The Diviners: List 5

by Libba Bray
In this first book of the series, seventeen-year-old Evangeline O’Neill is enjoying life in 1920s New York City, until her museum curator uncle is called in to consult on a murder and she realizes that her ability to read objects could be helpful.

This list covers "A Late-Summer Evening"–"City of Dreams."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 11 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. pastiche
    a work of art that imitates the style of some previous work
    “In the Bible, it’s a golden calf. But we can’t be sure the offering is biblical in reference. The Book of the Brethren is a pastiche, remember?”
  2. adulation
    exaggerated flattery or praise
    In these fantasies, it was not the imagined love and adulation of the audience, the collective desire, that fueled her.
  3. impertinence
    inappropriate playfulness
    You might look past him completely, except for his eccentric style of dress: a pair of tweed trousers held up by suspenders splayed across a stiff white tuxedo shirt worn under an open vest, and a jaunty straw boater hat with a red-and-blue striped ribbon around it perched on his head at an angle that hinted at mischief—or at least impertinence.
  4. debauch
    corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality
    His cheeks had the slightest flush. It made him look like a debauched altar boy.
  5. frivolous
    not serious in content, attitude, or behavior
    Theta had half a mind to sell them and give the dough to an orphanage, just to teach the frivolous cow a lesson about taking care of her things.
  6. transient
    lasting a very short time
    His skin was shiny and tight across his full face, and he shimmered around the edges, transient, phosphorescent, a deep-water fish swimming briefly through the shallows.
  7. hallowed
    worthy of religious veneration
    Jefferson, Washington, Franklin—enlightened men, the founders of our great nation—they knew the secrets of the ancients. Secrets even the Masons in their hallowed halls didn’t know.
  8. flummox
    be a mystery or bewildering to
    Will looked momentarily flummoxed, but he set about trying to help the old woman, who fought him at every turn.
  9. vanquish
    defeat in a competition, race, or conflict
    “The Blood of the Lamb runs in our veins, and in blood will we vanquish our enemies and bring forth God’s true mission on earth.”
  10. plaintive
    expressing sorrow
    On the other side of the door, Pastor Algoode continued praying while the congregation took up a plaintive hymn.
  11. recant
    formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief
    A year later, Margaret Fox recanted. She had a change of heart.
  12. iniquity
    morally objectionable behavior
    Wherever evil lurks, wherever shadows gather, there will you find Captain Nightfall and his Secret Brigade as they fight the forces of iniquity and keep the citizens of this country safe from all manner of villainy.
  13. trifle
    something of small importance
    He passed easily into the old mansion, with its collections of gris gris bags, witches’ letters, and spirit photographs. Mere trifles. Child’s play.
  14. dapple
    color with streaks or blotches of different shades
    His lungs burned and his shoes clip-clopped loudly on the circuitous path ambling down through trees and sharp black rocks, the sun dappling the path with little fool’s-gold promises of light.
  15. scrim
    anything that obscures or conceals
    Behind him, Memphis could see the tall points of the Bennington floating behind a scrim of passing clouds, like a mirage.
  16. yokel
    a person who is not intelligent or interested in culture
    “Okay, Unc. I’ll go eat peach jam with the yokels. But you owe me.”
  17. impart
    transmit, as knowledge or a skill
    "Why, every farmer knows that the key to having the best possible livestock is in the breeding,” the nurse explained, as if she were imparting a Sunday-school lesson to children.
  18. zealot
    a fervent and even militant proponent of something
    She wished she weren’t wearing her patterned stockings and lipstick even as she felt angry that the zealots’ contempt made her feel this way.
  19. smattering
    a small number or amount
    A smattering of early stars twinkled awake.
  20. tribulation
    an annoying or frustrating or catastrophic event
    “Our enemies deceive us. The Lord said, in the times of tribulation before the Judgment Day, your enemies will be more than the sins of man. They will deceive you,” he preached.
  21. ordained
    fixed or established especially by command
    “It be ordained. The path be promised in the Book of the Brethren. It is God’s will. What God has set in motion, no man may put asunder.”
  22. stasis
    inactivity resulting from a balance between opposing forces
    The action and the startling heat of the blaze stunned the new faithful of Brethren into a few necessary seconds of stasis as they tried to decide which was more important: saving the body of their beloved elder or giving chase.
  23. backwater
    a place or condition in which no progress is occurring
    At last the lights of the village were visible ahead.
    “Where’s the hospital in this backwater?” Evie yelled as they rattled onto Main Street.
  24. contrite
    feeling or expressing pain or sorrow
    “I’ve told you about the wages of sin,” Uncle Will said loudly enough for the innkeeper’s wife to hear.
    “My brother,” Evie added, doing her best to look contrite and concerned.
  25. speculation
    an investment that is risky but could yield great profits
    He’d made money in oil speculation.
  26. reverie
    absentminded dreaming while awake
    A floorboard creaked in the house, but Mary was only vaguely aware of it; she was lost to her reverie.
  27. consort
    the spouse or companion of a reigning monarch
    He was a golden god. And she, Mary White, was his sacred consort.
  28. wan
    lacking vitality as from weariness or illness or unhappiness
    Jericho’s smile was wan.
  29. banal
    repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
    The car’s motor caught, and they listened to the comfort of its banal purr as it shook, idled, then spurred into action and drove away.
  30. conduit
    a passage through which water or electric wires can pass
    What’s his conduit into this world?
  31. revel
    celebrate noisily or engage in uproarious festivities
    People were out there, reveling, dancing, celebrating the comet’s return, with no idea what it signified.
  32. coalesce
    fuse or cause to come together
    It crawled up the legs of John Hobbes, where it coalesced with the brands on his skin. It covered him like armor and then was absorbed into him.
  33. relegate
    assign to a lower position
    Or, like James, they’d simply vanished, relegated to history books no one bothered to read, medals put in cupboards kept closed.
  34. arbitrariness
    the trait of acting unpredictably and more from whim or caprice
    Evie wanted to cry. From fear. From exhaustion, yes. But mostly from the cruel uselessness, the damned stupid arbitrariness of it all.
  35. mottled
    having spots or patches of color
    The dead kept coming. All she could see were hollow eye sockets in shadowed, skeletal faces. Dead white fingers reaching toward her. Blackened mouths oozing black juice down mottled chins.
  36. hankering
    a yearning for something or to do something
    It was a bright, cloudless day; the air felt newly born, and Evie had a hankering for a new hat.
  37. unimpeachable
    beyond doubt or reproach
    Then that scholarly cool washed over him and he was the unimpeachable Will Fitzgerald again.
  38. bauble
    cheap showy jewelry or ornament
    The song was a lie, a shiny bauble meant to distract people from their cares and woes.
  39. augur
    indicate by signs
    The gleaming cities frantic with ambition, rich in the commerce of longing, a golden paradise of businessmen prophets, billboards advertising the abundance augured on Wall Street, promised by Madison Avenue...
  40. ensconce
    fix firmly
    The people sculpted monuments to great men, men who had built the nation, led the armies, their beliefs safely ensconced in marble and granite.
Created on Sun Oct 23 14:03:26 EDT 2022 (updated Wed Aug 30 10:44:11 EDT 2023)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.