This is the third of the Civil Service Exam Vocabulary review series. In this series, I am going to discuss the most popular words used in vocabulary examinations. Hopefully, some of these words will come up the next time you take the Civil Service Examination.

Aside from memorizing these words, I suggest that you use them in sentences. Write sentences using these words. If you will memorize these words without using them, it is likely that you will forget them sooner or later.

1. boisterous – noisy, rough, and energetic

Sample Sentence: The sound of her boisterous laughter was disturbing everyone.

2. camaraderie – a feeling of friendship to a group; good-fellowship

Sample Sentence: One of the most valuable things you learn in school aside from academic lessons is camaraderie.

3. conundrum – a difficult problem having only a guess as an answer; a riddle or puzzle

Sample Sentence: The origin of the universe has always been a conundrum to humankind.

4. divergent – to follow to different directions; deviates from the standard

Sample Sentence: My business partners and I have divergent ideas on how to run our company.

5. foster – to help grow or develop

Sample Sentence: The UN has helped foster peace and equality among all the nations in the world.

6. intuitive – having to know or understand by means of feelings (and not by facts)

Sample Sentence: Most people have the intuitive knowledge of right and wrong.

7. mundane – worldly, common, ordinary

Sample Sentence: His mundane desires make people think that he is a shallow person.

8. opulent – expensive and luxurious

Sample Sentence: Before he went bankrupt, he had an opulent lifestyle.

9. procrastinate – to delay to do something because it is boring; to delay doing something out of laziness

Sample Sentence: Even if you procrastinate, you will still make a decision, so I suggest that you make up your mind once and for all.

10. spontaneous – done or said without lots of thoughts and planning

Sample Sentence: My friend has a habit of spontaneous visiting even in late hours of the evening.

Please stay tuned for more vocabulary review.