Into the Sunken City: Chapters 4–7

by Dinesh Thiru
In a future world, most cities are now deep underwater and inhabitants like Jin, her sister Thara, and their companions live sparingly by diving for treasure in these sunken cities. A ragtag team is assembled to find a massive stash of gold in the ruins of Vegas-Drowned, but many obstacles — corsairs, sea beasts, fear of diving — threaten their very lives.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–7, Chapters 8–11, Chapters 12–17, Chapters 18–24
15 words 7 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. sitar
    a stringed instrument of India
    Suong’s got fast fingers on the sitar, and her younger sister can thump our tabla all right.
  2. marooned
    cut off or left behind
    “I been marooned on the atoll of Fuji. Or there’s me personal favorite: the time I slayed one of them giant cats that still stalk the Isle of Angola.”
  3. atoll
    an island consisting of a coral reef surrounding a lagoon
    “I been marooned on the atoll of Fuji. Or there’s me personal favorite: the time I slayed one of them giant cats that still stalk the Isle of Angola.”
  4. littoral
    of or relating to a coastal or shore region
    Now Saanvi and Taim are both serving in the Coast Guard’s Eleventh, the littoral region that forms a triangle between Phoenix-Below, Angeles-Lost, and Vegas-Drowned.
  5. dregs
    a small part that remains after the main part is gone
    I spent an hour down there, somehow, huffing dregs of air, tossing chunks of concrete out of the pile, digging for Dad.
  6. flummox
    be a mystery or bewildering to
    My face’s gone slack in that scared flummoxed kind of way.
  7. yaw
    swerve unpredictably from a set course
    I yaw around, scanning the room for Bhili, and then I see her, stiff up against the wall just right of where the staircase dumps off.
  8. bemused
    perplexed by many conflicting situations or statements
    Thara puts fingers to her dimpled chin, looking bemused, and says, “So you finally told Jin your name’s Bhili?”
  9. roil
    be agitated
    There’s a mold that’s growing in the corner of the balcony, and I can smell it. A slight green funk that threatens to roil my stomach. Gonna have to scrape that off.
  10. trawler
    a fishing boat that drags a net to catch fish
    Across the bay, several pontoons and a fishing trawler are already out looking for the morning’s catch.
  11. pungent
    strong and sharp to the sense of taste or smell
    She’s been cooking every dish I like; the inn’s smelled like a pungent spice shop as Thara served up prawns thokku, whole bass Malabar, Amritsari flounder.
  12. unperturbed
    free from emotional agitation or nervous tension
    Bhili seems unperturbed. She swallows the lump of tea in her mouth, bares her teeth—which look like they were just brushed with some kind of kelp-paste—and says, “Ain’t no need to take my word. Just sit down and take a look at my map.”
  13. deluge
    the rising of a body of water and its overflowing onto land
    Now many histories say the owners ain’t anywhere nearby during the big deluge of 2388, when the east side of Vegas succumbed.
  14. succumb
    give in, as to overwhelming force, influence, or pressure
    Now many histories say the owners ain’t anywhere nearby during the big deluge of 2388, when the east side of Vegas succumbed.
  15. cordon
    a series of sentinels or posts enclosing some place or thing
    “Why us?” Taim says.
    “Easy enough. This here the crew with the two things we need: pair a dive suits”—Bhili shoots a look my way—“and a Coast Guard passport that gets us through the cordon at Vegas-Drowned.”
Created on Mon Aug 17 20:44:38 EDT 2026 (updated Tue Sep 08 10:51:55 EDT 2026)

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