Simon Sort of Says: Chapters 1–4

by Erin Bow
Twelve-year-old Simon O'Keeffe tries to forget that he survived a tragedy when his family moves to the National Quiet Zone in Nebraska, where radio signals are banned to prevent interference with astronomers' search of outer space.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–10, Chapters 11–16, Chapters 17–22, Chapters 23–29
40 words 215 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. liturgy
    a rite or body of rites prescribed for public worship
    Back in Omaha, my dad, who’s a Catholic deacon, was the liturgical director at one of the big churches in the suburbs.
  2. vestment
    a gown worn by the clergy
    He leaped from his owner’s arms and took refuge under Father Kirk’s vestments.
  3. dolly
    a wheeled handcart for moving heavy objects
    There were two of them, and they were being led up the aisle for a blessing when one of them blinked its cartoon eyelashes and stopped so abruptly that the tortoise, being pulled up the aisle behind them, slid off the back of its dolly and started to make a slow break for freedom.
  4. halter
    rope or canvas headgear for a horse, with a rope for leading
    The noise started low, like someone had sat on a whoopee cushion, but as her owner tugged on her halter, the alpaca, whose name was Beth, got louder.
  5. acoustics
    the qualities that determine how sound is heard in a space
    The acoustics were very good in our old church.
  6. ensemble
    a group of musicians playing or singing together
    Sometimes musical ensembles would come and record albums there.
  7. undertaker
    one whose business is the management of funerals
    There aren’t many jobs out there for liturgical directors—there wasn’t another one in all of Omaha—but my mother is an undertaker, and undertakers can work anywhere.
  8. dinky
    small and insignificant
    Second, it’s got this cathedral-size church, way too big for a dinky little town.
  9. patron
    someone who supports or champions something
    It’s named for Saint Barbara, the patron saint of architects, explosives, and people in danger of a sudden death.
  10. backlog
    an accumulation of jobs not done or materials not processed
    Slaughter and Sons, the funeral home, had been without an operator for way too long, and they were so eager to recruit Mom she started to worry that there was going to be a sketchy backlog in the basement freezers.
  11. dismal
    causing dejection
    Grin And Bear It is on the Dismal River, and on the edge of the Dismal River National Forest.
  12. deacon
    a cleric ranking just below a priest in Christian churches
    In addition to being a deacon, my dad likes to make up his own wise sayings.
  13. uprising
    organized opposition to authority
    At least I talked him out of walking me to school like a second grader. Even without Dad holding my hand, I have enough self-consciousness to fuel the robot uprising.
  14. scuff
    mar or wear away by rubbing or scraping
    When I leave our house I feel good about my shoes—red Chucks, good and scuffed, February-cold feet totally worth it—and okay about my Minecraft sweatshirt and my jeans.
  15. straddle
    sit or stand astride of
    Some guys are straddling bikes by the bike racks, stepping them back and forth like nervous horses.
  16. suppress
    control and refrain from showing
    On her face she has that look owls always have, like she’s bored but barely suppressing suspicion and rage.
  17. casual
    not showing effort or strain
    New kid in class is a big deal anywhere, and in Grin And Bear It, it’s like the circus has come to town. I stand like the acrobat on the high wire—drumroll and all—trying hard to smile and even harder to make it look casual.
  18. virtuoso
    a musician who is a consummate master of artistry
    “It’s a kind of trombone,” I say. My dad actually plays one. He’s good—he’s, like, the tenth-best sackbut virtuoso in the entire world.
  19. recede
    pull back or move away or backward
    In the receding tide, Miss Rose looks over my schedule while I rub the bang on my hip with the heel of my hand.
  20. invoke
    request earnestly; ask for aid or protection
    And thank you, Saint Barbara, who I invoke because I really do think I’m going to die all five times.
  21. grungy
    thickly covered with ingrained dirt or soot
    The risers are covered in grungy gray carpet, plus dried wads of gum that are the same color as the grungy gray carpet.
  22. suit
    be agreeable or acceptable to
    But the end of the hall is out of the way, and the exit gives me an escape route, so it suits me just fine.
  23. declaim
    recite in a skilled and formal way
    “What,” she says—declaims, really, like she’s on a stage and starting her big number—“is the most disgusting thing you know?”
  24. mite
    small arachnid that infests animals, plants, or stored foods
    There are spider mites that are adapted to live only on human eyelashes. You have some on you right now.
  25. skeptical
    marked by or given to doubt
    She squinches her face. She has a stub nose and a lot of dimples, which, unlike most dimples, seem to show up only when she looks skeptical.
  26. assortment
    a collection containing a variety of kinds of things
    Agate shrugs and unsnaps the catches on her tin lunch box and starts laying out an assortment of little foods in cupcake papers: bright little tulips on the gray carpet.
  27. homesteader
    someone who settles on and farms government land
    There’s Team Science: astrophysicists and other tech-types who work at the radio telescopes. And there’s Team Farm: homesteaders and other socks-with-sandals types, drawn to the National Quiet Zone by low land prices and the promise of “a gentler, more organic pace of life,” which is how the GNB real estate agent tried to sell us.
  28. faction
    a dissenting clique
    And for sure the school’s not divided into warring factions or anything. Schools aren’t like that except in books, and it’s not like the Team Science kids are building death rays while the Team Farm kids are flinging manure bombs.
  29. endure
    put up with something or somebody unpleasant
    Anyway, I am sitting at the kitchen table with my dad, enduring the afternoon questioning: Any homework? What are you learning? Are you making friends? How’s the new school?
  30. elaborate
    marked by complexity and richness of detail
    The front side, the funeral side, has an elaborate garden—I’m talking crunching gravel paths, little nooks with benches, a fountain, and an actual peacock.
  31. hearse
    a vehicle for carrying a coffin to a church or a cemetery
    The back side of the house has two garages—a hearse garage and a regular garage—and between them a scruffy little private yard, just big enough for some recycling bins and a saggy gray picnic table Mom wants to replace.
  32. flummox
    be a mystery or bewildering to
    My dad looks flummoxed. The last time I had friends from school over I was in fifth grade and it didn’t matter if they were girls. Now I’m in seventh, so maybe it does.
  33. default
    an option that is selected automatically
    Or maybe flummoxed is just his default state these days. Being the only sackbut player in Grin And Bear It, Nebraska, can do that to a man.
  34. turret
    a small tower extending above a building
    “Like I told my parents: If I’m gonna live in a creepy huge house with dead people in the basement, I get the bedroom in the turret.”
  35. embalm
    preserve a dead body
    Sometimes I have to help my mom carry down the embalming chemicals, or go get the weed whacker or the bike pump from the storage closet.
  36. solvent
    a liquid substance capable of dissolving other substances
    The room smells like superglue and solvent and just a little bit like dirty socks.
  37. autism
    a condition involving social and communication difficulties
    I mean, it is cool—I’m not an expert or anything, but Emma J. in my old class was on the autism spectrum and she was interesting and nice. But also: Agate being cool about her brain stuff makes me feel a little safer about my brain stuff.
  38. pulsar
    a degenerate neutron star that emits polarized radiation
    “Are you ready? I want to tell you about pulsars.”
  39. quasar
    a starlike object that may send out radio waves
    “This is her. Jocelyn Bell. They were looking for quasars.”
  40. scintillate
    emit or reflect light in a flickering manner
    “They were using interplanetary scintillation.”
Created on Thu Oct 19 09:23:39 EDT 2023 (updated Thu Oct 19 16:29:35 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.