A Scatter of Light: List 4

by Malinda Lo
This companion novel to Last Night at the Telegraph Club takes place fifty years later and follows eighteen-year-old Aria Tang West who spends the summer with her artistic grandmother in California.

This list covers pages 221–324 of the 2022 Dutton Books edition.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4
35 words 4 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. subdued
    quieted and brought under control
    Tasha was a little subdued, and I wasn’t sure if it was due to jet lag or something else.
  2. vehemence
    intensity or forcefulness of expression
    Tasha had always been the nice one among the three of us, the one who wouldn’t say a mean thing about anyone, but now she spit out the words with a vehemence that shocked me.
  3. vigorously
    in an energetic manner
    I put my fingertip on the orange paint, which was still wet, and smeared it vigorously.
  4. aesthetic
    characterized by an appreciation of beauty or good taste
    Yes, aesthetically speaking, she works the look.
  5. deprecate
    express strong disapproval of; deplore
    “So you’re saying I should be more patient?” I asked, trying to sound self- deprecating.
  6. blanch
    cook (vegetables) briefly
    Late Tuesday afternoon, Joan and I made sauce from a bunch of tomatoes that Tony brought over. I blanched and peeled them; then Joan seeded them over the sink and tossed them into a big pot.
  7. incoherent
    unable to express yourself clearly or fluently
    But my grandmother’s face looked strange; half of it seemed frozen. Her mouth opened as if she was trying to speak, but the sound that came out was an incoherent moan.
  8. flaccid
    drooping without elasticity
    I’d never seen my grandmother like this before: weak-bodied, limbs flaccid, as if whatever made her who she was had vanished.
  9. gurney
    a metal stretcher with wheels
    I went back into the living room to see paramedics carrying a gurney into the house.
  10. cupola
    a roof or part of a roof in the form of a dome
    In the distance was a big church, the cross lit up on top of its Mission-style cupola.
  11. blatantly
    in a completely obvious manner
    I wanted it, but I was also embarrassed to want it, to display so blatantly the degree of my desire for her.
  12. supplicant
    one praying humbly for something
    She might have been kneeling before me, but I was the supplicant.
  13. wane
    decrease in phase
    I sat on the doorstep as the night waned, and the birds began their early morning chorus.
  14. portico
    porch or entrance to a building consisting of a covered area
    I walked toward a bench just outside the portico and sat down, looking at the parking lot.
  15. chastise
    scold or criticize severely
    But she looked so defeated—bags under her eyes, her hair a mess, a stain that looked like coffee mixed with ketchup on her shirt—I was ashamed I had chastised her.
  16. shirk
    avoid one's assigned duties
    She called in sick to work. I told her I didn’t want her to lose her hours but she insisted, and said she didn’t know when we’d get this chance to be together again. It sounded so adult, so responsible, even though she was shirking her duties for me.
  17. emphatically
    in a forceful manner; with emphasis
    “I don’t,” I said emphatically.
  18. meticulously
    in a manner marked by extreme care of details
    The interior was meticulously clean, with shelves of cameras neatly lined up on the wall and a spotless glass counter spanning the width.
  19. aperture
    a device that controls amount of light admitted
    She walked my dad through focusing the camera and setting the aperture and shutter speed, and then told me to move the lamp and adjust the curtain for better light.
  20. explicit
    precisely and clearly expressed or readily observable
    After Grandpa died, my grandmother had written out explicit instructions on what she wanted to happen after her death.
  21. halting
    proceeding in a fragmentary, hesitant, or ineffective way
    “What happened? Is it your grandma? She hasn’t answered my calls for a couple of days.”

    Haltingly, I told him.
  22. convulsion
    a violent uncontrollable contraction of muscles
    There was a deep ache in the pit of my stomach, and I knew it would become a convulsion, a retching up of my disbelief if I didn’t control it.
  23. rebuff
    reject outright and bluntly
    I reached for Steph, but she rebuffed me.
  24. fester
    generate pus
    Guilt is a shape-shifter. It can fester like a sore, burning for attention, or it can lurk like a beast in the dark, always there but never clearly visible.
  25. specter
    a ghostly appearing figure
    My guilt comes out late at night or early in the morning, a specter that hovers over me as I drift into or out of sleep.
  26. aggrieve
    cause to feel distress
    “Steph won’t take my calls,” I said. My voice was cool, as if I were an aggrieved secretary.
  27. nuptials
    the social event at which the marriage ceremony is performed
    I’m happy to share the news that my beloved sister, Lily, has finally married her longtime partner, Kath Miller. They celebrated their nuptials last week in a beautiful small ceremony (photo attached).
  28. tarmac
    a paved road or surface, especially at an airport
    It began with a photo of two older women—one white, one Asian—standing in front of a small airplane on a sun-drenched tarmac.
  29. protege
    a person who receives support from an influential patron
    There would be an exhibit of Joan’s work; there would be speeches from her proteges and peers.
  30. resonant
    characterized by a loud deep sound
    The singing bowl rang out, low and resonant, three times.
  31. eulogy
    a formal expression of praise for someone who has died
    My ears were full of a buzzing noise; I couldn’t listen to my dad’s eulogy.
  32. strew
    spread by scattering
    She sat down on a bench and stared at the woodchip- strewn ground.
  33. prominent
    having a quality that thrusts itself into attention
    Now I recognized Grandpa in profile: his high forehead, his prominent nose, even the shape of his hair.
  34. dissertation
    a treatise advancing a point of view resulting from research
    Tonight is the opening of my first show, and in three weeks I’m supposed to defend my dissertation.
  35. cohort
    a group of people having approximately the same age
    Fatima and Jing and Aaron, who are also in my PhD cohort at MIT, arrive together.
Created on Fri Feb 17 10:59:04 EST 2023 (updated Wed Mar 08 14:32:53 EST 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.