Top 100 Words for CAT Reading Comprehension Preparation
Don't get obsessed with memorizing new words. CAT RC does not test vocabulary in isolation — it tests how well you understand a word's meaning in context. A passage will often make a difficult word's sense clear through the surrounding sentences, tone, or argument, even if you've never seen the word before. So instead of chasing longer and longer word lists, focus on reading passages actively and inferring meaning from context — that skill matters far more on test day than raw recall of definitions.
Here is a list of top 100 relevant words. Don't memorize in isolation — always learn a word through its sentence and, ideally, a synonym/antonym pair. Try to use them in your daily thoughts if not communication and every once in a while revise to retain.
Try Visualization to Learn Words Faster
Instead of rote repetition, try picturing a vivid mental image for each word as you learn it. For example, for garrulous, imagine a talkative uncle at a family dinner who won't stop telling stories while everyone else wants to eat. For austere, picture a bare monk's room with nothing but a bed and a candle. This works because the brain remembers images and stories far more easily than abstract definitions — the sillier or more exaggerated the image, the stickier it tends to be. Pair this with the sentence given for each word, and you'll retain the word through both a picture and a real usage context, rather than a dry dictionary meaning.
1–10
Ambivalent (having mixed feelings) — She felt ambivalent about accepting the promotion, torn between ambition and the fear of losing free time.
Anachronistic (out of its proper time) — Critics called the policy anachronistic, better suited to an industrial era than a digital economy.
Ambiguous (open to more than one interpretation) — The committee's ambiguous statement left both sides claiming victory.
Assertion (a confident statement of fact) — The author's central assertion is that inequality stems from institutional design, not individual failure.
Austere (severe, plain, without luxury) — The monastery's austere lifestyle left no room for indulgence.
Benevolent (kind, well-meaning) — The benevolent foundation funded scholarships without expecting recognition.
Cacophony (a harsh mixture of sounds) — The trading floor dissolved into a cacophony of shouted orders.
Candid (frank, honest) — In a candid interview, the CEO admitted the product launch had failed.
Capricious (given to sudden, unpredictable change) — Investors grew wary of the capricious policy shifts.
Circumspect (cautious, wary of consequences) — Diplomats remained circumspect, choosing words that could not be misread as provocation.
11–20
Coherent (logical and consistent) — The essay lacked a coherent argument, jumping between unrelated claims.
Complacent (self-satisfied and unaware of danger) — Market leaders often grow complacent just before a disruptive rival emerges.
Conundrum (a confusing and difficult problem) — Balancing growth with sustainability remains a conundrum for policymakers.
Corroborate (confirm with evidence) — New satellite data corroborated the scientists' earlier predictions.
Cursory (hasty, not thorough) — A cursory glance at the report would miss its most damning footnote.
Deference (respectful submission to another's wishes) — Junior officers showed deference to the general's judgment even when they disagreed.
Deleterious (causing harm) — The report outlined the deleterious effects of unchecked deforestation on rainfall patterns.
Deride (mock, ridicule) — Critics derided the plan as unworkable long before it failed.
Diffident (lacking confidence, shy) — Despite his expertise, he remained diffident about presenting his findings.
Digress (depart from the main topic) — The professor tended to digress into anecdotes that, oddly, clarified the lecture.
21–30
Disparage (criticize unfairly, belittle) — Rival firms disparaged the startup's technology without testing it themselves.
Divergent (differing, developing in different directions) — The two economists offered divergent explanations for the same recession.
Dogmatic (asserting opinions as undeniably true) — A dogmatic adherence to old models blinded the analysts to new risks.
Eclectic (deriving from diverse sources) — Her eclectic reading habits shaped an unusually original thesis.
Egalitarian (believing in equality for all) — The reforms reflected an egalitarian vision of access to education.
Elucidate (make clear, explain) — The footnotes helped elucidate concepts the main text left vague.
Empirical (based on observation or experiment) — The claim rested on empirical data rather than theory alone.
Enervate (weaken, drain of energy) — Years of bureaucratic delay had enervated the once-ambitious agency.
Ephemeral (lasting a very short time) — Social media trends are often ephemeral, forgotten within days.
Equivocal (open to two interpretations, deliberately vague) — The spokesperson's equivocal answer satisfied no one.
31–40
Erudite (having great knowledge, scholarly) — The erudite historian traced the idea back to a forgotten 17th-century pamphlet.
Esoteric (understood by only a small group) — The paper's esoteric jargon alienated general readers.
Exacerbate (make a problem worse) — Rising fuel costs exacerbated an already fragile supply chain.
Exigent (urgent, pressing) — The crisis demanded exigent action, not another committee.
Extraneous (irrelevant, not essential) — The editor cut every extraneous detail from the final draft.
Fastidious (very attentive to detail, hard to please) — The fastidious auditor flagged even minor discrepancies.
Fortuitous (happening by chance, especially a happy one) — Their meeting was fortuitous; neither had planned to attend the conference.
Frugal (economical, sparing) — A frugal budget allowed the nonprofit to survive the funding drought.
Garrulous (excessively talkative) — The garrulous guide's stories, while entertaining, delayed the tour by an hour.
Hackneyed (overused, unoriginal) — The report leaned on hackneyed phrases instead of fresh analysis.
41–50
Hegemony (dominance, especially by one state over others) — The book examines the decline of Western economic hegemony.
Iconoclast (one who attacks cherished beliefs) — The young economist was an iconoclast, dismantling decades of accepted theory.
Impassive (showing no emotion) — The judge remained impassive as the verdict was read.
Imperious (arrogantly domineering) — His imperious tone alienated the very colleagues he needed to persuade.
Impetuous (acting quickly without thought) — An impetuous decision to expand abroad cost the company dearly.
Incongruous (out of place, inconsistent) — A skyscraper looked incongruous among the village's thatched roofs.
Indolent (lazy) — The indolent bureaucracy let the proposal languish for years.
Ineffable (too great to be expressed in words) — Witnesses described an ineffable sense of awe at the discovery.
Innocuous (harmless) — What seemed an innocuous clause turned out to reshape the entire contract.
Insular (isolated, narrow-minded) — Critics called the policy insular, ignoring how deeply the economy was globalized.
51–60
Intransigent (unwilling to compromise) — Both parties remained intransigent, and the talks collapsed.
Inured (accustomed to something unpleasant) — Long exposure to conflict had left the reporters inured to violence.
Laconic (using very few words) — His laconic reply gave away nothing about his real intentions.
Lament (express sorrow or regret) — Economists lament the erosion of manufacturing jobs in the region.
Lucid (clear, easy to understand) — Her lucid explanation made a dense topic accessible to beginners.
Magnanimous (generous, forgiving) — In a magnanimous gesture, the winning team credited its rivals' strategy.
Malleable (easily influenced or shaped) — Young markets are more malleable, and thus more attractive to reformers.
Meticulous (very careful and precise) — The meticulous audit uncovered discrepancies no one else had noticed.
Myriad (a countless or very great number) — The city faces a myriad of challenges, from traffic to housing.
Nascent (just coming into existence) — Investors were cautious about the nascent industry's untested technology.
61–70
Nebulous (unclear, vague, cloudy) — The startup's nebulous business plan worried potential investors.
Obdurate (stubbornly refusing to change) — The regulator stayed obdurate despite industry-wide pushback.
Obfuscate (deliberately make unclear) — The footnotes seemed designed to obfuscate rather than clarify the terms.
Ostentatious (designed to impress, showy) — The ostentatious headquarters contrasted sharply with the firm's modest profits.
Panacea (a solution for all problems) — Technology is often marketed as a panacea for problems it cannot solve.
Paradox (a seemingly contradictory statement that may be true) — It's a paradox that abundance can breed as much anxiety as scarcity.
Parsimonious (extremely unwilling to spend money) — The parsimonious founder famously worked from a shared desk for years.
Perfunctory (done with minimum effort, routine) — The perfunctory review missed several glaring errors.
Pernicious (having a harmful effect, insidious) — Complacency can be more pernicious than outright failure.
Placate (make someone less angry) — The airline offered vouchers to placate stranded passengers.
71–80
Plausible (seeming reasonable or probable) — The theory sounded plausible until new evidence contradicted it.
Precarious (not securely held, uncertain) — The region's economy remains precarious, dependent on a single export.
Pragmatic (dealing with things sensibly, practically) — She took a pragmatic approach, prioritizing feasibility over ideology.
Prolific (producing much, abundant) — The prolific author published a book almost every year.
Propensity (a natural tendency to behave in a certain way) — Consumers show a propensity to overvalue immediate rewards.
Prosaic (dull, unimaginative, ordinary) — After the excitement of the launch, daily operations felt prosaic.
Prudent (acting with care and foresight) — A prudent investor diversifies rather than chasing a single trend.
Quandary (a state of uncertainty over what to do) — The board faced a quandary: cut costs or cut quality.
Recalcitrant (stubbornly resistant to authority) — The recalcitrant faction refused to ratify the agreement.
Reticent (reluctant to speak, reserved) — He remained reticent about the details of the merger.
81–90
Salient (most noticeable or important) — The report's most salient finding was the sharp rise in youth unemployment.
Sanguine (optimistic, positive) — Despite the downturn, the CEO stayed sanguine about long-term growth.
Skeptical (doubting the truth of something) — Reviewers were skeptical of claims unsupported by peer-reviewed data.
Spurious (false, not genuine, based on faulty reasoning) — The correlation turned out to be spurious once other variables were controlled.
Stoic (enduring hardship without complaint) — She remained stoic through years of setbacks before the breakthrough came.
Superfluous (unnecessary, more than needed) — The editor trimmed every superfluous adjective from the piece.
Tacit (understood without being stated) — There was a tacit agreement not to discuss salaries openly.
Tenuous (very weak or slight) — The link between the two events was tenuous at best.
Transient (lasting only a short time) — Job security in the gig economy is often transient.
Ubiquitous (present everywhere) — Smartphones have become ubiquitous even in remote villages.
91–100
Unequivocal (leaving no doubt, clear) — The court's ruling was unequivocal, closing off any appeal.
Vacillate (waver between different opinions) — The committee vacillated for months before approving the merger.
Veracity (conformity to truth, accuracy) — Journalists must verify the veracity of a claim before publishing it.
Verbose (using more words than needed) — The verbose report buried its one useful insight in jargon.
Vicarious (experienced through another person's actions) — Fans felt vicarious pride watching the underdog team win.
Vindicate (clear of blame, prove right) — Later data vindicated the analyst's unpopular forecast.
Virulent (bitterly hostile, or extremely infectious) — The article sparked a virulent backlash on social media.
Voracious (having a huge appetite, insatiable) — A voracious reader, she finished three books a week.
Whimsical (playfully quaint or fanciful) — The whimsical illustrations softened an otherwise serious report.
Zealous (having great energy for a cause) — Zealous reformers pushed the bill through despite fierce opposition.
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