Stoic: meaning and SAT practice
Stoic (adjective) means: Showing little emotion, remaining calm under hardship.
Stoic in a sentence
She remained stoic despite receiving bad news.
Similar: impassive, calm, composed, unflappable, patient. Opposite: emotional, reactive.
SAT-style practice: what does “stoic” most nearly mean?
She remained stoic despite receiving bad news.
As used in the sentence, “stoic” most nearly means
- impassive
- dark
- sluggish
- praiseworthy
Show the answer
Answer: A. “stoic” means: Showing little emotion, remaining calm under hardship. “impassive” 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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