Slaughterhouse-Five: Chapters 5–6

by Kurt Vonnegut
Loosely based on the author, the narrator sets out to write a book about his experiences during World War II, but ends up telling about Billy Pilgrim, a soldier who gets "unstuck in time" and travels throughout moments of his life both on Earth and the planet Tralfamadore.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapters 3–4, Chapters 5–6, Chapters 7–10
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. rarefied
    of high moral or intellectual value
    The creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti.
    Another definition of "rarefied" is "having low density" — this could fit the example sentence too because the adjective is describing the paths of stars, which would look like strings of spaghetti but would be much lighter. But the words "luminous" and "heavens" and the fact that Billy believes the Tralfamadorian way of thinking is superior to humans' connect to the chosen definition.
  2. altercation
    a noisy, angry argument or fight between people
    As the Americans were waiting to move on, an altercation broke out in their rear-most rank. An American had muttered something which a guard did not like.
  3. perforated
    having a number or series of holes
    The tag was like a salt cracker, perforated down its middle so that a strong man could snap it in two with his bare hands.
  4. opalescent
    having a play of lustrous rainbow colors
    Only the candles and the soap were of German origin. They had a ghostly, opalescent similarity.
  5. permeate
    spread or diffuse through
    Those beloved, frumpish books gave off a smell that permeated the ward — like flannel pajamas that hadn’t been changed for a month, or like Irish stew.
  6. lugubrious
    excessively mournful
    Derby now came to lugubrious attention.
    “No—no—please—as you were. With only two men for each officer, and all the men sick, I think we can do without the usual pageantry between officers and men.”
  7. epitaph
    an inscription in memory of a buried person
    The truth of it startled him. It would make a good epitaph for Billy Pilgrim — and for me, too.
  8. lament
    express grief verbally
    Somewhere in the night there were cries of grief. With nothing better to do, Billy shuffled in their direction. He wondered what tragedy so many had found to lament out of doors.
  9. estimable
    deserving of honor and respect
    Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold.
  10. reproach
    express criticism towards
    His daughter Barbara was reproaching him for writing ridiculous letters to the newspapers.
  11. exult
    feel extreme happiness or elation
    When Dresden was destroyed later on, incidentally, Lazzaro did not exult. He didn’t have anything against the Germans, he said.
  12. rebuke
    censure severely or angrily
    Billy Pilgrim rebukes them. “If you protest, if you think that death is a terrible thing, then you have not understood a word I’ve said.”
  13. ascertain
    learn or discover with confidence
    The eight ridiculous Dresdeners ascertained that these hundred ridiculous creatures really were American fighting men fresh from the front.
Created on Tue Mar 12 14:33:29 EDT 2013 (updated Fri Jul 25 12:48:21 EDT 2025)

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