"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 29

Philip Geer's "Simon's Saga" includes 820 SAT-level words and gives students an entertaining glimpse into college life.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12, Episode 13, Episode 14, Episode 15, Episode 16, Episode 17, Episode 18, Episode 19, Episode 20, Episode 21, Episode 22, Episode 23, Episode 24, Episode 25, Episode 26, Episode 27, Episode 28, Episode 29, Episode 30, Episode 31, Episode 32, Episode 33, Episode 34, Episode 35, Episode 36, Episode 37
20 words 359 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. eminent
    having an illustrious reputation; respected
    “Yeah, like Dr. Swenson, the eminent computer scientist,” Simon said.
  2. subjective
    taking place within the mind and modified by individual bias
    “We can’t get very far if we say everything is subjective, can we?”
  3. provisionally
    temporarily and conditionally
    “So,” Simon said, “what you two are saying, if I can attempt a summary of it in my own words, is that no matter how we feel about some sort of ultimate truth—whether it exists, whether we can know it—we should provisionally assume that we can find an objective truth.”
  4. paraphrase
    express the same message in different words
    “That was beautifully paraphrased,” she said.
  5. cogent
    powerfully persuasive
    “I guess whoever builds the most cogent case for his philosophy should be the one we tentatively follow,” Jaz said.
  6. tentative
    under terms not final or fully worked out or agreed upon
    “I guess whoever builds the most cogent case for his philosophy should be the one we tentatively follow,” Jaz said.
  7. compelling
    tending to persuade by forcefulness of argument
    Whoever makes the most compelling case gets to say what we all should believe.
  8. deplete
    use up, as resources or materials
    So, if the pragmatists, the guys who say we should look for meaning in observable practical consequences of ideas, are really on top of their game this season, we follow them rather than the existentialists, who’ve been kind of depleted by injuries to key personnel recently.
  9. ennui
    the feeling of being bored by something tedious
    Dread, anguish, ennui, despair, meaninglessness, anxiety. What a litany of woe!
  10. litany
    a prayer consisting of a series of invocations by the priest with responses from the congregation
    Dread, anguish, ennui, despair, meaninglessness, anxiety. What a litany of woe!”
  11. alienated
    socially disoriented
    But you’re not completely alienated yet. Go home and immediately break off with all of your so-called friends.
  12. cynical
    believing the worst of human nature and motives
    You’ve got to become more cynical. Don’t you know that they’re like everybody else, just acting friendly so they can get something out of you?
  13. maverick
    someone who exhibits independence in thought and action
    What are you, some kind of maverick, actually trying to live an authentic, truly meaningful existence?
  14. apostate
    a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause
    You’re an apostate, that’s what you are.
  15. undermine
    weaken or impair, especially gradually
    You’ll undermine our whole game.
  16. oxymoron
    conjoined contradictory terms
    It’s an oxymoron.
  17. lugubrious
    excessively mournful
    The reading public wants long, lugubrious, indecipherable, tedious, pretentious books on being and not being, the pointlessness of existence
  18. estranged
    caused to be unloved
    how we’re all alone in this vast, cold, impersonal universe—totally estranged from all other creatures
  19. mammoth
    so exceedingly large or extensive as to suggest a giant
    Mammoth tomes they can fall asleep at night reading, thinking how lucky they are to not be as depressed as the author of the book must be.
  20. cerebral
    involving intelligence rather than emotions or instinct
    There’s just something irresistibly appealing about cerebral men who really try to understand life.
Created on Tue Aug 19 06:44:43 EDT 2014 (updated Tue Aug 19 16:48:46 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.