{"id":6634,"date":"2014-03-18T11:40:12","date_gmt":"2014-03-18T15:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/?p=6634"},"modified":"2019-08-30T16:43:09","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T16:43:09","slug":"animal-planet-some-gre-vocabulary-from-the-animal-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/animal-planet-some-gre-vocabulary-from-the-animal-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal Planet: Some GRE Vocabulary from the Animal Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gre-words-vocabulary\"<\/a>There are some vocabulary words related to animals that you may have no reason to know if you don\u2019t normally read, write, or talk a lot about animals. Many of them are conventionally used to discuss animals or come from talking about animals, but are then used in other contexts.<\/p>\n

Here are just 15 examples of some animal vocabulary! Many of these words have taken on a less literal meaning outside of the animal kingdom.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Fleece. <\/b>Fleece is the wool on a sheep or similar animal. So when something is \u201cfleeced\u201d, that literally means to cover with something, as skin would be covered with fleece. For example, one might describe the sky as \u201cfleeced with clouds\u201d. Figuratively, to fleece someone is to shake them down for money \u2013 similar to the expression \u201ctaking the shirt off someone\u2019s back\u201d, it implies stripping them in some way, much like removing fleece from a sheep.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Molt. <\/b>When an animal molts, it sheds its feathers, fur, hair or skin to make way for new growth. It\u2019s a regular part of most animals\u2019 life cycles. Sometimes, the word molt can be used figuratively to refer to shedding parts of the past to make room to grow or change, generally in a positive way.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. Ferret. <\/b>A ferret is a curious, weasel-y creature that can sneak into and out of almost any tight spot. To \u201cferret\u201d is to search around for something, or to tenaciously seek something out and find it. You will often see it used with the prepositions \u201cout\u201d or \u201caround\u201d; you can \u201cferret around\u201d a messy drawer or \u201cferret out\u201d the facts of a case.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. Carrion. <\/b>Carrion is the decaying flesh of a dead animal, often food for another animal in the wild. (It\u2019s also a pretty great Fiona Apple song, if you\u2019re looking for a great song and a good mnemonic all in one.)\u00a0 It can be used figuratively to describe something destroyed and devoured by something else: \u201cThe executive pounced on the carrion of the rejected interviewee.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \n
          1. Chameleon. <\/b>A chameleon is a lizard that can change its color to blend in with its surroundings. It\u2019s not surprising that \u201cchameleon\u201d is often used metaphorically to describe a person who blends in with a particular surrounding that isn\u2019t natural to him or her.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
              \n
            1. Fodder. <\/b>Fodder is food, generally for livestock, generally referring to dried feed or hay. That\u2019s the literal meaning. Figuratively, fodder is anything that\u2019s used as material for the use of sustaining something else. \u201cHis terrible decisions were fodder for our office jokes\u201d or \u201cdesperate workers were fodder for his offers for overtime.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                \n
              1. Plumage. <\/b>Plumage is a word for a bird\u2019s feathers, particularly used when those feathers are colorful or attractive. It might be used metaphorically to describe someone\u2019s showy or attractive outfit or appearance.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                  \n
                1. Earmark. <\/b>To mark the ear of an animal to show your particular ownership of it is to earmark it, as one might so with a cow or sheep. Thus, to \u201cearmark\u201d something is to designate it for a particular purpose or owner. An earmark is also a characteristic or identifying feature, much like the particular earmark on an animal would identify who owned it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                    \n
                  1. Gadfly. <\/b>A gadfly is any fly that bites or bothers livestock. Based on that definition, we now use \u201cgadfly\u201d to describe an annoying person, especially one who provokes others by criticizing them. I\u2019m sure you have a gadfly in your office.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                      \n
                    1. Prey. <\/b>Prey is an animal hunted or killed by another animal for food, and to prey on an animal is to hunt it and kill it for food. Metaphorically, to prey on someone is to seek them out and destroy them or take advantage of them. A payday lender could prey on needy customers, or a salesman could prey on your ignorance of car prices.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                        \n
                      1. Menagerie. <\/b>A menagerie is technically a collection of wild animals collected for people to view, like a zoo. More loosely, it has come to describe a strange, interesting, or diverse collection of people or things.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                          \n
                        1. Minnow. <\/b>A minnow is a tiny fish. \u201cTiny\u201d is the important part here, as a minnow would often go unnoticed in the sea, and be easily replaced by another tiny fish. Thus, a \u201cminnow\u201d can also be an unimportant person or organization. For example, you could say, \u201cTom\u2019s Office Supplies is a minnow in the office supply store industry.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                            \n
                          1. Feral. <\/b>A feral animal is a wild animal. It is generally used to describe an animal that is usually captive or domestic, such as a feral cat or feral dog. It is used more broadly to describe an animal, person, or action that is wild, undomesticated, or untamable. For example, the feral child running down the grocery store cereal aisle might give you a feral snarl when you ask her to calm down.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                              \n
                            1. Fancier. <\/b>Most of the time, a fancier is someone who breeds or is particularly interested in a certain type of animal. It can be applied to describe anyone who is a connoisseur or enthusiast of any particular thing, however; one can be a wine fancier or a fountain pen fancier.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                                \n
                              1. Flounder. <\/b>\u00a0A flounder is a fish that swims and lies on its side. To \u201cflounder\u201d is to struggle or thrash around or to squirm. It can be used literally, as in \u201cthe child floundered in the muddy water\u201d. It is often used figuratively as well: \u201con the stand, the witness floundered, stammering and back-peddling to the embarrassment of his attorney.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                Many words related to animals (or plants, for that matter) can be reinforced by a Google image search to help you associate them with pictures. That is especially true of animal-related words that don\u2019t really have any other meaning or implication, such as crepuscular, dorsal, fauna, equestrian, herbivorous, ewe, and ornithologist.<\/p>\n

                                Can you think of any other good animal-related GRE words?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                                There are some vocabulary words related to animals that you may have no reason to know if you don\u2019t normally read, write, or talk a lot about animals. Many of them are conventionally used to discuss animals or come from talking about animals, but are then used in other contexts. Here are just 15 examples […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[129,133,180,191,192,338,1362341],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-6634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-verbal","category-vocabulary","tag-graduate-records-examination","tag-gre","tag-gre-test-prep","tag-gre-vocab","tag-gre-vocabulary","tag-vocab","tag-vocabulary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6807,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6634\/revisions\/6807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6634"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}