Recondite: meaning and SAT practice
Recondite (adjective) means: Difficult to understand; requiring specialized knowledge or deep study.
Recondite in a sentence
The professor's recondite lecture on quantum physics left most students confused and frustrated.
Similar: obscure, complex, abstruse, esoteric. Opposite: simple, clear, obvious.
SAT-style practice: what does “recondite” most nearly mean?
The professor's recondite lecture on quantum physics left most students confused and frustrated.
As used in the sentence, “recondite” most nearly means
- obscure
- elaborate
- skeletal
- sluggish
Show the answer
Answer: A. “recondite” means: Difficult to understand; requiring specialized knowledge or deep study. “obscure” 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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