Messenger: Chapters 5-8

by Lois Lowry
In the third book of The Giver Quartet, award-winning author Lois Lowry tells the story of Matty, who risks his life to save his village. Along the way, Matty receives guidance from Leader (Jonas from The Giver) and reunites with Kira (from Gathering Blue).

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1-4, Chapters 5-8, Chapters 9-12, Chapters 13-17, Chapters 18-21

Explore other lists of The Giver Quartet here.
35 words 710 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. frivolous
    not serious in content, attitude, or behavior
    Nothing silly like a Gaming Machine, nothing frivolous like the soft upholstered furniture decorated with fringe that a foolish young couple down the road had traded for.
  2. vibrate
    shake, quiver, or throb
    Steeling himself against the painful vibrating shock that he knew would go through his entire body, Matty placed his left hand on the mother dog, his right on the puppy, and willed them to live.
  3. exhausted
    depleted of energy, force, or strength
    An hour later, Matty stumbled home, exhausted.
  4. revive
    return to consciousness
    “Who would have thought of that combination of herbs? Isn’t it amazing!” she had said in delight, watching the creatures revive.
  5. regain
    get or find back; recover the use of
    Finally, when he had regained a little strength, he forced himself to stand and leave.
  6. sever
    cut off from a whole
    His hand grasped the nearly severed leg and he could feel his own blood moving through its vessels.
  7. wound
    an injury to living tissue
    He was dreaming now of healed wounds, new life, and calm.
  8. relieved
    made easier to bear
    But always they were hopeful, too, and clearly relieved to be greeted by the smiles.
  9. ailment
    an often persistent bodily disorder or disease
    She held the hand of a younger child whose eyes were thick with yellow mucus; it was a common ailment of new ones, quickly healed with herbal mixtures.
  10. process
    deal with in a routine way
    Approaching the welcoming entrance and the busy processing of the new ones, a small group of people Matty recognized—with Mentor leading them—came forward, chanting, “Close. Close. No more. No more.”
  11. persecute
    cause to suffer
    You will no longer be hungry. You will no longer live under unfair rule. You will never be persecuted again.
  12. dissent
    express opposition through action or words
    “Those of you who object? Mentor? You and the others?” He looked at the small group of dissenters. “You have that right, as you know. The right to dissent is one of our most important freedoms here.
  13. embrace
    take up the cause of someone and use it as one's own
    Even those of you who want to close Village to new ones—even you value the peace and kindness we have always embraced here.
  14. demeanor
    the way a person behaves toward other people
    Mentor was thinking, and Matty was accustomed to seeing him deep in thought, for it was part of his classroom demeanor.
  15. consume
    engage fully
    With the other things that had consumed Matty’s thoughts recently, he had almost forgotten about Trade Mart.
  16. invalid
    someone who is incapacitated by a chronic illness or injury
    The blind man said that he had first known of it when he was a newcomer to Village, still an invalid with wounds to be tended.
  17. banter
    light teasing repartee
    People nodded back or waved in reply, but there was none of the lighthearted banter that was ordinarily part of Village.
  18. pervade
    spread or diffuse through
    There was an intentness to everyone, an odd seriousness, and a sense of worry—unusual in Village—pervaded the atmosphere.
  19. commerce
    transactions supplying goods and services
    It was not at all like Market Day, with its sounds of laughter, conversation, and commerce: good-natured bargaining, the squealing of pigs, the motherly cluck of hens with their cheeping broods.
  20. confirm
    establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts
    None of them had brought any goods to trade. He looked around to confirm what he had noticed.
  21. tense
    in or of a state of physical or nervous strain
    More than that, the teacher, usually so calm, was now tense, alert, and appeared to be waiting for something.
  22. jostle
    make one's way by pushing or shoving
    He pushed through everyone. He shoved and jostled them aside, Seer.
  23. scornful
    expressing extreme contempt
    “Yes, and sometimes the crowd called out in a scornful way. They jeered. I think that’s the right word.”
  24. imitate
    reproduce someone's behavior or looks
    “‘Trade away what?’” He tried to make his voice loud and important, as Trademaster’s had been. He tried to imitate the slight accent.
  25. acceptable
    worthy of approval or satisfactory
    Stealing had been so much a part of his previous existence that he sometimes still, even after years, forgot that it was not acceptable behavior in Village.
  26. sneer
    a facial expression of contempt or scorn
    But she made a sneering face at him and she imitated his way of walking. She made fun of him.
  27. thrive
    grow vigorously
    The flower garden, as always, was thriving and well tended, with late roses in bloom and fall asters fat with bud.
  28. fraught
    filled with or attended with
    She smiled up at him, but it was not her usual saucy smile, fraught with flirtatiousness, the smile that drove Matty nearly mad. This morning she seemed troubled.
  29. determined
    devoting full strength and concentrated attention to
    “I can’t control him at all. He’s grown so fast, and he’s very strong and determined. My father is beside himself, wanting such a wild little thing gone.”
  30. ragged
    being or dressed in clothes that are worn or torn
    What a ragged, naughty thing you were, Matty, when you came to Village.
  31. affectation
    a deliberate pretense or exaggerated display
    He had for a long time been attracted to her girlish affectations, her silly charms and wiles.
  32. superficial
    of little substance or significance
    He perceived the young woman behind all those superficial things.
  33. suspect
    imagine to be the case or true or probable
    Once he would have loved a naughty puppy, Matty, the way he loved you when you were a raggedy boy. I knew it all for certain yesterday when he kicked the puppy. Till then I only suspected.
  34. irreversible
    incapable of being turned around
    To repair a man’s soul and deepest heart—to reverse an irreversible trade—might be far, far more than Matty could possibly undertake.
  35. acknowledge
    declare to be true or admit the existence or reality of
    “I’ve seen the changes in him,” Leader acknowledged.
Created on Tue Jun 20 13:20:51 EDT 2017 (updated Tue May 31 12:46:25 EDT 2022)

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.