\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"SAT Vocab Friday &#8211; Super Confusing Words\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/\",\"name\":\"Magoosh Blog | SAT\",\"description\":\"SAT Test Preparation and Information\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Magoosh\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/files\/2019\/02\/Magoosh-logo-purple-60h.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/files\/2019\/02\/Magoosh-logo-purple-60h.png\",\"width\":265,\"height\":60,\"caption\":\"Magoosh\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshSat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MagooshSAT_ACT\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/#\/schema\/person\/3b6630b4f786513b81a860849cffd546\",\"name\":\"Chris Lele\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/0acb1b2097fd77b56ab6475c9b41cb27\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39381a6b4ab74cd4c87c7e678683c33c3b18f1e14f6f0ac762a946185968952b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39381a6b4ab74cd4c87c7e678683c33c3b18f1e14f6f0ac762a946185968952b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chris Lele\"},\"description\":\"Chris graduated from UCLA with a BA in Psychology and has 20 years of experience in the test prep industry. 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He's been quoted as a subject expert in many publications, including US News, GMAC, and Business Because.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChrisLeleMagoosh1\/","ttps:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/chris-lele-095005a0","https:\/\/twitter.com\/chrismagoosh","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCZ4sGYJ6l0cgnVNIHY8GY6w"],"knowsAbout":["GRE","GMAT","SAT","ACT","MCAT (CARS)","LSAT"],"jobTitle":"Principal Curriculum Manager","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/author\/chris\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":24882,"user_id":10,"is_guest":0,"slug":"chris","display_name":"Chris Lele","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39381a6b4ab74cd4c87c7e678683c33c3b18f1e14f6f0ac762a946185968952b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Lele","first_name":"Chris","description":"Chris Lele is the Principal Curriculum Manager (and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Vocabulary-Builder-Workbook-Activities-Must-Know\/dp\/193975481X\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">vocabulary wizard<\/a>) at Magoosh. Chris graduated from UCLA with a BA in Psychology and has 20 years of experience in the test prep industry. He's been quoted as a subject expert in many publications, including<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/education\/best-colleges\/slideshows\/10-test-prep-tips-for-sat-and-act-takers\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> US News<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mba.com\/exams-and-exam-prep\/gmat-exam\/why-take-the-gmat-in-2021-when-many-schools-are-test-optional\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> GMAC<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessbecause.com\/news\/gmat\/3263\/mba-admissions-gre-challenges-gmat\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Business Because<\/a>.\r\n\r\n\r\nIn his time at Magoosh, Chris has taught countless students how to tackle the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/GRE-Prep-Magoosh\/dp\/1939418917\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> GRE<\/a>, GMAT, SAT, ACT, MCAT (CARS), and LSAT exams with confidence. Some of his students have even gone on to get near-perfect scores. You can find Chris on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCZ4sGYJ6l0cgnVNIHY8GY6w\">YouTube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/chris-lele-095005a0\"> LinkedIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chrismagoosh\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChrisLeleMagoosh1\/\">Facebook<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1709"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}