Today's SAT word is below with its part of speech, a plain-English definition and an example sentence. A new word appears every day from our list of 369 high-frequency SAT words, and the quiz underneath tests you on the last 7 days of words so they stick.
Tip: Write down today's word and use it in a sentence of your own. Then come back at the end of the week and take the quiz.
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Today's word and the six before it, each shown in a sentence. Pick what the highlighted word means there, the way the SAT asks about words in context. Free, no account needed.
An SAT word is not an obscure word you'll never see again. College Board says the Reading and Writing section tests "high-utility academic words and phrases": words such as bolster, pragmatic or substantiate that turn up again and again in college-level reading across science, history and literature.
They are hard because they are common in academic writing but rare in conversation, so many students have seen them without ever pinning down what they mean.
Vocabulary is tested throughout the Reading and Writing section, always in context. It is tested most directly by Words in Context questions, which ask for the most logical and precise word or phrase for a passage, or what a word means as it is used. They are part of the Craft and Structure domain, about 28% of the section (13 to 15 of its 54 questions).
Transitions questions test a different kind of word: connecting words such as however, therefore and similarly. They belong to the Expression of Ideas domain (about 20%, 8 to 12 questions). Many other reading questions also turn on knowing one or two key words in the passage or the answer choices.
Each Reading and Writing module gives you 32 minutes for 27 questions, a little over a minute per question, and every question comes with its own passage of 25 to 150 words. If you know the words, you read each passage once and move on instead of rereading it.
A strong vocabulary also helps you spot the small differences in meaning that separate the right answer from a close wrong one.
Yes, but always in context. There is no list of words to define. Words in Context questions show a short passage and ask for the most logical and precise word or phrase, or what a word means as it is used. They belong to the Craft and Structure domain, about 28% of the Reading and Writing section (13 to 15 of its 54 questions), together with Text Structure and Purpose and Cross-Text Connections questions.
College Board does not publish an official word list or a target number. The SAT tests what it calls high-utility academic words: words that come up in college-level reading across subjects. Our list has 369 of them. Learning one a day and reviewing them weekly is a realistic pace; the full list is on the SAT vocabulary list page.
At midnight in your own time zone. The words rotate through our 369-word list in a fixed order, so everyone in the same time zone sees the same word, and the quiz on this page covers today's word and the 6 before it.
Use the word in a sentence of your own the same day, then test yourself on it later in the week instead of rereading the definition. Retrieval practice like the quiz on this page sticks better than reading a list. Then practice real Words in Context questions so you see how the SAT asks about words.
Ready to see how your vocabulary holds up on real SAT questions? Take a free full-length SAT practice test.
Sources: College Board, How the SAT Is Structured and Assessment Framework for the Digital SAT Suite. Last verified October 21, 2026.