Excerpt from the Prologue of "Invisible Man"

In the novel by Ralph Ellison, invisibility is not a cool superpower or a scientific experiment but an involuntary state that the narrator struggles with. Take a look at the narrator through this list.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 12 Unit 1's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: My Papa's Waltz, in just-, The Last Word, Mushrooms, I Remember, Invisible Man, Four Skinny Trees, Dirty Work, On Seeing England for the First Time, Speaking with Hands, The White Man's Burden, The Poor Man's Burden, Shooting an Elephant, Lindo Jong: Double Face, Stranger in the Village
10 words 147 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. substance
    the real physical matter of which a person or thing consists
    I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, of fiber and liquids--and I might even be said to possess a mind.
  2. refuse
    be unwilling to accept
    I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
  3. distort
    make false by mutilation or addition
    Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass.
  4. figment
    a contrived or fantastic idea
    When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me.
  5. epidermis
    the outer layer of skin covering the body surface
    Nor is my invisibility exactly a matter of a biochemical accident to my epidermis.
  6. disposition
    a natural or acquired habit or characteristic tendency
    That invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact.
  7. advantageous
    appropriate for achieving a particular end
    It is sometimes advantageous to be unseen, although it is most often rather wearing on the nerves.
  8. phantom
    something existing in perception only
    You wonder whether you aren't simply a phantom in other people's minds.
  9. resentment
    a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will
    It's when you feel like this that, out of resentment, you begin to bump people back.
  10. anguish
    extreme distress of body or mind
    You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you're a part of all the sound and the anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you.
Created on Wed Mar 04 11:05:02 EST 2015 (updated Wed Mar 04 20:24:40 EST 2015)

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.