The Ink Witch: Part 1

by Steph Cherrywell
Twelve-year-old Becca learns she's a witch when her aunt visits and puts her mother under a powerful spell, and with the help of some magical friends, she sets out on a quest for a potion to save her mother.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
15 words 10 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. ominously
    in a manner suggesting something bad will happen
    Becca leaned ominously over the guest couch.
  2. tousle
    disarrange or rumple; dishevel
    “Poor kid. You have been working so hard,” her mother said, trying to tousle Becca’s hair.
  3. wend
    direct one's course or way
    A drop of sweat trickled down from her hairline and wended its way through her birthmark.
  4. peal
    a deep prolonged sound
    As if the woman had planned it, there was a flicker and a peal of thunder, and the sky exploded into rain.
  5. ulterior
    lying beyond what is openly revealed or avowed
    “Rhu! Really? I can’t just drop in on my own sister? I have to have some ulterior motive?”
  6. decanter
    a bottle with a stopper; for serving drinks
    She reached into her jacket again and brought out a crystal decanter in the shape of an old-fashioned inkwell.
  7. technicality
    a detail that is considered insignificant
    “Look, this is just a technicality. I need the signatures of Great-Grandmother’s entire bloodline and, ugh,I knew you were going to be a great big pounding headache about it.”
  8. torrential
    pouring in abundance
    Malatrice was standing at the door, Becca’s sandwich in her hand, looking out at the torrential downpour.
  9. suggestible
    easily influenced or swayed by others
    “It is a simple but powerful compulsion spell that has placed your mother in a suggestible trance state. She has no will of her own. She can only follow commands.”
  10. threadbare
    thin and tattered with age
    She felt her comforting softness and the fabric of her threadbare purple University of Washington hoodie.
  11. repository
    a facility where things can be deposited for safekeeping
    The ice machine hummed and gurgled as Becca approached it. She tried to picture it as the repository for some ancient magic.
  12. bulbous
    rounded and bulging
    When Becca didn’t respond, it narrowed its bulbous blue eyes and peered at her more closely.
  13. artisanal
    (of a product, food, or drink) made by hand
    “Exactly! That’s handcrafted, artisanal product, right there. The very best ice there is!”
  14. hospitality
    kindness in welcoming guests or strangers
    “Well, whatever it is, it’s awful nice of you to show me such hospitality, Becca. Thank you!”
  15. usurp
    seize and take control without authority
    “You know, when I usurped power from my mother, I had the decency to do my plotting in a haunted glade in the dead of night, not loudly in the house in the middle of the day while she was trying to hear the television.”
Created on Fri Mar 27 05:43:10 EDT 2026 (updated Tue Jun 02 15:39:33 EDT 2026)

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