Collection 3: Against Nature

As you read Joyce Carol Oates' "Against Nature," learn this word list. Here are links to lists for texts in Grade 11's Collection 3: Song of Myself, Growing Up Asian in America, poems by Emily Dickinson, Walden, Against Nature, The Minister's Black Veil, The Pit and the Pendulum
25 words 280 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. resonance
    the ability to create understanding or an emotional response
  2. perfunctory
    as a formality only
  3. towpath
    a path along a canal or river used by animals towing boats
  4. tachycardia
    abnormally rapid heartbeat (over 100 beats per minute)
  5. erratic
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
  6. volition
    the act of making a choice
  7. autonomy
    personal independence
  8. forlorn
    marked by or showing hopelessness
  9. evidently
    in a manner that is obvious or unmistakable
  10. stupefied
    as if struck dumb with astonishment and surprise
  11. coherent
    marked by an orderly and consistent relation of parts
  12. contentiousness
    an inclination to be quarrelsome and contentious
  13. respite
    a relief from harm or discomfort
  14. dilettante
    an amateur engaging in an activity without serious intention
  15. palimpsest
    a manuscript on which more than one text has been written
  16. transcendentalism
    a philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual
  17. allude
    make an indirect reference to
  18. transcend
    go beyond the scope or limits of
  19. Oscar Wilde
    Irish writer and wit (1854-1900)
  20. lockjaw
    an acute and serious infection of the central nervous system caused by bacterial infection of open wounds; spasms of the jaw and laryngeal muscles may occur during the late stages
  21. consumption
    a lung disease involving progressive wasting of the body
  22. doctrinaire
    stubbornly insistent on theory rather than practicality
  23. uncanny
    surpassing the ordinary or normal
  24. imbricate
    place so as to overlap
  25. harbinger
    something indicating the approach of something or someone
Created on Thu Jul 10 00:15:57 EDT 2014 (updated Thu Jul 10 13:31:54 EDT 2014)

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