The Blood of Olympus: Chapters 1–8

by Rick Riordan
In the fifth book of the Heroes of Olympus series, a group of demigods battles against giants and the goddess Gaia, who is intent on destroying the earth.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–8, Chapters 9–20, Chapters 21–32, Chapters 33–44, Chapters 45–58

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
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. gnarled
    old and twisted and covered in lines
    He couldn’t see his face, thank goodness, but his fingers were gnarled and bony.
  2. feral
    wild and menacing
    Dating a girl whose mom was the goddess of love ... well, Jason was always afraid he’d do something unromantic and Piper’s mom would frown down from Mount Olympus and change him into a feral hog.
  3. cornucopia
    a horn filled with fruit and grain symbolizing prosperity
    From her waist cord hung her cornucopia - the magic horn of plenty.
  4. horde
    a vast multitude
    Piper’s blade, Hazel’s magical senses and Annabeth’s instincts all agreed - the answer lay here in Ithaca, at the ancient palace of Odysseus, where a horde of evil spirits had gathered to await Gaia’s orders.
  5. superimpose
    place on top of
    But superimposed over the ruins was another layer of reality - a spectral mirage of the palace as it must have appeared in its heyday.
  6. spectral
    resembling or characteristic of a phantom
    Jason had expected about a hundred spirits, but twice that many were milling about, chasing spectral serving girls, smashing plates and cups, and basically making a nuisance of themselves.
  7. wraith
    a ghostly figure, especially one seen shortly before death
    Most looked like Lares from Camp Jupiter - transparent purple wraiths in tunics and sandals.
  8. leer
    look suggestively or obliquely
    He sat across from Antinous while more ghosts crowded around, leering as if they expected to see a particularly vicious arm-wrestling contest.
  9. mediate
    act between parties with a view to reconciling differences
    He mediated between demigods, listened to all sides of an argument, found compromises.
  10. discreet
    marked by prudence or modesty and wise self-restraint
    She discreetly put her finger to her mouth in a gag me gesture, then went back to flirting with dead guys.
  11. grievance
    a complaint about a wrong that causes resentment
    All of them are suitors for Gaia’s favour. All have claims and grievances against the gods or their pet heroes.
  12. meddlesome
    intrusive in an offensive manner
    And, to get there, those meddlesome demigods will have to travel by sea, eh?
  13. summon
    make ready for action or use
    He’d never seen anything like the shell of earth that Antinous had summoned to destroy Eurymachus.
  14. foreboding
    a feeling of evil to come
    But something else bothered him - a cold sense of foreboding, as if he hadn’t heard the worst news yet.
  15. repertoire
    a collection of works that an artist or company can perform
    Jason silently ran through his repertoire of Latin cuss words.
  16. languish
    lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief
    Did you think Gaia would let such an important spirit languish in the Underworld?
  17. feign
    make believe with the intent to deceive
    Don’t feign ignorance, my dearest.
  18. epitome
    a standard or typical example
    Odysseus and Penelope - the epitome of a perfect marriage!
  19. rift
    a personal or social separation
    Unless you can subdue her, the rift between Greek and Roman can never be healed.
  20. amends
    something done or paid to make up for a wrong
    They are desperate enough to try anything to make amends.
  21. loll
    hang loosely or laxly
    Pain rolled through him. His head lolled back.
  22. caldera
    a large crater caused by the violent explosion of a volcano
    A thousand feet below her, a half-mile-wide caldera yawned at the top of a mountain, white steam pluming from the centre.
  23. cacophony
    loud confusing disagreeable sounds
    The sound of the wind was replaced by a cacophony of voices whispering in a thousand languages.
  24. vertigo
    a reeling sensation; a feeling that you are about to fall
    Sometimes they’d walk right through her, leaving her with vertigo.
  25. chide
    scold or reprimand severely or angrily
    She mentally chided herself. He was a comrade, not her little brother.
  26. loam
    a rich soil consisting of sand, clay and organic materials
    Then she realized a tidal wave of dark loam was rolling across the hills, turning the skin of the earth inside out, leaving nothing behind.
  27. obliterate
    do away with completely, without leaving a trace
    The earth swallowed the Field of Mars, obliterating every trace of forts and trenches from the war games.
  28. augur
    a religious official who interpreted omens to guide policy
    Along with his senatorial purple-lined toga, his centurion badge and his augur’s knife, he had adopted a new honour: a white cloth mantle over his head, which marked him as Pontifex Maximus, high priest to the gods.
  29. descendant
    a person considered as coming from some ancestor or race
    ‘I see here you are a legacy, a descendant of Orcus.’
  30. circumstantial
    suggesting that something is true without proving it
    But because the evidence was circumstantial, and because Bryce’s family was rich and powerful with lots of influence in New Rome, he’d got away with the lighter sentence of banishment.
  31. gaunt
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
    Octavian’s face looked almost ghoulish under his white mantle - his eyes too piercing, his cheeks too gaunt, his lips too thin and colourless.
  32. manifestation
    an indication of the existence of some person or thing
    We eliminate the division. We wipe out the Greeks. We return the gods to their proper manifestation as Roman.
  33. slumber
    an inactive or dormant state
    Once the gods are restored to their full power, Gaia will not dare rise. She will sink back into her slumber.
  34. auspicious
    indicating favorable circumstances and good luck
    Besides, the first day of August is most auspicious - the month named after my ancestor Augustus.
  35. minion
    a servile or fawning dependent
    We will crush the Greeks. We will stop Gaia and her minions.
  36. harbor
    secretly shelter, as a fugitive or criminal
    Then we’ll take that harpy the Greeks have been harbouring - the one who memorized our Sibylline Books - and we’ll force her to give us the knowledge of our ancestors.
  37. consternation
    sudden shock or dismay that causes confusion
    Sure enough, every so often, out of the corner of her eye, Reyna would spot glowing white spirits in Roman clothes flitting among the ruins, frowning at the statue in consternation.
  38. impending
    close in time; about to occur
    She couldn’t decide which was more terrifying - the impending destruction of New Rome, or the way Octavian was poisoning the legion from the inside.
  39. throes
    violent pangs of suffering
    Behind the glass lay a row of plaster figures, all frozen in the throes of death.
  40. skulk
    lie in wait or behave in a sneaky and secretive manner
    Ghosts skulked around the edges of the courtyard, apparently intimidated by the Athena Parthenos.
Created on Thu Sep 03 19:52:45 EDT 2015 (updated Tue Apr 09 12:25:05 EDT 2019)

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