Two Degrees: "Home"–"Two Degrees"

by Alan Gratz
Four young people find themselves struggling to survive against the devastating effects of climate change. Akira is caught inside a California wildfire; Owen and George battle and save a struggling polar bear in the Canadian tundra; and Natalie survives Miami's "Big One" hurricane.

This list covers vocabulary from "Home"–"Two Degrees."

Here are links to our lists for the book: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5, List 6
15 words 22 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. inferno
    a very intense and uncontrolled fire
    They were spooked so badly that Akira knew there was no way she could steer either of them calmly through the inferno.
  2. hyperventilate
    breathe excessively hard and fast
    Her house was on fire! She felt herself starting to hyperventilate, and she fought down the terror that was threatening to swallow her.
  3. thrum
    make or cause to make a low, continuous sound
    Akira heard something thrumming above the roar and crackle of the wildfire, and she looked up. Against the smoky, moonlit sky, she saw a big two-rotor helicopter.
  4. labored
    lacking natural ease
    His breath sounded heavy and labored, but Nanuq was alive.
  5. recede
    pull back or move away or backward
    Every part of Miami had been underwater during the hurricane. But most of Liberty City was a few feet higher than a lot of the other neighborhoods, which meant that as the water slowly receded, Liberty City emerged like an island from Lake Miami.
  6. debris
    the remains of something that has been destroyed
    Churro rode like a king in a palanquin in the kayak as Patience and Natalie carried it between them, picking their way through downed trees and overturned cars and unidentifiable debris.
  7. loot
    steal goods; take as spoils
    Natalie frowned. Who did she know that was going to go looting stores? She nodded anyway and hurried back the way she’d come, completely rattled.
  8. vigilante
    a person who takes the law into his or her own hands
    Patience scoffed. “Yeah, I heard. But they’re not the army or the National Guard, and they’re not the police. Vigilantes is what they are,” she said.
  9. drone
    an aircraft without a pilot and operated by remote control
    The news station had seen what was going on in the Brother’s Keeper parking lot while flying drones over the city...
  10. meteorologist
    a specialist who studies weather conditions
    ...Miami’s famous meteorologist had come by motorboat to Liberty Island to talk to everyone.
  11. vulnerable
    capable of being wounded or hurt
    “The trees that died were thousands of years old. If these trees can burn — trees that are built to survive wildfires — how much more vulnerable are we?”
  12. artifact
    a man-made object
    On the screen, a boy from Switzerland named Wolfgang was showing pictures of the ancient artifacts he’d found when a ten-thousand-year-old glacier melted near his house in the mountains.
  13. desertification
    a gradual transformation into arid, uninhabitable land
    The next person to Zoom in, a boy named Chetachukwu, told a sadder story about how desertification in northeast Nigeria had caused a famine, and Akira stood rapt as he explained how starvation was forcing boys like him to become child soldiers.
  14. renewable energy
    power produced by natural resources that cannot be used up
    "...Tell your city council you want more parks and less concrete. Tell your state government to require solar panels on new houses, and to install charging stations for electric cars at rest areas. Tell the federal government to stop giving subsidies to fossil fuel companies and to give that money and those tax breaks to renewable energy instead. To really move the needle on climate change, it’s going to take all of us — including our government.”
  15. inkling
    a slight suggestion or vague understanding
    Nine months ago, standing in the parking lot of Brother’s Keeper with Patience and Maria Martinez, a Kids Against Climate Change rally had just been an inkling of an idea. Now here it was, a full-blown reality.
Created on Wed Jul 09 13:39:03 EDT 2025 (updated Wed Aug 13 14:15:39 EDT 2025)

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.