ACT Vocabulary: What vocab words do I need to know for the ACT?

Fortunately, the ACT doesn’t really test any vocabulary words whatsoever.  Unlike the SAT, which has entire questions devoted solely to vocabulary words (the “sentence completion” problems), and many more “vocabulary in context” problems within its passages, the ACT is far more concerned with pure passage comprehension.

If you’re looking to enhance your vocabulary (a good call in general), you should check out my other quick guide:

SAT Words: Where do I find a list of SAT vocab words to study?

However, in general, rest assured that vocab is not a major focus of the ACT.  Every once in a while, you’ll need to know the definitions of some words based purely on context, but these have nothing to do with their dictionary definitions – you’ll simply need to understand how they’re being used within a sentence and find a synonym for them.  There won’t be any questions like this:

“What does Brobdignagian mean?”

If you’re focusing purely on the ACT, don’t worry about vocab study.  If you’re taking both the SAT and the ACT, then use the article above and start studying your vocabulary words ASAP!