How are you coming along with your 2011 vocabulary study program? Are you getting organized and putting your word lists in order so that you have a plan for the most efficient study program? Have you included several different methods for learning each word, so that you incorporate as many learning techniques as possible? Do you have a target list of useful and powerful English vocabulary words that will enhance your presentation and conversation skills? As with most projects, you’ll get benefits from your vocabulary study that are commensurate to the amount of effort you put into it.

The word commensurate is an adjective meaning “in proportion to, corresponding to.” It can be traced back to the Latin roots com- (or con-, meaning “with”) and mensura (“measure”), and is often used to describe something that is of equal status to something else of a different type or form. Some synonyms for commensurate include appropriate, equivalent, and consistent.

Example 1: If you are well qualified for a job, don’t be afraid to ask for a starting salary that is commensurate with your skills and abilities.

Example 2: “And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

If you’re studying for an examination such as the GRE, you’ll probably be given a quote like the one in the second example above, and asked to paraphrase (write in your own words) the meaning of the text. Knowing the definition of the word commensurate as you now do, how would you explain what Fitzgerald is saying in the last sentence?