Legend: Part Two

by Marie Lu
In Marie Lu's dystopian novel, a military prodigy and a street criminal uncover shocking secrets about their government. Learn these words that will make you a vocabulary legend.

Here are links to our lists for the first book in the trilogy: Part One, Part Two

Here is a link to our lists for Warcross by Marie Lu.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. taunt
    harass with persistent criticism or carping
    This girl either actually believes all that made-up crap or she's taunting me.
  2. renegade
    someone who rebels and becomes an outlaw
    A bunch of renegade Trial takers who managed to escape their deaths? Those ten-year-olds are a dangerous bunch, yeah?
  3. brace
    prepare for something unpleasant or difficult
    I brace myself for the worst.
  4. betray
    deliver to an enemy by treachery
    I feel wrong ... like I did a terrible thing by betraying a boy who trusted me.
  5. ruthless
    without mercy or pity
    The Day that killed my brother is a cruel, ruthless criminal.
  6. compromise
    expose or make liable to danger, suspicion, or disrepute
    Didn’t want to compromise the mission after coming so far.
  7. sift
    check and sort carefully
    If I’m not going to sleep, I might as well continue sifting through Day’s background and evidence.
  8. capacity
    capability to perform or produce
    And those are the kids that are expected to fail, the ones who don’t pay attention or don’t have the capacity to.
  9. confirm
    establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts
    I skim through all thirty-two pages before I confirm something very odd.
  10. pristine
    immaculately clean and unused
    His Trial looks as pristine as mine.
  11. notorious
    known widely and usually unfavorably
    NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL KNOWN AS DAY ARRESTED,
    TO BE SENTENCED TODAY OUTSIDE BATALLA HALL
    DANGEROUS MENACE TO SOCIETY FINALLY CAUGHT
  12. stoic
    seeming unaffected by pleasure or pain; impassive
    She's decked out in her full uniform again, stoic and alert.
  13. vulnerable
    capable of being wounded or hurt
    I’m trained not to take the word of a prisoner—I know that they’ll lie, that they’ll say anything they can to make you vulnerable.
  14. logic
    reasoned and reasonable judgment
    Logic above all else, I tell myself. Logic will save you when nothing else will.
  15. endure
    continue to live through hardship or adversity
    The reasoning for all this becomes clear—they wanted to develop those tissue samples into something, I don’t know what—pills, contact lenses, whatever could improve our soldiers, to make them run faster, see better, think smarter, or endure harsher conditions.
  16. sacrifice
    endure the loss of
    Unless they saw something dangerous in him. Some defiant spark, the same rebellious spirit he has now. Something that made them think it’d be riskier to educate him than to sacrifice his possible contributions to society.
  17. treason
    a crime that undermines the offender's government
    A lie like that is treason against the Republic.
  18. insistent
    demanding attention
    And just when I think he’s lost the strength to respond, his voice comes out sounding even more insistent.
  19. knack
    a special way of doing something
    I knew you'd be a bigger nuisance than you're worth. You have a knack for wasting my soldiers' time.
  20. protest
    express opposition through action or words
    They're protesting because of me.
  21. imitate
    reproduce someone's behavior or looks
    A group of protesters have streaked their hair scarlet, imitating the bloodstained lock Day had when he’d stood out here for his sentencing.
  22. protocol
    code of correct conduct
    This isn’t protocol for handling an unruly mob.
  23. cryptic
    having a secret or hidden meaning
    Cryptic notes scrawled on alley walls above where I slept.
  24. term
    a statement of what is required as part of an agreement
    "If I ever kill, I'll do it on my own terms."
  25. terse
    brief and to the point
    Thomas doesn't question a single one of my terse responses.
  26. resist
    express opposition through action or words
    He didn’t want me to resist Commander Jameson’s orders.
  27. faithful
    loyal and reliable
    Is it worse that he followed the orders so faithfully or that he doesn’t even know that this is what I want him to apologize for?
  28. alternative
    one of a number of things from which only one can be chosen
    I stare at the screen, then dare to imagine the alternative.
  29. trigger
    put in motion or move to act
    It’s grainy, and details are almost impossible to make out, but something triggers an old memory that makes my stomach churn.
  30. frustrated
    disappointingly unsuccessful
    I'm frustrated by the lack of news, but relieved at the same time.
  31. fascination
    the state of being intensely interested
    I’d once been fascinated by his legend—all the stories I’d heard before I met him. Now I can feel that same sense of fascination returning.
  32. detached
    showing lack of emotional involvement
    My words come out cool and detached.
  33. convinced
    having a strong belief or conviction
    The longer I stare at the black smears on the knife hilt, the more convinced I am that they’re remnants of rifle grease.
  34. assumption
    a hypothesis that is taken for granted
    I run the letters through my mind several more times, to make sure my assumption is correct.
  35. subtle
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    For the past few months I’ve tried asking subtle questions of other lab workers, and of Dad’s old friends, and searching online.
  36. rebel
    break with established customs
    If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system. That’s much more powerful than rebelling outside the system. And if you choose to rebel, bring me with you.
  37. cull
    remove something that has been rejected
    They use the plagues to cull the population of weak genes, the same way the Trials pick out the strongest.
  38. scapegoat
    someone who is punished for the errors of others
    The soldier who used Day as a convenient scapegoat.
  39. tolerate
    withstand a poison or strong drug or pathogen or condition
    They'd have to shoot at me from the ground or the air, but I'm fast when I can find footholds, and I can tolerate the pain in my hands.
  40. negotiate
    discuss the terms of an arrangement
    “I’m here to negotiate with you.”
  41. skepticism
    doubt about the truth of something
    The anger in Kaede’s eyes has turned into skepticism.
  42. justice
    judgment involved in the assignment of reward and punishment
    “I want justice. And I want to free the boy who didn’t kill my brother.”
  43. chaos
    a state of extreme confusion and disorder
    Create chaos in Batalla Square, as much chaos as you can manage. Enough chaos to force most of the soldiers guarding the back exits to enter the square and help contain the crowd—if only for a couple of minutes.
  44. genius
    someone who has exceptional intellectual ability
    “Okay, genius.” Kaede laughs, a little too sarcastically. “Let me ask you this, though. How the hell are you going to get Day out of the building at all? You think you’re going to be the only soldier escorting him to the firing squad?
  45. disguise
    any attire that conceals the wearer's identity
    “There will be other soldiers. But who says they can’t be Patriots in disguise?”
  46. reflex
    an automatic instinctive unlearned reaction to a stimulus
    "You'll need better reflexes than that if you want to pass your Trial's physical tier."
  47. resolve
    the trait of being firm in purpose or belief
    Usually something happens: the criminal's resolve starts breaking down, and he begs and pleads with the guards or tries to cut a deal or an extension, or sometimes even tries to break out.
  48. privilege
    a special advantage or benefit not enjoyed by all
    What could hurt her so badly that she, with all her privileges, would turn against the Republic?
  49. isolated
    remote and separate physically or socially
    Even if June's plans fail, even if I'm going to be isolated and friendless when I head out to the firing squad ... I'm going to fight.
  50. invincible
    incapable of being overcome or subdued
    June has never looked more beautiful than she does now, unadorned and honest, vulnerable yet invincible.
Created on Sun Apr 24 16:46:37 EDT 2016 (updated Mon Sep 10 17:07:11 EDT 2018)

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