GRE Sentence Equivalence Sample Questions

GRE Sentence Equivalence Questions 

Prepping for the GRE? After you secure the very best GRE prep options for yourself, you'd better crack open the book, open up the app, or start chatting with your tutor about the the GRE Verbal section because it is an absolute doozy. It contains three types of questions: text completions, reading comprehension questions, and these sentence equivalence questions that will knock your socks off if you're not careful.

Read on for a little bit of the basics about the sentence equivalence questions and try your hand at a few GRE Sentence Equivalence examples so you'll feel more comfortable preparing for the GRE Verbal test.

GRE Sentence Equivalence Basics

When you crack open the GRE Verbal test and get started on one of the two sections, you'll encounter these sentence equivalence questions as you go. Each question will consist of the following:

• 1 sentence of varying length
• 1 blank per sentence
• 6 answers to choose from per each question

To answer, you'll need to choose two answer choices that best fit the meaning of the sentence AND make sentences that are alike in meaning. Your choices, therefore, must be synonyms but must also make sentences that say the same thing. There will be other words that closely mirror each other, but create sentences dissimilar in meaning and that's where it gets tricky. 

GRE Sentence Equivalence Examples

Ready to give it a shot? Here are a few examples to get you started. After that, grab a GRE practice test or two from a reputable company and get busy making sure every second of your prep time counts!

Instructions:

Select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning.

Question 1

Although the composer quickly gained fame with his last symphony, his legacy is hardly __________ due to the superb works of other, more noticeable musicians of his time like Haydn and Mozart.

(A). recognizable
(B). indelible
(C). prescient
(D). interminable
(E). memorable
(F). articulated

Question 1 Explanation

Question 2

The vice president's understanding of the company's broken budgeting system was so _________ that it caused increasing problems every time she got involved in the process of fixing it.

(A) degenerate
(B) substantial
(C) paltry
(D) ineffectual
(E) estimable
(F) limited

Question 2 Explanation

Question 3

When Roderick was young he _________ ideas of becoming a physician, despite his father's interminable boasting about Roderick's eventual leadership of the family business.

(A) fostered
(B) thwarted
(C) cultivated
(D) proffered
(E) aggrandized
(F) elucidated

Question 3 Explanation

Need More GRE Sentence Equivalence Practice?

So now you've seen a few examples of GRE sentence equivalence questions. But if you're ready to prepare for the entire test including Writing and Quantitative, check out these GRE prep options to ensure you make the score you really want to achieve.