The November 2026 SAT Vocab Survey + Quiz US Version 2

With the help of reports from students and Reddit's r/SAT, I've compiled the most common and challenging vocabulary from the November 2026 SAT US Version 2. I've put these into a quiz format so students and parents can challenge themselves. Good luck!

SAT Vocabulary November 2026 US - Version 2 - Warm-up Reading Passage

Instructions: Read this passage carefully before taking your quiz. All 11 vocabulary words from the November 2026 US SAT (Version 2) appear in context. Pay attention to how each word is used naturally in the story.

The Harbor Deal

For forty years, the fishing families of Port Hollis had shared a single crumbling pier. When a cruise company offered to build a new one, the town split.

The plan looked generous on paper: a modern dock with a berth for cruise ships and a separate section for fishing boats. But the deal was contingent on a twenty-year tax abatement, and the company wanted the town to pay for dredging the harbor.

Town treasurer Ellen Ruiz was famously frugal. She drove a fifteen-year-old car and reused the same campaign signs every election. Some residents called her stingy when she questioned the deal, but she argued that the tax break would preclude the town from repairing its school for years.

The cruise company's spokesman tried to discount her concerns. Tourists, he said, would bring far more money than the town would lose. Ellen countered that he was trying to magnify the benefits while ignoring the costs.

When a local blog published the company's own estimate showing that most tourist spending would stay on the ships, residents began to denounce the deal at public meetings. The anger did not abate for weeks.

To forestall a lawsuit, the company returned with a smaller proposal: no tax break, a shared dock, and a fund for the school. The town approved it by a wide margin.

Vocabulary words practiced: berth, frugal, stingy, denounce, magnify, discount, abate, abatement, contingent (on), forestall, preclude