Crotchety: meaning and SAT practice
Crotchety (adjective) means: Bad-tempered, irritable, and prone to complaining.
Crotchety in a sentence
My crotchety grandfather complains about everything, from the weather to his coffee.
Similar: grumpy, cranky, irritable, cantankerous. Opposite: cheerful, pleasant.
SAT-style practice: what does “crotchety” most nearly mean?
My crotchety grandfather complains about everything, from the weather to his coffee.
As used in the sentence, “crotchety” most nearly means
- slanderous
- grumpy
- dark
- oily
Show the answer
Answer: B. “crotchety” means: Bad-tempered, irritable, and prone to complaining. “grumpy” is the closest match in this sentence. The other choices are real SAT-level words, but none of them carries that meaning here.
On the digital SAT this is the “Words in Context” skill, about 7 of the 54 Reading and Writing questions. The test asks what a word means as used in the passage, so a word’s most common meaning is not always the answer. More of these, with full explanations, are on SAT Words in Context practice questions.
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