Grade 11: Unit 6, Whole-Class Learning

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. colloquial
    characteristic of informal spoken language or conversation
    I love how the poet combines cultured diction with colloquial language.
  2. protagonist
    the principal character in a work of fiction
    In this movie, the protagonist must defeat a politician who has a sinister goal.
  3. tension
    a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense
    What tension I felt as my turn to speak drew close!
  4. resolution
    something settled
    The two sides in the dispute reached a surprising and imaginative resolution.
  5. epiphany
    a usually sudden insight, perception, or understanding of something
    At the end of the story, Julia has an epiphany, but we aren't sure if she will act on that insight.
  6. sidle
    move unobtrusively or furtively
    Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him?
  7. shuffle
    walking with a slow dragging motion without lifting feet
    She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground.
  8. furtive
    marked by quiet and caution and secrecy
    Furtive boys in pink shirts hanging about on washday after school.
  9. cower
    crouch or curl up
    She stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me.
  10. awkward
    not elegant or graceful in expression
    "If that's what you want us to call you, we'll call you."
    "I know it might sound awkward at first," said Wangero.
    "I'll get used to it," I said.
  11. hangdog
    showing a sense of guilt
    She had filled her bottom lip with checkerberry snuff and it gave her face a kind of dopey, hangdog look.
  12. waterfowl
    freshwater aquatic bird
    The baby came along in late November during a cold spell that just happened to coincide with the peak of the waterfowl season.
  13. letterhead
    a sheet of stationery with name and address of the organization printed at the top
    So one day the dentist finds out they were using his letterhead for their personal correspondence.
  14. overcast
    filled or abounding with clouds
    He emptied the bath into the sink and went upstairs to check the air. It was overcast and cold.
  15. shotgun
    firearm that is a double-barreled smoothbore shoulder weapon for firing shot at short ranges
    He let himself imagine what it might be like tomorrow, geese beating the air over his head, shotgun plunging against his shoulder.
  16. encroach
    advance beyond the usual limit
    My mother is the surviving half of a blindfold trapeze act, not a fact I think about much even now that she is sightless, the result of encroaching and stubborn cataracts.
  17. instantaneous
    occurring with no delay
    When extremes of temperature collide, a hot and cold front, winds generate instantaneously behind a hill and crash upon you without warning.
  18. anticipation
    expecting with confidence of fulfillment
    They bought their tickets and surrendered them in anticipation.
  19. constricting
    tending to narrow or restrict freedom
    It still seems odd to me, when they could have gone anywhere else, that they chose to stay in the town where the disaster had occurred, and which my father in the first place had found so constricting.
  20. perpetually
    without interruption
    I was seven the year the house caught fire, probably from standing ash. It can rekindle, and my father, forgetful around the house and perpetually exhausted from night hours on call, often emptied what he thought were ashes from cold stoves into wooden or cardboard containers.
  21. superannuated
    too old to be useful
    On the other side of the house, the superannuated extension ladder broke in half.
Created on Wed Sep 23 10:41:44 EDT 2020 (updated Fri Sep 25 13:49:36 EDT 2020)

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