🔥 Exacerbate — Top SAT Vocabulary
EXACERBATE most nearly means: A) alleviate; B) enumerate; C) worsen; D) fabricate. Answer inside. 👉️
This one’s especially important! I’d put it in the top 100 SAT words you need to know.
📚️ Definition of Exacerbate
Exacerbate (verb): To make a problem, bad situation, or negative feeling worse or more intense than it already is. Example: remarks that exacerbate anxiety.
🗣️ Pronunciation of Exacerbate
IPA: /ɪɡˈzæs.ər.beɪt/ (See IPA key)
Respelling: ig-ZAS-ur-bayt
📰 Examples of Exacerbate
Here are some examples of the word exacerbate:
Skipping breakfast on test day can exacerbate feelings of anxiety, making it even harder to concentrate.
I think most parents quickly learn that telling a crying child to calm down, more often than not, only exacerbates the situation.
Daniel Wegner, the psychologist known for the famous “white bear” thought-suppression experiments [from Dostoevsky’s challenge to try not to think of a polar bear] believed that attempting to suppress negative thoughts actually tends to exacerbate them.
Quiz answer: C, worsen.
🧠 Summary of Exacerbate
Definition: Exacerbate means to make a problem, negative condition, or bad situation worse or more severe than it already is.
Examples: Sleep deprivation exacerbating stress, scratching a bug bite exacerbating the itch, or procrastination exacerbating deadline pressure.
Real-world connection: You’ll encounter exacerbate in news articles about health, climate, economics, and social issues or any situation in which one thing makes something else worse than it already is.
SAT relevance: Exacerbate is a high-frequency SAT word that appears in reading passages on science and social topics; it’s also commonly tested in vocabulary-in-context questions. Learn its antonym, ameliorate (to make better) as well.
Love this word!