Essential Academic Vocabulary for Middle School Students: List 4

Whether you're hoping to improve your comprehension of reading assignments or simply looking to increase your word knowledge, our lists of essential, high-frequency words will put you on the path to vocabulary success.

Here are links to our lists for the collection: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5, List 6, List 7, List 8, List 9, List 10
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. aptitude
    inherent ability
    A small elite, like Dorothy Hoover, were endowed with an aptitude for complex math so strong that it exceeded the ability of many of the engineers at the lab. Hidden Figures
  2. attentive
    taking heed
    The only thing that kept me going was how peaceful you looked when I glanced back at you, sitting cross-legged, making another bead necklace, with Kutti, alert and attentive, next to you. The Bridge Home
  3. foresight
    seeing ahead; knowing in advance; foreseeing
    But nobody had the wherewithal or foresight to think that day would actually happen. MSNBC (Jul 3, 2014)
  4. habitation
    the act of dwelling in or living permanently in a place
    Although the area is not fit for human habitation, many poor people who work in the coal mines live here. BBC (Aug 13, 2013)
  5. illuminate
    make free from confusion or ambiguity
    Msangi shows how each character changes over the course of the story, and her prismatic approach provides revealing details that illuminate the commonality of the characters. Salon (Dec 8, 2020)
  6. impending
    close in time; about to occur
    "Due to the topography and proximity to mountainous areas in Pima County, there is sometimes little to no warning of impending flash floods or debris flows," county officials state in a fact sheet. Fox News (Jul 20, 2020)
  7. implore
    beg or request earnestly and urgently
    I implored them, “Please let there be sturdy walls like these around Anatole. Please let them hold up a roof that will keep this awful sky from falling on him.” The Poisonwood Bible
  8. ominous
    threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments
    The sky now was full of low, ominous clouds, and the air felt murky and thick. The Strangers
  9. pristine
    completely free from dirt or contamination
    While you might think of the Arctic as a pristine white landscape, the startling feature of the surface is how dirty it looks. BBC (Sep 3, 2019)
  10. versatile
    competent in many areas and able to adapt with ease
    He is versatile defensively, with experience at every position except catcher and center field. Seattle Times (Dec 28, 2020)
Created on Tue Jan 12 10:20:28 EST 2021 (updated Wed Jan 13 15:00:41 EST 2021)

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