Excerpts from "To Kill a Mockingbird"

In this list based on excerpts from Harper Lee's novel are words that suggest the innocence of young children and an accused defendant.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 9 Unit 3's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Jim Crow, Jim Crow Laws, Letter from Birmingham Jail, Scout, Atticus & Boo, To Kill a Mockingbird, In Defense of To Kill a Mockingbird
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. assuage
    provide physical relief, as from pain
    When it healed, and Jem's fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury.
  2. consult
    get or ask advice from
    We were far too old to settle an argument with a fist-fight, so we consulted Atticus.
  3. puny
    of inferior size
    You look right puny for goin' on seven.
  4. revelation
    an enlightening or astonishing disclosure
    Dill had seen Dracula, a revelation that moved Jem to eye him with the beginning of respect.
  5. contentment
    happiness with one's situation in life
    Thereafter the summer passed in routine contentment.
  6. impulse
    a sudden desire
    My first impulse was to get it into my mouth as quickly as possible, but I remembered where I was.
  7. provoke
    annoy continually or chronically
    On my part, I went to much trouble, sometimes, not to provoke her.
  8. parched
    extremely thirsty
    Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape.
  9. gingerly
    with extreme care or delicacy
    Jem looked around, reached up, and gingerly pocketed a tiny shiny package.
  10. unanimous
    in complete agreement
    neighborhood opinion was unanimous that Mrs. Dubose was the meanest old woman who ever lived.
  11. ethical
    conforming to accepted standards of social behavior
    Plucking an occasional camellia, getting a squirt of hot milk from Miss Maudie Atkinson's cow on a summer day, helping ourselves to someone's scuppernongs was part of our ethical culture, but money was different.
  12. rudiment
    the elementary stage of any subject
    Uncle Jack instructed us in the rudiments thereof; he said Atticus wasn't interested in guns.
  13. ruthless
    without mercy or pity
    If she was on the porch when we passed, we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to ruthless interrogations regarding our behavior, and given a melancholy prediction on what we would amount to when we grew up, which was always nothing.
  14. apoplectic
    marked by extreme anger
    Once she heard Jem refer to our father as "Atticus" and her reaction was apoplectic..
  15. livid
    furiously angry
    I did not remember our mother, but Jem did--he would tell me about her sometimes--and he went livid when Mrs. Dubose shot us this message.
  16. complicated
    difficult to analyze or understand
    it requires no minute sifting of complicated facts, but it does require you to be sure beyond all reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the defendant
  17. iota
    a tiny or scarcely detectable amount
    The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence to the effect that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place.
  18. contradict
    prove negative; show to be false
    It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant.
  19. contraband
    goods whose trade or possession is prohibited by law
    But in this case she was no child hiding stolen contraband: she struck out at her victim--of necessity she must put him away from her--he must be removed from her presence, from this world.
  20. circumstantial
    suggesting that something is true without proving it
    there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led almost exclusively with his left.
  21. warrant
    a judicial writ commanding police to perform specified acts
    he swore out a warrant, no doubt signing it with his left hand, and Tom Robinson now sits before you, having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses--his right hand.
  22. temerity
    fearless daring
    And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to "feel sorry" for a white woman has had to put his word against two white people's.
  23. assumption
    a statement that is held to be true
    the evil assumption--that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber.
  24. institution
    an organization founded and united for a specific purpose
    Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal.
  25. integrity
    moral soundness
    I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system--that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality.
Created on Tue Sep 23 15:53:02 EDT 2014 (updated Tue Sep 23 18:33:56 EDT 2014)

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