50 Words to Know for English 11 EXAM 12/16/19

Mr. O'Brien (United States of America)
Click below Visual Thesaurus:
https://universityschool.visualthesaurus.com/wordlists/6408808
Part I. Vocabulary (20%)
A. Matching - 20 words - match words to the best definition
B. Word bank - 10 words - use words in the context of multiple sentences.
C. Multiple-choice - 10 words - select the best answer in the context of the sentence

Tips to learning and understanding vocabulary:
1. Write the words (by hand) in a sentence that helps you remember the proper usage in context.
2. Make flashcards (by hand)
3. PRACTICE, practice, PRACTICE - with vocabulary.com
4. But learn from your mistakes - reread the definition AND WRITE an example sentence down in your journal.
5. Study with a focused friend - talk through mnemonic devices: How do you remember that word?
6. Consider the context and diction - apply the word to a work we have read this semester: Do you remember what author used that word?
7. Use visualthesaurus.com - what are the associated words? positive or negative connotation?
50 words 78 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. firmament
    the sphere on which celestial bodies appear to be projected
    "A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this..." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
    The word firmament comes from the Latin firmus, or "firm," and this description of the sky as something solid reflects ancient ideas of the way the universe was constructed. The first stargazers imagined the sky as a sphere, and it wasn't until the late 1500s that the idea of an infinite universe was seriously considered. Today the word firmament is mostly literary, used to poetically describe the visual curve of the sky.
  2. reckoning
    problem solving that involves numbers or quantities
    His reckoning with police brutality was to conclude that everyone was at fault. The Guardian (Oct 18, 2018)
    The act of counting or tallying can be called a reckoning, and so can a person's opinion on something. You could describe an ancient astronomer's reckoning that the Earth was at the center of the universe or your own reckoning that guests should never stay more than three days. The Old English gerecenian is the root of reckoning, to count, recount, or relate.
  3. vernacular
    the everyday speech of the people
    "I'd a knowed," announced Huck Finn near the close of Mark Twain's immortal picaresque tale, "what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn't a tackled it and ain't agoing to no more." Luckily for us, Huck the reluctant writer did settle down at least once to tell the story of his adventures. The result is not only a pioneering classic of American - and world - literature, it is also a celebration of the power and unexpected poetry of vernacular speech. - Eileen Batters at The Irish Times
    "Adrift on the vernacular river" by Eileen Battersby at THE IRISH TIMES https://www.irishtimes.com/news/adrift-on-the-vernacular-river-1.65564
    Vocab.com:
    Vernacular describes everyday language, including slang, that's used by the people. The vernacular is different from literary or official language: it's the way people really talk with each other, like how families talk at home.
  4. insular
    narrowly restricted in outlook or scope
    The musician spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the insular nature of the orchestra world. Washington Post (Jul 25, 2018)
    Insular means "having a narrow view of the world," like insular people who never leave their small town, which enables them to believe that every place in the world is the same and the people are all just like them.
  5. exude
    make apparent by one's mood or behavior
    At present, we are gifted with artists who exude conviction in the face of adversity. The New Yorker (Dec 7, 2018)
    The word exude is often used to describe sweating — the original Latin root, sudāre means "to sweat." Still, we frequently use the word exude to refer to anything that seems to ooze or pour forth from an object or person. John F. Kennedy was said to exude confidence, while his wife, Jackie, exuded class. But the verb can also have a negative sense, as when we say a skunk exudes a foul smell.
  6. requiem
    a song or hymn of mourning as a memorial to a dead person
    Each year they sing a requiem for those who died. BBC (Oct 18, 2017)
    The word requiem comes from the opening words of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead, which is spoken or sung in Latin (requies means “rest”). In a nonreligious context the word refers simply to an act of remembrance. Mozart, Brahms, and Dvořák have all written important requiems. The English composer Benjamin Britten wrote his famous "War Requiem" for the reconsecration of a cathedral that was destroyed in World War II.
  7. posterity
    all future generations
    "This American government,—what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will." - Henry David Thoreau, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience"
    "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience"
    by Henry David Thoreau
    1849, original title: Resistance to Civil Government
    http://www.gutenberg.org/files/71/71-h/71-h.htm
    If you save something "for posterity," you're hoping that years later people will appreciate it, like a time capsule you bury in the yard. The word comes from the Latin word for "post, after." It's also related to the word posterior, which means "behind, to come after in time."
  8. esoteric
    understandable only by an enlightened inner circle
    A small sliver of the population understands blockchain technology well enough to engage in fierce, esoteric debate over the meaning and relative importance of various ideas and terms. The New Yorker (Oct 15, 2018)
    In the olden days, achieving esoteric knowledge meant getting initiated into the mystical arts, learning secrets unknown to regular folks. Now when a subject is called esoteric it's usually something not so mystical but still hard to penetrate: financial accounting might seem esoteric for people who get easily stumped filling out their tax forms. Americans might find the sport of cricket to be esoteric, but the rules of baseball can be just as impenetrable to outsiders.
  9. idiom
    expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from its words
    "I know what you'll say. You'll say it's dirty, low-down business; but what if it is? I'm low down; and I'm a-going to steal him, and I want you keep mum and not let on. Will you?" Keep mum is an idiom meaning to keep quiet and/or do nothing; remain silent, esp. so as not to reveal a secret.
    See this Quizlet for Huck Finn Slang: examples of idioms, colloquial terms, and use of vernacular speech: https://quizlet.com/_7pf84x?x=1qqt&i=1qbfe
  10. protege
    a person who receives support from an influential patron
    A protege of Ralph Waldo Emerson (born: May 25, 1803 and deceased April 27, 1882), the young Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817; however, he died twenty years before his mentor on May 6, 1862 in Concord, MA.
  11. epigraph
    a quotation at the beginning of some piece of writing
    NOTICE: Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance. (from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Mark Twain)
    Cited in "The 25 Greatest Epigraphs in Literature"

    https://www.flavorwire.com/246590/the-25-greatest-epigraphs-in-literature

    A couple of favorites:

    "There, where one burns books… one, in the end, burns men." — Heinrich Heine (from People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks)

    "Never again will a single story be told as though it’s the only one." — John Berger (from The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy)
  12. rhetorical
    relating to using language effectively
    If you ask a rhetorical question it means you don’t necessarily expect an answer, but you do want an occasion to talk about something.
    Rhetoric is the art of written or spoken communication. If you went to school a hundred years ago, your English class would have been called Rhetoric. But nowadays if we say something is rhetorical, we usually mean that it’s only good for talking. If you speak beautifully about carpentry but can’t ever actually build a cabinet, we might say you have lots of rhetorical flare, but very little real skill.
  13. condescending
    characteristic of those who treat others with arrogance
  14. affectation
    a deliberate pretense or exaggerated display
    The guy at your local coffee shop who's never left the state but speaks as though he's lived in London all his life? His British accent is an affectation.
    Never confuse affectation with affection — which means “love” or “tenderness.” While affection might not always be genuine, affectation is never the real thing. In fact, affectation is all about faking it. Do you believe the politician cares about poor people, or do you think his concern is an affectation?
  15. obsequious
    attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery
    If you disapprove of the overly submissive way someone is acting — like the teacher's pet or a celebrity's assistant — call them by the formal adjective obsequious.
    Obsequious people are usually not being genuine; they resort to flattery and other fawning ways to stay in the good graces of authority figures. An obsequious person can be called a bootlicker, a brownnoser or a toady. You can also say that someone gives an obsequious bow, a gesture that means, "your wish is my command."
  16. austere
    of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor
    "And more than all, I remembered a certain unconscious air of pallid—how shall I call it?—of pallid haughtiness, say, or rather an austere reserve about him, which had positively awed me into my tame compliance with his eccentricities, when I had feared to ask him to do the slightest incidental thing for me, even though I might know, from his long-continued motionlessness, that behind his screen he must be standing in one of those dead-wall reveries of his."
    Herman Melville, "Bartelby, the Scrivener"
    See list: https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/2579192
    Full text: http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/LCS/bartleby.pdf
  17. allegory
    a short moral story
  18. expediency
    the quality of being suited to the end in view
  19. bias
    a partiality preventing objective consideration of an issue
    Rising awareness about systemic gender discrimination and bias in recent years hasn’t extinguished the power imbalance —just look at the all-male nominees for best director and best screenplay for next month’s Golden Globes. Los Angeles Times (Dec 12, 2019)
    Do you know the following forms of bias? Confirmation bias. Affinity bias. Selection bias.
    "Research on “implicit bias” suggests that people can act on the basis of prejudice and stereotypes without intending to do so." https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/implicit-bias/
  20. decorous
    characterized by propriety and dignity and good taste
  21. parody
    a composition that imitates or misrepresents a style
  22. chagrin
    strong feelings of embarrassment
  23. alacrity
    liveliness and eagerness
    "Not the least among the employments of Ginger Nut, as well as one which he discharged with the most alacrity, was his duty as cake and apple purveyor for Turkey and Nippers." -
    Herman Melville, "Bartelby, the Scrivener"
    See list: https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/2579192
    Full text: http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/LCS/bartleby.pdf
  24. tacit
    implied by or inferred from actions or statements
    "For it was exceeding difficult to bear in mind all the time those strange peculiarities, privileges, and unheard of exemptions, forming the tacit stipulations on Bartleby’s part under which he remained in my office."
    Herman Melville, "Bartelby, the Scrivener"
    See list: https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/2579192
    Full text: http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/LCS/bartleby.pdf
  25. imperative
    requiring attention or action
    But fixing those shortcomings will be imperative to their season goals. Los Angeles Times (Nov 6, 2019)
    Definition of imperative
    1: the grammatical mood that expresses the will to influence the behavior of another or a verb form or verbal phrase expressing it
    2: something that is imperative (see IMPERATIVE entry 1): such as
    a: COMMAND, ORDER
    b: RULE, GUIDE
    c: an obligatory act or duty
    d: an obligatory judgment or proposition
  26. infer
    conclude by reasoning
  27. elude
    escape, either physically or mentally
    Elude means "evade or escape," like the way you might elude the other kids during a game of hide-and-seek. This word can also mean "to be hard to understand." No matter how hard you try, the finer points of quantum physics might elude you.
    Elude has a slippery feeling to it. You elude the police, math can elude you — and that yak you went to see on safari but never got a glimpse of, you might say that he has eluded you as well. Delude means "to deceive," and there are times when someone can both delude and elude you — like when the conman took your money and then escaped out the back door.
  28. juxtapose
    place side by side
    See the word "pose" in juxtapose? When you juxtapose, you are "posing" or positioning things side by side.
    The verb juxtapose requires contrasting things placed next to one other: "The collage juxtaposed pictures of Jane while she was growing up and as an adult." Juxtapose is used often when referring to contrasting elements in the arts. "The music juxtaposed the instrumentation of jazz with the harmonies of soul."
  29. affinity
    a natural attraction or feeling of kinship
    When you are attracted to someone or something a great deal, we say that you have an affinity, a natural connection. Likewise, scientists use affinity to describe organisms that are alike or resemble each other. Interestingly, the Middle English word, affinite, originally applied to people who were connected or related by marriage, rather than by biology.
  30. privilege
    a special advantage or benefit not enjoyed by all
    "The idea of “privilege”—that some people benefit from unearned, and largely unacknowledged, advantages, even when those advantages aren’t discriminatory —has a pretty long history." - Joshua Rothman, The Origins of “Privilege”
    The Origins of “Privilege”
    By Joshua Rothman
    NEW YORKER
    May 12, 2014
    https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-origins-of-privilege
  31. racism
    the prejudice that one people are superior to another
    "Despite the scientific consensus that humanity is more alike than unlike, the long history of racism is a somber reminder that throughout human history, a mere 0.1% of variation has been sufficient justification for committing all manner of discriminations and atrocities. The advances in human genetics and the evidence of negligible differences between races might be expected to halt racist arguments." - "How Science and Genetics are Reshaping the Race Debate of the 21st Century" by Vivian Chou
    Vivian Chou is a Ph.D. candidate in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences program at Harvard Medical School. http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/science-genetics-reshaping-race-debate-21st-century/
  32. melancholy
    a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed
    "A plaintive note of melancholy and dread surfaces immediately in the first chapter, after Huck sums up the narrative of his life in a prior book…"
    Toni Morrison Critical Essay of HUCK FINN
    READ the full ESSAY here.
    https://neebefinalexam.weebly.com/uploads/2/8/4/9/28496677/morrison_huckfinn.pdf
  33. connotation
    an idea that is implied or suggested
    A connotation is the feeling a word invokes. But take note! A denotation is what the word literally says. If these words were on a trip, connotation would be the baggage, and denotation would be the traveler. A connotation is the baggage a word or idea drags around. The word "baggage" often has a negative connotation. If you say someone has baggage, unless they're at the airport, you mean the person is lugging around some drama.
    "People love to read between the lines, so connotation is more popular, but it's often held up against its more rigid friend denotation. "https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/connotation-denotation/
  34. context
    the set of facts or circumstances that surround a situation
    “Words don’t have meaning without context, OK?” - Ta-Nehisi Coates
    "Coates, who has defended the use of the n-word by black Americans, began [with this] response. He offered different examples of how this dynamic plays out. His wife, for instance, refers to him as “honey” because that’s an accepted term between them, but if a stranger did, that wouldn’t be acceptable." - Marc Bain, "Ta-Nehisi Coates gently explains why white people can’t rap the n-word" https://qz.com/quartzy/1127824/ta-nehisi-coates-explains-why-white-hip-hop-fans-cant-use-the-n-word/
  35. pretext
    a fictitious reason that conceals the real reason
    “My son, Jack, who was killed in this attack, would not wish his death to be used as the pretext for more draconian sentences or for detaining people unnecessarily,” the post read. New York Times (Nov 30, 2019)
    : a purpose or motive alleged or an appearance assumed in order to cloak the real intention or state of affairs
    PRETEXT suggests subterfuge and the offering of false reasons or motives in excuse or explanation. used any pretext to get out of work
  36. deferential
    showing courteous regard for people's feelings
    "With a little trouble we made out to examine the papers without Bartleby, though at every page or two, Turkey deferentially dropped his opinion that this proceeding was quite out of the common; while Nippers, twitching in his chair with a dyspeptic nervousness, ground out between his set teeth occasional hissing maledictions against the stubborn oaf behind the screen." - Herman Melville, "Bartelby, the Scrivener"
    Herman Melville, "Bartelby, the Scrivener"
    See list: https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/2579192
    Full text: http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/LCS/bartleby.pdf
  37. empathy
    understanding and entering into another's feelings
    Empathy is Understanding. Empathy emphasizes the notion of projection. You have empathy for a person when you can imagine how they might feel based on what you know about that person, despite not having those feelings explicitly communicated...The sentiment behind empathy is often presented in the familiar idiom to put (oneself) in another's shoes.
    "But the letters show, as he repeats stories told to him by participants in battle, the kind of imaginative empathy that makes him fully deserve his reputation as a war poet."
    —Monroe K. Spears, American Ambitions, 1987
    From Merriam-Webster:
    What's the difference between sympathy and empathy?
    Though the words appear in similar contexts, they have different meanings.
    https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/sympathy-empathy-difference
  38. sympathy
    sharing the feelings of others, especially sorrow or anguish
    Sympathy vs. Empathy Difference "The difference in meaning is usually explained with some variation of the following: sympathy is when you share the feelings of another; empathy is when you understand the feelings of another but do not necessarily share them." - Merriam-Webster Dictionary
    From Merriam-Webster:
    Sympathy is Sharing.
    The nouns share a common root: the Greek noun pathos, meaning "feelings, emotion, or passion." Pathos itself refers to the evocation of pity or compassion in a work of art or literature.

    Sympathy (from sympathēs, "having common feelings, sympathetic")
    The sym- in sympathy means "together" or "at the same time" and is the same Greek prefix that one finds in synonym, symmetry, and symposium (originally, an occasion for getting together and drinking).
  39. compassion
    a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering
    "But if you've really learned how to think, how to pay attention, then you will know you have other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, loud, slow, consumer hell-type situation as not only meaningful but sacred, on fire with the same force that lit the stars -compassion, love, the sub-surface unity of all things. Not that that mystical stuff's necessarily true: The only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're going to try to see it."
    "This Is Water" by David Foster Wallace
    See LIST:
    https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/2596508
    2005 Commencement Address at Kenyon College
    Full Transcript via Kenyon Bulletin: http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x4280.html
  40. sanguine
    confidently optimistic and cheerful
    It is, of course, an indispensable part of a scrivener’s business to verify the accuracy of his copy, word by word. Where there are two or more scriveners in an office, they assist each other in this examination, one reading from the copy, the other holding the original. It is a very dull, wearisome, and lethargic affair. I can readily imagine that to some sanguine temperaments it would be altogether intolerable." - Herman Melville, "Bartelby, the Scrivener"
    Herman Melville, "Bartelby, the Scrivener"
    See list: https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/2579192
    Full text: http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/LCS/bartleby.pdf
  41. evince
    give expression to
    "Nippers, the second on my list, was a whiskered, sallow, and, upon the whole, rather piratical-looking young man of about five and twenty. I always deemed him the victim of two evil powers—ambition and indigestion. The ambition was evinced by a certain impatience of the duties of a mere copyist, an unwarrantable usurpation of strictly professional affairs, such as the original drawing up of legal documents." - Herman Melville, "Bartelby, the Scrivener"
    Herman Melville, "Bartelby, The Scrivener"
    See list: https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/2579192
    Full text: http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/LCS/bartleby.pdf
  42. banal
    repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
    "Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude-but the fact is that, in the day-to-day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have life-or-death importance." - David Foster Wallace, "This is Water"
    "This Is Water" by David Foster Wallace
    See LIST:
    https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/2596508
    2005 Commencement Address at Kenyon College
    Full Transcript via Kenyon Bulletin: http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x4280.html
  43. ubiquitous
    being present everywhere at once
    "The immediate point of the fish story is that the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about." - David Foster Wallace, "This is Water"
    "This Is Water" by David Foster Wallace
    See LIST:
    https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/2596508
    2005 Commencement Address at Kenyon College
    Full Transcript via Kenyon Bulletin: http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x4280.html
  44. epiphany
    a usually sudden insight, perception, or understanding of something
    When inspiration hits you out of the blue, call it an epiphany.
    In the Christian tradition, Epiphany (ə-PIF-ə-nee) is a festival celebrating Christ's appearance to the Gentiles, observed every year on January 6. From the Christian sense we get an additional religious sense, "the appearance of a god or deity" and the more common modern usage, a noun meaning "a sudden revelation." There's nothing religious about most epiphanies these days — your "Eureka!" moment could come when you realize that you're in the wrong line of work and you need to quit your job to
  45. consciousness
    an alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself
    The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power -you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart - you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on. Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful; it is that they are unconscious. They are default-settings." - David Foster Wallace
    "This Is Water" by David Foster Wallace
    See LIST:
    https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/2596508
    2005 Commencement Address at Kenyon College
    Full Transcript via Kenyon Bulletin: http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x4280.html
  46. subconscious
    just below the level of awareness
    Subconscious describes something that is just below your awareness, like at a subconscious level hoping your friend's boyfriend breaks up with her — you didn't even realize you felt that way until it happened.
    If you are aware of something, you are conscious of it, like being conscious of your tendency to talk too much when you are nervous: you watch for it and try to control it. Most words that start with the prefix sub- are something “under” the root word: something subconscious is under or below your awareness. Maybe in time, it will surface — you might get to the root of why you get so nervous in the first place.
  47. delude
    be dishonest with
    "A huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded. Here's one example of the utter wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely talk about this..."
    "This Is Water" by David Foster Wallace
    See LIST:
    https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/2596508
    2005 Commencement Address at Kenyon College
    Full Transcript via Kenyon Bulletin: http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x4280.html
  48. satire
    witty language used to convey insults or scorn
    Satire is a way of making fun of people by using silly or exaggerated language. Politicians are easy targets for satire, especially when they're acting self-righteous or hypocritical.
    Even though the ridiculous language of satire isn't intended to be taken seriously, well-made satire can use mockery to get at more serious truths. Sometimes satire can even overtake reality: when the television sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live presented a mock debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign season, the satire was so dead-on that it influenced the way people thought of the candidates.
  49. paradigm
    a standard or typical example
    A new paradigm in business could mean a new way of reaching customers and making money. In education, relying on lectures is a paradigm: if you suddenly shifted to all group work, that would be a new paradigm. When you change paradigms, you're changing how you think about something.
    making money. In education, relying on lectures is a paradigm: if you suddenly shifted to all group work, that would be a new paradigm. When you change paradigms, you're changing how you think about something.
    a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions.
    "geophysical evidence supporting Wegener's theory led to a rapid paradigm shift in the earth sciences"
    Origin1970s: term used in the writings of Thomas S. Kuhn (1922–96), philosopher of science.
  50. paradox
    a statement that contradicts itself
    "By paradox we mean the truth inherent in a contradiction. . . . [In the paradox] the two opposite cords of truth become entangled in an inextricable knot . . . [but it is] this knot which ties safely together the whole bundle of human life." (G. K. Chesterton, The Outline of Sanity, 1926) In everyday communication, notes H.F. Platt, paradox "is mostly used for expressing astonishment or disbelief at something unusual or unexpected" (Encyclopedia of Rhetoric, 2001).
    "The swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot." (Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854)

    A compressed paradox (one that's expressed in just a few words) is called an oxymoron.
    Etymology: From the Greek, "incredible, contrary to opinion or expectation."
    Pronunciation: PAR-a-dox

    “Paradoxically though it may seem..., it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” (Oscar Wilde)

    For more examples: https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-paradox-1691563
Created on Mon Dec 10 08:34:13 EST 2018 (updated Sat Dec 14 04:29:59 EST 2019)

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