GRE Visual Word List

ARDUOUS: hard; strenuous EXAMPLE: Her arduous efforts had sapped her energy. SYNONYMS: burdensome, exhausting, formidable, grueling, laborious, onerous, painful, rigorous, rough, severe, strenious, taxing, tiring, toilsome, tough, ANTONYMS: easy, facile, motivating   EXERTION: effort; expenditure of much physical work EXAMPLE: The exertion involved in unscrewing the rusty bolt left her exhausted. SYNONYMS: effort; endeavour, exercise, industry, labour, pains, strain, striving, struggle, toil, travail, trail, trouble, ANTONYMS: idleness, laziness GRUELING: exhausting EXAMPLE: The marathon is a grueling race. SYNONYMS: arduous, demanding, exhausting, faitiguing, hard, harsh, labourious, punishing, severe, strenuous, tiring, torturous, ANTONYMS: easy, facile LABORIOUS: demanding much work or care; tedious EXAMPLE: In putting together his dictionary of the English language, Doctor Johnson undertook a laborious task. SYNONYMS: arduous, burdensome, fatiguing, labored, onerous, strenuous, tiresome, toilsome, wearisome, ANTONYMS: easy, effortless, facile, simple, trivial,rivial PRIVATION: hardship; want EXAMPLE: In private company one would suffer privation; SYNONYMS: destitution, disadvantage, hardship, indigence, lack, need, poverty, want, ANTONYMS: luxury, plenty CUMBERSOME: heavy; hard to manage EXAMPLE: He was burdened down with cumbersome parcels. SYNONYMS: bulky, burdensome, inconvenient, massive, oppressive, ponderous, tiresome, unhandy, unmanageable, unwieldy, earisome, weighty, ANTONYMS: manageable, easy to handle, graceful ONEROUS: burdensome EXAMPLE: He asked for an assistant because his work load was too onerous. SYNONYMS: arduous, cumbersome, demanding, difficult, distressing, exacting, exhausting, fatiguing, formidable, grueling, irksome, laborious, severe, strenuous, taxing, tiresome, ANTONYMS: common, easy, light, trivial ENCUMBER: Burden EXAMPLE: Some people encumber themselves with too much luggage, when they take short trips. ONUS: burden; responsibility EXAMPLE: The emperor was spared the onus of signing the surrender papers; instead, he relegated the assignment to his generals. SYNONYMS: duty, encumbrance, incubus, liability, obligation, responsibility, stigma, task, tax, weight, ANTONYMS: aid, benefit, blessing, help  INCUBUS: burden; mental care; nightmare EXAMPLE: The incubus of financial worry helped bring on her nervous breakdown. SYNONYMS: demon, devil, fiend, goblin, hobgoblin, nightmare, ANTONYMS: advantage, benefit