Synonyms: Adjectives Describing Emotional States - SSAT Upper Level Verbal

"Voracious" is an adjective that means wanting or devouring great quantities of something, often food. So, we're looking for an adjective that has to do with food and specifically means extremely hungry. Three of the listed answer choices have to do with food: "edible" means able to be eaten, so it's not a synonym of "voracious." "Delicious" means pleasant to the taste, so it is also not a synonym of "voracious." "Ravenous," which means extremely hungry, is a synonym of "voracious," so it is the best answer choice.

"Placid" is an adjective that means not easily perturbed or excited when referring to a sentient living thing; it can also mean peaceful and calm, and is often used this way to describe bodies of water. While "dull" might seem like a good potential synonym for "placid," "dull" actually means boring or not sharp, so it doesn't mean the same thing that "placid" does. "Tranquil," however, means calm, and because it is the answer choice closest in meaning to "placid," it is the correct answer.

You may have seen the word tepid paired with the water in the past and assumed that it meant frigid (cold), stagnant (standing still), or Scalding (extremely hot), but the word actually means lukewarm or unenthusiastic.

"Morose" means ill-tempered, or "sullen."

"Aloof" means remote in manner, or "distant."

"Apathetic" means indifferent, emotionless, or "uninterested."

Keen means showing eagerness or enthusiasm.

Skeptical means having doubt.

Infuriated means made extremely angry, or enraged.

Contrite means remorseful and filled with the desire to repent.

Irate means very angry or furious.

Sensational means causing great public excitement, or shocking.

"Pensive" means thoughtful or reflective. The root wood, "pensare," means to consider.

"Despondent" means feeling hopeless.

If you are “aghast," you are horrified, so "horrified" is the correct answer. For clarification, "cerebral" means intelligent or brainy; "jubilant" means very happy; "scornful" means negative and insulting; and "ghostly" means spectral or like a phantom.

A “harrowing” experience is one that is scary and traumatizing. For clarification, something that is "traumatizing" causes the traumatized to feel lasting emotional shock.

"Vehement" means passionate or angry.

“Volatile” is an adjective that can mean “easily evaporated” when referring to a substance, “liable to change rapidly and unpredictably,” or when describing a person, “displaying rapid changes of emotion.” So, we need to pick out an answer choice that means something like “easily evaporated,” “changing rapidly,” or “rapid change of emotion.” That means that “stoic” cannot be the correct answer, because “stoic” means “enduring hardship without showing one’s feelings,” a meaning very distant from that of “volatile.” “Mercurial,” however, is an adjective that can mean “subject to unpredictable changes of mood or mind” when describing a person, and because “mercurial” is the answer choice closest in meaning to “volatile,” “mercurial” is the correct answer.

"Petulant" means irritable or impatient.