Travels with Charley: Part 4 and Appendix

by John Steinbeck
In this traveogue, acclaimed author John Steinbeck sets out on a roadtrip across America with his best friend, a French poodle named Charley.

Here are our word lists for the book: Part 1,
Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Appendix

Here are links to our lists for other books by John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, East of Eden, Cannery Row, The Grapes of Wrath, The Red Pony
15 words 158 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. complacency
    the feeling you have when you are satisfied with yourself
    Outside their state I think Texans are a little frightened and very tender in their feelings, and these qualities cause boasting, arrogance, and noisy complacency—the outlets of shy children.
  2. secession
    formal separation from an alliance or federation
    We have heard them threaten to secede so often that I formed an enthusiastic organization—The American Friends for Texas Secession.
  3. versatile
    competent in many areas and able to adapt with ease
    The tradition of the tough and versatile frontiersman is true but not exclusive.
  4. wrest
    obtain by seizing forcibly or violently, also metaphorically
    The brave bands of Texans did indeed wrest their liberty from Mexico, and freedom, liberty, are holy words.
  5. paradox
    a statement that contradicts itself
    And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery and paradox.
  6. contention
    a dispute where there is strong disagreement
    For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America.
  7. fervently
    with strong emotion or zeal
    In the first place I knew the countryside, and in the second I had friends and relatives by marriage, and such a situation makes objectivity practically impossible, for I know no place where hospitality is practiced so fervently as in Texas.
  8. myriad
    a large indefinite number
    Now I had moved through a galaxy of states, each with its own character, and through clouds and myriads of people, and ahead of me lay an area, the South, that I dreaded to see and yet knew I must see and hear.
  9. matriculation
    admission to a group, especially a college or university
    While I was still in Texas, late in 1960, the incident most reported and pictured in the newspapers was the matriculation of a couple of tiny Negro children in a New Orleans school.
  10. invective
    abusive language used to express blame or censure
    What made the newsmen love the story was a group of stout middle-aged women who, by some curious definition of the word “mother,” gathered every day to scream invectives at children.
  11. docile
    easily handled or managed
    Then you must crush his manlike tendencies and make of him the docile beast you want.
  12. solvent
    capable of meeting financial obligations
    I lived then in a small brick house in Manhattan, and, being for the moment solvent, employed a Negro.
  13. passive
    peacefully resistant in response to injustice
    Finally we spoke of Martin Luther King and his teaching of passive but unrelenting resistance.
  14. maw
    the mouth, jaws, or throat
    The increasing river of traffic for New York carried me along, and suddenly there was the welcoming maw of Holland Tunnel and at the other end home.
  15. stark
    severely simple
    How startling then to hear the simple stark oath of office offered and accepted.
Created on Tue Aug 06 19:48:07 EDT 2013 (updated Fri Jul 11 12:50:48 EDT 2025)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.