Collection 4: Building the Transcontinental Railroad

As you read Iris Chang's "Building the Transcontinental Railroad," learn this word list. Here are links to lists for texts in Grade 11's Collection 4: Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?, Declaration of Sentiments, Building the Transcontinental Railroad, Runagate, Runagate
20 words 552 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. brigand
    an armed thief who is (usually) a member of a band
  2. isthmus
    a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas
  3. formidable
    inspiring fear or dread
  4. expedience
    doing what is advantageous but not necessarily proper
  5. fervent
    characterized by intense emotion
  6. fortuitously
    by good fortune
  7. diligence
    a hard-working effort
  8. placate
    cause to be more favorably inclined
  9. roadbed
    a bed supporting a road
  10. porphyritic
    (of rocks) consisting of porphyry or containing large crystals in a fine groundmass of minerals
  11. impervious
    not admitting of passage or capable of being affected
  12. systematize
    arrange or carry out according to an orderly plan
  13. totter
    move without being stable, as if threatening to fall
  14. perpetuate
    cause to continue or prevail
  15. antagonism
    an actively expressed feeling of dislike and hostility
  16. retaliate
    make a counterattack and return like for like
  17. camaraderie
    the quality of affording easy familiarity and sociability
  18. gauge
    the distance between rails of a railway or wheels of a train
  19. weld
    unite closely or intimately
  20. hinterland
    a remote and undeveloped area
Created on Tue Jul 15 09:52:54 EDT 2014 (updated Thu Jul 24 11:31:31 EDT 2014)

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.