PSAT 8/9 vocabulary, grouped by what the words mean.
Alphabetical word lists are how vocabulary gets published, not how it gets learned. These 30 guides split 479 foundational words into themes — certainty and doubt, cause and effect, wealth and poverty — so each study session covers words that reinforce each other instead of words that merely start with the same letter.
Every entry carries its part of speech, a plain-English definition, an example sentence showing the word in context, and a memory cue. Open a theme to read its full word list on this site, or download the PDF and print it.
How to use them
Pick one theme per study session rather than working front to back. Read the definition, say the word aloud, then reread the example sentence — the PSAT 8/9 never tests a word in isolation, so the sentence matters more than the definition does. Come back to the themes you found hardest a few days later; spacing the repeats is what moves words into long-term memory.
For the full alphabetical reference, see the PSAT 8/9 vocabulary list. To see how the words are tested, the PSAT 8/9 course covers every question type on the exam. And when you're ready to look ahead, the SAT vocabulary guides continue these same themes at the next level.