Essential Academic Vocabulary for Middle School Students: List 6

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. banish
    expel from a community or group
    The Puritans in Plymouth and Massachusetts used their authority to punish or banish those who did not share their views. Salon (Dec 24, 2020)
  2. counter
    speak in response
    The government countered that its plan includes safeguards for wildlife and other resources. Washington Times (Jan 5, 2021)
  3. cunning
    shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception
    So they sent Odysseus, the master of crafty cunning, to get them by trickery. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
  4. furtive
    secret and sly
    Isn’t she quaint, Luke would say to me, and my mother would look sly, furtive almost. The Handmaid's Tale
  5. meticulous
    marked by extreme care in treatment of details
    He was much too meticulous an artist to permit so unsteady a hand to apply even a drop of paint to his hallways. In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
  6. persistent
    stubbornly unyielding
    But Violet was nothing but persistent and no wisecrack or ugly look stopped her. Jazz
  7. relinquish
    part with a possession or right
    It means that tribal nations retain everything they did not specifically relinquish in negotiations with the federal government. An Indigenous People’s History of the United States
  8. repugnant
    offensive to the mind
    Deploying his most undiplomatic language to date, he called it "truly repugnant, deeply offensive, utterly outrageous". BBC (Dec 3, 2020)
  9. subside
    wear off or die down
    When the lightning subsided, I saw that Anorak was no longer dressed in his black wizard’s robes. Ready Player One: A Novel
  10. vulnerable
    capable of being wounded or hurt
    Second, older cells are more vulnerable to this damage—or less able to repair themselves. Scientific American (Dec 9, 2014)
Created on Tue Jan 12 10:21:07 EST 2021 (updated Wed Jan 13 15:00:57 EST 2021)

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