The Collectors: List 1

by A.S. King, Anna-Marie McLemore, Randy Ribay, David Levithan, Jenny Torres Sanchez, G. Neri, Jason Reynolds, M.T. Anderson
In ten young adult stories by different authors, characters reveal their personalities through descriptions of items in collections that are important to them.

This list covers “Play House” by Anna-Marie McLemore–“The White Savior Does Not Save the Day” by Randy Ribay.

Here are links to our lists for the book: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 24 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. scalloped
    decorated with a margin or border of semicircles
    Her mother dried the last dish, set it on the stack in the cupboard. She lined up the scalloped edge perfectly with the one underneath.
  2. relentless
    never-ceasing
    In the summer, she and her mother pulled blackberries from the sweet relentless brambles behind the house, the ones forever trying to swallow the garden shed whole.
  3. leaven
    an influence working subtly to lighten or modify something
    Miranda would have baked them all pan dulce leavened with her own gratitude if only they would come and take their husbands back.
  4. permeate
    spread or diffuse through
    Miranda could tell from the smell in the deceased woman’s house that she had had a signature perfume, deep and golden and shimmery. It permeated the air between her pieces of dark-finished furniture.
  5. wan
    lacking vitality as from weariness or illness or unhappiness
    But her mother gave the wan smile that was becoming her default expression, and turned away.
  6. consensus
    agreement in the judgment reached by a group as a whole
    The men in the house said wasn’t it time Miranda’s mother started on dinner, and they came to a consensus about what they wanted, steak and eggs this time.
  7. tasteful
    in keeping with what is considered appropriate and stylish
    Her dresses—most of them cap-sleeve, the waists cinched, the skirts blooming with layers—all came in tasteful shades of brown, black, navy.
  8. blight
    something that spoils, destroys, or impairs
    The neighbors looked at them with uneasy concern, as though they were each a blight on the wide-lawned lane. Her mother, a broken streetlamp, all jagged glass. Her father, a downed tree, leaning heavy on an electrical line. Miranda, a pothole, filling with asphalt-sour rain.
  9. spite
    meanness or nastiness
    She sent all the force of her body into that hand. It landed on his arm, and he stumbled back. She was illuminated with spite and anticipation.
  10. languor
    a relaxed comfortable feeling
    The brambles parted with gentlemanly languor, as though opening a door for her, and Miranda heard what River-not-Wyatt was yelling.
  11. gauge
    judge tentatively or form an estimate of
    They scrambled out of chairs and off sofas, watching her, gauging the sharpness of her painted fingernails.
  12. wry
    humorously sarcastic or mocking
    Miranda was not even sure she knew what had happened until she dusted the figurines on the high shelves, and gave Miranda a smile as wry and wicked as a secret.
  13. placid
    calm and free from disturbance
    Along an abandoned beach, palm trees sway beneath a stormy sky and vacant fishing boats sit in an eerily placid gray bay.
  14. in vain
    without a successful result or effect
    They are desperately attempting to escape the building, but their efforts are in vain—a mysterious force has sealed all exits, trapping everyone inside.
  15. futile
    producing no result or effect
    RESCUERS determinedly work to force open the front door with a Jaws of Life tool. Though their efforts seem futile at first, the metal eventually starts to bend.
  16. expansive
    able or tending to extend in one or more directions
    The rumble grows louder as the tsunami nears. Its expansive first wave begins to break, with whitecaps at least forty or fifty feet high, swallowing the boats stuck out at sea.
  17. idly
    in a lazy, casual, or aimless way
    She should be asleep. Instead, she’s idly scrolling through the vintage script collectors’ forum.
  18. predecessor
    one who goes before you in time
    I’d rather we didn’t, lest I end up like my predecessors.
  19. ostentatious
    intended to attract notice and impress others
    BIG BRAIN sits on a floating throne in the middle of the inner room, surrounded by control panels, wearing an ostentatious supervillain outfit with a dramatically high collar.
  20. ambiguity
    unclearness by virtue of having more than one meaning
    The vendor would be skeptical given the actress’s whiteness and Perdita’s ethnic ambiguity.
  21. banter
    light teasing repartee
    Of all my partners over the years, you were the most dynamic. Your performance in this final round alone! And the banter between us—
  22. sentiment
    tender, romantic, or nostalgic feeling or emotion
    If you no longer care for the material benefits, then what about the people of the Third World you’ve sworn to protect? Surely you’ve some sentiment for those you’ve been working to save so diligently all these years?
  23. megalomaniac
    a pathological egotist
    Think about all the lives you could save simply by not being a homicidal megalomaniac.
  24. complement
    make perfect or supply what is wanting
    You have your role, I have mine. And we have complemented each other so very well.
  25. apparition
    a ghostly appearing figure
    The camera lingers on their reflections floating like apparitions over the galaxy.
  26. formidable
    extremely impressive in strength or excellence
    Long ago, before wielding this formidable intellectual power, I actually wore the same suit as you.
  27. prowess
    a superior skill learned by study and practice
    His power flowed into me, replacing my enhanced physical prowess with an enhanced mind.
  28. niche
    status or place of an organism within its environment
    With my newfound intellect, I instantly understood that just as every creature has its niche within an ecosystem, there have always been and will always be certain roles humanity requires.
  29. interstitial
    of or relating to small spaces between things
    Because interstitial travel is a one-way trip, my dear. Once you leave a universe, there is no returning to that universe. One of the few physical laws my formidable intellect has not yet found a way to alter.
  30. threshold
    the entrance for passing through a room or building
    A teenage girl with light brown skin, long black hair, and brown eyes behind thick glasses stands a few steps past the threshold.
  31. falter
    be or become weak, unsteady, or uncertain
    Perdita’s smile falters. “Wait—what? What do you mean?”
  32. imbue
    give qualities or abilities to; endow
    “Simply put, there are an infinite number of universes,” Big Brain explains, “and I have figured out how to move individuals across them. Interstitial travel transforms beings into perfect vessels of energy. I can then imbue these vessels with abilities so that they may provide me with some measure of challenge.”
  33. resonate
    evoke or suggest a strong meaning or belief
    But is it worth all the pain that will ripple in the wake of her absence from her home universe, all the suffering that will resonate throughout the Third World in the wake of White Savior’s absence from this one?
  34. erstwhile
    belonging to some prior time
    “Perdita!” Jennifer says, standing next to her erstwhile nemesis, face lighting up at the sight of her daughter.
  35. volatile
    liable to lead to sudden change or violence
    “I told you she’d be back,” Big Brain says. “Adolescence is such a volatile time.”
  36. erratic
    having no fixed course
    Each erratic burst of energy jolts the room, as if the whole world is glitching.
  37. obscure
    make unclear or less visible
    Their identity is obscured by the smoke—except for a dim glow where the FIGURE’s head should be.
  38. asunder
    into parts or pieces
    Her soul is so conflicted, it feels as if it will tear asunder.
  39. reparation
    something done or paid in expiation of a wrong
    Maybe what they needed wasn’t an epic ongoing battle between good and evil but reparations and the cessation of exploitation by the Global North.
  40. cessation
    a stopping
    Maybe what they needed wasn’t an epic ongoing battle between good and evil but reparations and the cessation of exploitation by the Global North.
Created on Wed Apr 03 10:40:27 EDT 2024 (updated Thu Apr 04 10:58:28 EDT 2024)

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.