Ninth grade vocab list

July 9, 2007 · 3 comments

When I was in junior high and high school, many of my English teachers would request that students circle/underline any words we didn't know that we came upon in our homework reading. I am sure that at the time I thought it was just a tedious waste of my time. Now that I am reading for pleasure, however, I have adopted many of the practices that were encouraged of me in my youth, including circling "vocab" words.

I am just about finished with Matthew Stewart's The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World, and I've circled a fair amount of words. Any word I circle must meet one of two criteria. The word must either be (1) completely unfamiliar to me, or (2) be familiar, but one which I would like to work into my vocabulary and writing more prominently. The following are words that I circled for reason number one, followed by their respective definition:

  • wanderlust: very strong or irresistible impulse to travel
  • austere: severely simple; of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor; forbidding in aspect
  • irenic: conducive to peace
  • syncretism: the union (or attempted fusion) of different systems of thought or belief (especially in religion or philosophy)
  • mooted: to bring up as a subject for discussion or debate
  • clandestine: conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods
  • parsimonious: excessively unwilling to spend
  • nefarious: extremely wicked
  • denouement: the outcome of a complex sequence of events; the final resolution of the main complication of a literary or dramatic work
  • anodyne: capable of relieving pain

    • Am I the only one that does this? Bonus points awarded for knowing the meaning of any of these words before reading this post.

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    • Mom

      I knew:

      Wanderlust, austere, clandestine, and nefarious.

      I once read that the bigger your vocabulary, the more “educated/intelligent” you were perceived to be.

      I love “Reader’s Digest” because they have twenty vocab words each month. They list the possible definitions in a multiple choice format. You self-quiz with a grading scale that is something like average, good, and excellent.

    • manda

      Clandestine is a word I had to look up this past semester! I actually came across it a lot in French stuff, and when I looked it up in my French-English dictionary, I was discouraged to see it was the same word in English. I hate when that happens! The only other word I know in that list is austere :) I’m terrible with definitions, but I could spell any of those words! Word up. Love you.

    • Nita

      i didnt know any of those words (which is sad)