English I Vocabulary Lists
List 1: Words Used in Literary Terms
1. antagonist: (n) somebody or something opposing or in conflict with another.
2. character: (n) the set of qualities that make somebody or something distinctive, especially somebody's qualities of mind and feeling; qualities that make somebody or something interesting or attractive; somebody with an unusual or eccentric personality; any written or printed letter, number, or other symbol.
3. climax: (n) the most important or exciting point in something such as an event or a story; (v) to reach the most important or exciting point in something such as an event or a story, or bring something to its most important or exciting point.
4. conflict: (n) a disagreement or clash between ideas, principles, or people; (v) to be incompatible, in opposition, or in disagreement.
5. dynamic: (adj) full of energy, enthusiasm, and a sense of purpose and able both to get things going and to get things done; characterized by vigorous activity and producing or undergoing change and development; (n) a driving or energizing force, especially one involved in a process of social or psychological change.
6. exposition: (n) a large exhibition; a detailed description of a theory, problem, or proposal discussing the issues involved, or a commentary on a written text discussing its meaning and implications.
7. irony: (n) incongruity between what actually happens and what might be expected to happen, especially when this disparity seems absurd or laughable; humor based on using words to suggest the opposite of their literal meaning.
8. resolution: (n) the process of resolving something such as a problem or dispute; a firm decision to do something; firmness of mind or purpose; an answer to a problem.
9. static: (adj) not moving or changing, or fixed in position; (n) broadcasting electrical interference in a radio or television broadcast, causing a random crackling noise or disruption of a picture; criticism, opposition, or unwanted interference by somebody else.
10 theme (n) the subject of a discourse, discussion, piece of writing, or artistic composition; a distinct, recurring, and unifying quality or idea; a short essay or written exercise for a student; a song or tune that is played at the beginning or end of, or during, a movie or television program and is identified with it.
List 2: Words from “The Most Dangerous Game”
1. affable: (adj) good-natured, friendly, and easy to talk to.
2. amenity (n) a useful or attractive feature or a service, e.g. leisure facilities; the experience of a place as pleasant or attractive.
3. condone: (v) to regard something that is considered immoral or wrong in a tolerant way, without criticizing it or feeling strongly about it.
4. deplorable: (adj) worthy of severe condemnation; wretched because of neglect, poverty, or other misfortune.
5. disarming: (adj) making somebody feel more friendly or trusting; (v) giving up a supply of weapons or reduce the strength of armed forces, or forcing another nation to do this; making a bomb unable to explode, or make a weapon incapable of being fired; making somebody less hostile or suspicious and more inclined to act in a friendly way.
6. droll: (adj) amusing in a wry or odd way.
7. elude: (v) to escape from or avoid somebody or something by cunning, skill, or resourcefulness; to be beyond somebody's understanding or ability to be remembered.
8. imperative: (adj) absolutely necessary or unavoidable; forceful and demanding the obedience and respect of others; (n) something that must be done.
9. quarry: (n) an open excavation from which stone or other material is extracted by blasting, cutting, or drilling; a rich source of something; an animal or bird that is hunted; somebody or something that is chased or hunted by another.
10. scruple: (n) a moral or ethical consideration that tends to restrain action or behavior.
List 3: Words from “The Most Dangerous Game” and “Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?”
1. solicitously: (adv) expressing an attitude of concern and consideration.
2. stamina: (n) enduring physical or mental energy and strength that allows somebody to do something for a long time.
3. tangible: (adj) able to be touched or perceived through the sense of touch; capable of being understood and evaluated, and therefore regarded as real; (n) something that has a physical form, especially a financial asset.
4. uncanny: (adj) too strange or unlikely to seem merely natural or human; unexpectedly accurate or precise.
5. zealous: (adj) actively and unreservedly enthusiastic.
6. consolation: (n) a source of comfort to somebody who is upset or disappointed; a game or contest held for people or teams who have lost earlier in a tournament.
7. diffuse: (v) to spread something throughout something else, or become spread throughout something else; to scatter something over an area, or become scattered over an area; to make something, especially light, less bright or intense, or become less bright or intense; (adj) lacking organization and conciseness, especially in writing or speech; spread throughout a wide area.
8. execute: (v) to kill somebody as part of a legal or extralegal process; to complete an action or movement, especially one requiring skill; to put an instruction or plan into effect.
9. primitive: (adj) relating to or occurring at the first stages or form of something; crudely simple in design or construction; not using or relying on complex modern technologies to provide comfort and efficiency; created by an artist with no formal training, especially using a simple style.
10. transparent: (adj) allowing light to pass through with little or no interruption or distortion so that objects on the other side can be clearly see; thin or fine enough in texture to see through; clearly recognizable as what he, she, or it really is; completely open and frank.
List 4: Words from To Kill a Mockingbird from common roots
1. absolute: (adj) used to give strong emphasis to what is being said; having total power and authority; completely unequivocal and not capable of being viewed as partial or relative; not depending on or qualified by anything else; (n) a principle or value that is held to be always true or valid.
2. compassion: (n) sympathy for the suffering of others, often including the desire to help.
3. evident: (adj) easy or clear to see or understand.
4. impassive: (adj) showing no outward sigh of emotion, especially on the face; feeling no emotions at all, either positive or negative.
5. prospect: (n) a chance or the likelihood that something will happen in the near future, especially something desirable; something that is expected or certain to happen in the future, or a mental picture of this; a view, especially one from a high position over a large expanse of land or water; a customer who may be interested in buying something; somebody or something that is likely to succeed; (v) to explore an area in search or oil or valuable minerals, especially gold; to work a mine to see how profitable it is; to search or watch for something.
6. resent: (v) to feel aggrieved about something or toward somebody, often because of a perceived wrong or injustice.
7. sensation: (n) a physical feeling caused by having one or more of the sense organs stimulated; the capacity to receive impression through the sense organs; a vague or general, especially one not attributable to an obvious cause; a state of avid public interest in a phenomenon; a phenomenon that creates avid public interest.
8. sentimental: (adj) affected acutely by emotional matters; displaying too much uncontrolled or self-indulgent emotion; experiencing, appealing to, or expressing tender, often romantic or nostalgic, feelings; expressing deep, refined feeling.
9. speculation: (n) a conclusion, theory, or opinion based on incomplete facts or information; reasoning based on incomplete facts or information; a financial transaction that involves risk, but is potentially profitable.
10. tactful: (adj) having or showing concern about upsetting or offending people.
List 5: Words from Romeo and Juliet
1. banish: (v) to exile somebody from a place; to put something out of your mind.
2. envious: (adj) wanting to have somebody else’s success, good fortune, qualities, or possession.
3. haste: (n) great speed, especially in situations where time is limited;.
4. lament: (v) to express grief or sorrow about something; to express regret, annoyance, or disappointment about something; (n) an expression of grief or sorrow; an expression of regret, annoyance, or disappointment; a song or poem of mourning.
5. oppression: (n) act of keeping down by severe and unjust use of force or authority; arbitrary and cruel exercise of power; a feeling of being heavily weighed down in mind or body.
6. pity: (n) a feeling of sadness because of another person’s trouble or suffering, or the capacity to feel this; a sad or regrettable thing; a willingness to help or to forgive somebody; (v) to feel pity for somebody.
7. prosperous: (adj) successful and flourishing, especially earning or producing great wealth; having wealth, or associated with wealthy people; characterized by success or good fortune; likely to be successful or bring a good result.
8. scorn: (n) a strong feeling of contempt or of regarding somebody or something as inferior, base, or worthless; somebody or something that is held in contempt; (v) to hold somebody or something in contempt; to reject something with contempt.
9. solemn: (adj) having or showing sincerity or gravity; having or showing no joy or humor; characterized by ceremony or formality; observed with scared or religious ceremony; inspiring wonder or reverence.
10. valor: (n) courage, especially that shown in war or battle.
List 6: Words from Romeo and Juliet
1. desperate: (adj) overwhelmed with urgency and anxiety, to the point of losing hope; so drastic or reckless as to be suitable only for a last resort; extremely difficult, serious, or dangerous; wanting or needing something very much; so wicked as to allow no hope of redemption.
2. loathe: (v) to dislike somebody or something intensely.
3. misery: (n) a serious lack of contentment or happiness; something that causes great unhappiness; a state of extreme poverty and squalor.
4. plague: (n) a disease that spreads rapidly through a population, killing a great many people, or an outbreak of such a disease; a sudden appearance or outbreak of something unpleasant in very large number or with unusual frequency; an affliction or extremely troublesome or annoying person or thing; (v) to cause somebody severe and lasting distress, difficulty, or other affliction; to persistently harass or annoy somebody.
5. precious: (adj) worth a great deal of money; highly values, much loved or considered to be of great importance; rare or unique and therefore to be used wisely or sparingly or treated with care; used for emphasis to express irritation, dislike, contempt, or some other strong emotion; too carefully refined in language, dress, or manners; (adv) very, often by way of a complaint; (n) used a term of affection in talking to someone.
6. virtuous: (adj) having or showing moral goodness or righteousness; not having sexual intercourse with anyone except a partner in marriage, especially a husband.
7. wanton: (adj) lacking restraint or inhibition, especially in sexual behavior; lacking reason or provocation; done out of a desire to cause harm; unrestrained, heedless of reasonable limits, or characterized by greed and extravagance; lacking discipline; (n) a sexually uninhibited person; (v) to behave in a wanton manner.
8. warrant: (n) something that authorizes somebody to do something; a document that gives police specific rights or powers such as the right to search or arrest somebody; (v) to serve as a justifiable reason to do, believe, or think something; to guarantee something such as the truth or dependability of somebody or something; to give authority to somebody; to guarantee the title to property.
9. wit: (n) the apt, clever, and often humorous association of words or ideas, or a capacity for it; speech or writing that shows apt, clever, and often humorous association of words; somebody known for using wit; mental acumen, intelligence, or reasoning power.
10. wretched: (adj) feeling very unhappy or ill; in a state of great hardship, deprivation, and hopelessness and arousing sympathy in other; seriously inadequate or of very low quality; provoking irritation or anger.
List 7: Words from “Only Daughter” and To Kill a Mockingbird
1. anthology: (n) a book that consists of essays, stories, or poems by different writers; a collection of works from different musicians or artists; a collection of various things or ideas.
2. articulate: (v) to express thoughts, ideas, or feelings coherently; to pronounce something or speak clearly; to utter intelligible speech; (adj) able to express thoughts, ideas of feelings coherently; spoken or expressed clearly; possessing the power of speech.
3. embroider: (v) to do decorative needlework, or decorate fabric with needlework; to sew a particular pattern onto fabric; to add exaggerated or fictitious details to an account of something to make it more interesting.
4. fulfill: (v) to do what is necessary to bring about or achieve something expected, desired, or promised; to do what is necessary to carry out a request or command; to be good enough or of the type necessary to meet a standard or requirement.
5. glisten: (v) to shine brightly or reflect light from a wet surface; to have a glossy sheen; (n) a sparkly, lustrous shine.
6. murmur: (n) a continuous low sound, often one that seems to be coming from some distance away; something said that is either very quiet or sounds indistinct; a complaint made in a discreet or secretive way; a soft blowing or fluttering sound that originates from the heart, lungs, or arteries (v) to say something very quietly or indistinctly; to complain in a discreet or secretive way; to make a continuous low sound, often one that seems to be coming from some distance away.
7. nostalgia: (n) a mixed feeling of happiness, sadness, and longing when recalling a person, place, or event from the past; something, or things, intended to arouse a feeling of nostalgia; a longing for home or family when away from home.
8. trauma: (n) an extremely distressing experience that causes severe emotional shock and may have long-lasting psychological effects; a physical injury or wound to the body.
9. vague: (adj) not clear in meaning or intention; not having a clear or perceptible form; not clearly felt, understood or recalled; unclear or incoherent in thinking or expression.
10. vivid: (adj) strikingly bright or intense in color; producing strong and distinct mental images; active and inventive; characterized by striking clarity, distinctness, or truth to life when perceived either by the eye or the mind; characterized by spirit and animation.
List 8: Words from the excerpt from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
1. aristocrat: (n) a member of the nobility or the highest social class in a country; a member of a governing aristocracy, or somebody who supports government by an aristocracy; a person, thing, or group believed to be superior to all others of the same kind.
2. aura: (n) a characteristic or distinctive impression created by somebody or something; a force that is said to surround all people and objects, discernible, often as a bright glow, only to people of unusual psychic sensitivity.
3. cascading: (v) flowing fast and in large amounts, or causing something to flow in this way; hanging or lying in a flowing mass.
4. essence: (n) the quality or nature of something that identifies it or makes it what it is; the most important element or feature of something; the perfect or idealized form of something, especially when embodied in a person.
5. familiarity: (n) thorough knowledge and understanding of something; closeness and friendliness in a personal relationship; to quality of being known; an intimacy that is improper and presumptuous.
6. illiteracy: (n) the state of being unable to read and write; the condition or quality of being ignorant or unknowledgeable in a particular field or subject.
7. incessantly: (adv) doing something continuously for a long time, without stopping.
8. infuse: (v) to fill somebody or something with a strong emotion such as hatred, enthusiasm, or desire; to fix an emotion, belief, or quality gradually but firmly in somebody else’s mind; to soak tea or herbs in a liquid to extract the flavor or another property, or be soaked in this way; to introduce a solution such as saline, sucrose, or glucose using a drip feed into a vein, body cavity, or the intestinal tract in order to treat or feed a patient.
9. sacrilegious: (adj) disrespectful toward a sacred person, place, or thing.
10. sophistication: (n) a combination or worldly wisdom, self-confidence, and refinement in a person; advanced technical development and complexity.
List 9: Words from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s and Nelson Mandela’s Speeches
1. amnesty: (n) a general pardon, especially for those who have committed political crimes; a period during which crimes can be admitted or illegal weapons handed in without prosecution.
2. default: (n) an option that will automatically be selected by a computer if the used does not choose one; a failure to meet an obligation, especially a financial one; a failure to appear for a complete a competition; (v) to fail to pay a debt or other financial obligation; to fail to make an appearance in court although summoned to do so.
3. discord: (n) disagreement or strife between people, or incompatibility or conflict between things or situations; inharmonious combination of sounds, especially musical sounds.
4. inextricably: (adv) in a way impossible to get free from; in a way impossible to untangle; in a way hopelessly involved or complex.
5. intimately: (adv) in a way having, involving, or resulting from a close personal relationship.
6. legitimate: (adj) complying with the law, or having official status defined by law; complying with recognized rules, standards, or traditions; well-reasoned and sincere; born of legally married parents; (v) to make somebody or something lawful, by making, changing, or repealing laws or by decree; to argue or prove that a claim or action is lawful or reasonable.
7. mobility: (n) the ability to move about, especially to do work or take exercise; the ability to change from one social group or class to another.
8. pernicious: (adj) causing great harm, destruction, or death; wicked or meaning to cause harm.
9. reconciliation: (n) the ending of conflict or renewing of a friendly relationship between disputing people or groups; the making of two or more apparently conflicting things consistent or compatible.
10. sustain: (v) to provide somebody with nourishment or the necessities of life; to keep something in position by holding it from below; to keep somebody going with emotional or moral support; to manage to withstand something and continue in spite of it; to experience a setback, injury, damage, loss, or defeat; to make something continue to exist.
List 10: Words from “The Cask of Amontillado”
1. accost: (v) to approach and stop somebody in order to speak to that person, especially in an aggressive, insistent, or suggestive way.
2. destined: (adj) sure, preordained, or intended; traveling toward a particular destination; (v) intended or decided that somebody will have a particular fate or something will have a particular use.
3. fetter: (n) a chain or shackle fastened to somebody’s ankles or feet; a means of confinement, restriction, or restraint; (v) to shackle somebody with fetters; to confine, restrict, or restrain somebody or something.
4. implore: (v) to plead with somebody to do something; to beg or pray for something.
5. impunity: (n) exemption from punishment, harm, or recrimination.
6. preclude: (v) to prevent something from happening or somebody from doing something; to exclude somebody or something, especially in advance.
7. repose: (n) a state or rest or inactivity; a condition of peacefulness and tranquility, e.g. in a place; freedom from troubles or stress; calmness and composure of manner; (v) to lie at rest, or lay something at rest; to lie dead.
8. subside: (v) to be less active or intense; to sink to a low or lower level; to sink to the bottom of a liquid.
9. termination: (n) the process of bringing something to an end or of being brought to an end, or an instance of this; something that forms the end or final limit of something; something that happens or is produced as a result of something else.
10. virtuoso: (n) a musician who shows exceptional ability, technique, or artistry; somebody who shows exceptional technique or ability in something; somebody who is knowledgeable and cultivated in appreciating the fine arts.
List 11: Words from The Odyssey, Book 9
1. adversary: (n) an opponent in a conflict, contest, or debate; (adj) involving conflicting parties or interests, in relation to a legal proceeding.
2. appalled: (adj) feeling or appearing to be shocked by something dreadful or awful; (v) made somebody feel shock, horror, or disgust.
3. avenge: (v) to inflict punishment because of a wrong done; to retaliate on behalf of yourself or somebody else for a wrong done.
4. disdain: (n) extreme contempt or disgust for something or somebody; (v) to regard somebody or something as not worthy of respect.
5. entreat: (v)to beg somebody for something, often repeatedly.
6. formidable: (adj) difficult to deal with or overcome; inspiring respect or wonder because of size, strength, or ability; causing fear, dread, or alarm.
7. guile: (n) a cunning, deceitful, or treacherous quality.
8. indifferent: (adj) showing no care or concern for or interest in somebody or something; without bias or preference for one person, group, or thing rather than another; average or low in quality.
9. ponderous: (adj) lumbering and laborious in movement; without liveliness or wit; disproportionately thick and heavy.
10. whim: a sudden thought, idea, or desire, especially one based on impulse rather than reason or necessity.
List 12: Words from The Odyssey, Book 10
1. beguiling: (adj) having the power to gain people’s interest or devotion; (v) winning and holding somebody’s attention, interest, or devotion; misleading or deceiving somebody.
2. chide: (v) to reproach somebody gently; to scold mildly.
3. contender: (n) a competitor, especially somebody who has a good chance of winning; any competitor in a contest for a prize or title.
4. disconsolate: (adj) miserable or disappointed and unable to be cheered up.
5. enticing: (adj) very desirable and hard to resist; (v) making or tempting a person or animal to do something by offering something desirable.
6. regaled: (v) to have entertained or amused somebody, especially by telling stories; to have given somebody plenty of good things to eat and drink.
7. snare: (n) a trap for small animals that operates like a noose; a situation that is both alluring and dangerous; (v) to catch somebody or something in a snare; to entrap somebody by alluring deception.
8. stealth: (n) the action of doing something slowly, quietly, and covertly, in order to avoid detection; secretive, dishonest, or cunning behavior or actions; (adj) done in a highly secret way so as to be unnoticed.
9. succumb: (v) to be unable to resist or oppose something; to die from an illness or injury.
10. vile: (adj) causing disgust or abhorrence; despicable or shameful; extremely unpleasant to experience.