White Fang: Part 3

by Jack London
Half dog, half wolf, White Fang struggles to survive in the wilderness — and to navigate the complicated world of humans. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
15 words 451 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. cower
    show submission or fear
    As it was, he cowered down in a paralysis of fear, already half proffering the submission that his kind had proffered from the first time a wolf came in to sit by man’s fire and be made warm.
  2. ostentatious
    intended to attract notice and impress others
    A part-grown puppy, somewhat larger and older than he, came toward him slowly, with ostentatious and belligerent importance.
  3. belligerent
    characteristic of an enemy or one eager to fight
    A part-grown puppy, somewhat larger and older than he, came toward him slowly, with ostentatious and belligerent importance.
  4. vindicate
    show to be right by providing justification or proof
    The more he came to know them, the more they vindicated their superiority, the more they displayed their mysterious powers, the greater loomed their god-likeness.
  5. morose
    showing a brooding ill humor
    He became malignant and morose.
  6. comportment
    manner of behaving or conducting oneself; bearing
    The effect of all this was to rob White Fang of much of his puppyhood and to make him in his comportment older than his age.
  7. implacable
    incapable of being appeased or pacified
    He learned to sneak about camp, to be crafty, to know what was going on everywhere, to see and to hear everything and to reason accordingly, and successfully to devise ways and means of avoiding his implacable persecutor.
  8. enmity
    a state of deep-seated ill-will
    Perhaps they sensed his wild-wood breed, and instinctively felt for him the enmity that the domestic dog feels for the wolf.
  9. reprisal
    a retaliatory action against an enemy
    But White Fang’s reprisals did not cease, even when the young dogs had learned thoroughly that they must stay together.
  10. lithe
    moving and bending with ease
    He became quicker of movement than the other dogs, swifter of foot, craftier, deadlier, more lithe, more lean with ironlike muscle and sinew, more enduring, more cruel, more ferocious, and more intelligent.
  11. precipitous
    extremely steep
    Where the river swung in against precipitous bluffs, he climbed the high mountains behind.
  12. gregarious
    temperamentally seeking and enjoying the company of others
    But he knew, further, that the comfort of the fire would be his, the protection of the gods, the companionship of the dogs—the last, a companionship of enmity, but none the less a companionship and satisfying to his gregarious needs.
  13. temerity
    fearless daring
    Baseek was surprised by the other’s temerity and swiftness of attack.
  14. redoubtable
    inspiring fear
    But White Fang, uncompanionable, solitary, morose, scarcely looking to right or left, redoubtable, forbidding of aspect, remote and alien, was accepted as an equal by his puzzled elders.
  15. overture
    a tentative suggestion to elicit the reactions of others
    They quickly learned to leave him alone, neither venturing hostile acts nor making overtures of friendliness.
Created on Mon Dec 16 16:35:55 EST 2019 (updated Tue Jun 24 10:30:14 EDT 2025)

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