Quell: meaning and SAT practice
Quell (verb) means: To suppress or put an end to something forcefully.
Quell in a sentence
The police worked to quell the riot before it spread.
Similar: suppress, crush, subdue, extinguish, calm. Opposite: incite, provoke, ignite.
SAT-style practice: what does “quell” most nearly mean?
The police worked to quell the riot before it spread.
As used in the sentence, “quell” most nearly means
- precede
- retract
- quibble
- suppress
Show the answer
Answer: D. “quell” means: To suppress or put an end to something forcefully. “suppress” 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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