The Mark of Athena: Chapters 31–40

by Rick Riordan
With help from Roman demigods, Annabeth must use her wits to retrieve the stolen statue of Athena. Now test your wits against these words from Rick Riordan.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–10, Chapters 11–20, Chapters 21–30, Chapters 31–40, Chapters 41–52

Here are links to our lists for The Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan: The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, The Mark of Athena, The House of Hades, The Blood of Olympus

And here are links to our lists for the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan: The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan’s Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Last Olympian
40 words 110 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. generate
    bring into existence
    Nothing like total failure to generate great ideas.
  2. sympathy
    sharing the feelings of others, especially sorrow or anguish
    “You should be scared!” Percy looked at the pirate crew with sympathy. “Dionysus will be severely cranky with you for having delayed our voyage.
  3. confront
    oppose, as in hostility or a competition
    Percy thought about chasing him, but he didn’t know these waters, and he didn’t want to confront that guy alone again.
  4. direction
    a formal statement of a command to do something
    Piper brought out her new horn of plenty and, on Percy’s direction, willed it to spew Diet Coke, which came out with the strength of a fire hose, dousing the enemy deck. Percy thought it would take hours, but the ship sank remarkably fast, filling with Diet Coke and seawater.
  5. genius
    someone who has exceptional intellectual ability
    Percy was no genius when it came to relationships, but even he could feel the tension among those three. Ever since they’d gotten knocked into the Atlantic, they hadn’t acted quite the same. It wasn’t just the two guys competing for Hazel. It was like the three of them were locked together, acting out some kind of murder mystery, but they hadn’t yet discovered which of them was the victim.
  6. navigate
    direct carefully and safely
    Under different circumstances, wandering through Rome with Annabeth would have been pretty awesome. They held hands as they navigated the winding streets, dodging cars and crazy Vespa drivers, squeezing through mobs of tourists, and wading through oceans of pigeons.
  7. situation
    a complex or critical or unusual difficulty
    But Annabeth and he had been in plenty of bad situations together. They could’ve figured out an escape plan, saved the day... and Annabeth wouldn’t be facing this solo quest in Rome.
  8. perception
    knowledge gained by awareness through the senses
    But Annabeth knew that people saw what they wanted to see. They didn’t need the Mist to warp their perceptions.
  9. scour
    examine minutely
    She’d been studying the bronze map for days now, scouring Daedalus’s laptop for information. Unfortunately, the few things she had learned made this quest seem even more impossible.
  10. figure out
    find the solution to or understand the meaning of
    The fiery owl seemed to be taunting her: Well, this is the way, kid. So you’d better figure something out.
  11. consider
    think about carefully; weigh
    Annabeth considered her options. Too dangerous to jump. No ladders or ropes. She thought about borrowing some metal scaffolding from above to use as a fire pole, but it was all bolted in place.
  12. accuracy
    the quality of being near to the true value
    Hazel, from what she had said, could find her way underground with flawless accuracy and even create or change the course of tunnels. She could easily make a new path. Leo would pull just the right tools from his belt and build something to do the job.
  13. resource
    a new or reserve supply that can be drawn upon when needed
    First, she stuffed her backpack with the leftover spools of string. She wasn’t sure why, but they were one more resource, and not too heavy.
  14. unravel
    become or cause to become undone by separating the fibers of
    Just to be safe, she tied a new ball of string to the end of her rope ladder. She could unravel it behind her as she explored. An old trick, but a good one.
  15. debate
    think about carefully; weigh
    She debated which way to go. The tunnel seemed the same in both directions.
  16. predecessor
    one who goes before you in time
    The failures of your predecessors will guide you, Tiberinus had said.
  17. mystery
    something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained
    “Do not interrupt! As pater, I must protect our mysteries.”
    “What mysteries?” Annabeth asked. “A dozen dead guys in togas sitting around in a cave?”
  18. deduction
    something that is inferred
    She began to talk, pulling deductions from the top of her head.
  19. assume
    take to be the case or to be true
    She knew this ancient chamber was on the verge of collapse. She recognized what the stress fractures in the ceiling meant, all emanating from a single point—the top of the stone arch just above her. The capstone was about to crumble, and when that happened, assuming she could time it correctly...
  20. prioritize
    assign a status in order of importance or urgency
    “Okay,” she said aloud, just to hear her voice. “Think, Annabeth. Prioritize.”
  21. immediate
    very close or connected in space or time
    First step: Scan your surroundings for immediate threats.
  22. inventory
    a collection of resources
    “Okay,” she said. “Next step: Take inventory.”
    What could she use? She had her water bottle, and more water in that trench if she could reach it. She had her knife. Her backpack was full of colorful string (whee), her laptop, the bronze map, some matches, and some ambrosia for emergencies.
  23. practice
    systematic training by multiple repetitions
    Once before, in first aid practice, she’d splinted a fake broken leg for another camper, but she never imagined she’d have to make a splint for herself.
  24. support
    the act of bearing the weight of or strengthening
    The tunnel ran straight and smooth, but after her fall, Annabeth decided to take no chances. She used the wall for support and tapped the floor in front of her with her crutch to make sure there were no traps.
  25. pattern
    a repeated design, structure, or arrangement
    She had no faith her plan would work, but she pulled all the string out of her backpack and began weaving between the beams, stringing a cat’s cradle pattern back and forth from eye hook to eye hook, doubling and tripling the line.
  26. accomplish
    achieve with effort
    Annabeth could have stood there all day looking at the statue, but she had only accomplished half her mission. She had found the Athena Parthenos. Now, how could she rescue it from this cavern?
  27. scan
    make a wide, sweeping search of
    She scanned the chamber, hoping to see something that might help.
  28. clever
    mentally quick and resourceful
    “I had to make sure you were worthy, the only child of Athena clever enough to pass my tests and reach this place alive. Indeed, you are her most talented child. This will make your death so much more painful to my old enemy when you fail utterly.”
  29. engrossed
    giving or marked by complete attention to
    In the light of her golden cavalry sword, she was examining a door. She was so engrossed, she didn’t notice them until Leo said, “Hi.”
  30. sophisticated
    complex or intricate
    “All I’m saying is this machinery is delicate, sophisticated. It reminds me of...” Leo stared at the sphere, trying to recall where he’d read or heard about a similar ancient machine. “It’s a more advanced sort of lock,” he decided. “You line up the symbols on the different rings in the right order, and that opens the door.”
  31. duplicate
    identically copy or match
    “Look, the head’s wiring has been disconnected. And here, at the elbow, the pulley system for this joint is out of alignment. My guess? The Romans were trying to duplicate a Greek design, but they didn’t have the skill.”
  32. delicate
    marked by great skill especially in meticulous technique
    “The Romans weren’t good enough at being complicated, I suppose.”
    “Or delicate,” Frank added. “Or sophisticated.”
  33. elite
    selected as the best
    You can’t be a demigod who’s into building stuff and not know about Archimedes. The guy was seriously elite. He calculated the value of pi. He did all this math stuff we still use for engineering.
  34. sphere
    any round-shaped artifact
    “Guys, Archimedes constructed spheres. The Romans couldn’t figure them out. They thought they were just for telling time or following constellations, because they were covered with pictures of stars and planets. But that’s like finding a rifle and thinking it’s a walking stick.”
  35. construction
    the act of building something
    “Guys, this is the lost book!” His hands were shaking. “Archimedes wrote this, describing his construction methods, but all the copies were lost in ancient times. If I can translate this..."
  36. scroll
    a document that can be rolled up (as for storage)
    Leo had to get the spheres and scrolls safely out of here. He had to protect this stuff until he could get it back to Bunker 9 and study it.
  37. operation
    activity by a military or naval force
    Leo glanced at the dormant spheres on the worktables. He considered his tool belt. He thought about the loft behind him—the area that looked like a sound booth. Presto: Operation Junk Pile was born.
  38. deduce
    conclude by reasoning
    But Leo still had to deduce the right sequence to activate this control sphere.
  39. circuit
    an electrical device providing a path for current to flow
    “My last command overloaded their kill switches—basically locked down all their circuits and melted their cores.”
  40. invention
    a creation resulting from study and experimentation
    “Too bad all this stuff got wrecked, but at least I salvaged the scrolls. If I can get them back to Camp Half-Blood, maybe I can learn how to recreate Archimedes’s inventions.”
Created on Wed Apr 26 09:27:47 EDT 2017 (updated Wed Sep 12 15:19:15 EDT 2018)

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.