The Color of a Lie: Chapters 7-14

by Kim Johnson
In this historical novel set in 1955, a Black family moves to a white-only town and begins passing for white, but their life there is threatened when one of them begins to uncover the town's dangerous secrets.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Prologue-Chapter 6, Chapters 7-14, Chapters 15-22, Chapters 23-30, Chapters 31-42
15 words 16 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. imposter
    a person who makes deceitful pretenses
    I felt like an imposter, a shell of myself.
  2. stealthily
    in a manner marked by quiet and caution and secrecy
    I worried that if they did find me out, or my parents, it wouldn’t make front-page news, not like in Trumbull Park, where the police had been called in to protect us. Levittown would move more stealthily.
  3. gawk
    look with amazement
    There I was, hiding behind passing skin, fearful each day that I’d be discovered at Heritage, and Lily was out in the open, eating her sandwich, holding her head high, and ignoring the students who gawked at her with cold, soulless eyes.
  4. leper
    a pariah who is avoided by others
    I was a leper to her.
  5. proximity
    the property of being close together
    I almost retreated, but stayed, hoping our proximity wouldn’t catch attention.
  6. nonchalant
    marked by casual unconcern or indifference
    I tried to play nonchalant, but I was too excited at a reason to speak.
  7. affiliation
    a social or business relationship
    She recoiled. Not harshly, but enough for me to notice she was wary of the name. Wary of my affiliation.
  8. boisterous
    noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline
    “Why’d you let her have it? That girl can wait,” Ben said in that loud, boisterous tone that now grated against my ears.
  9. replenish
    fill something that had previously been emptied
    Sojourner drew me in, simply to replenish myself.
  10. backbreaking
    characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion
    “The top of my class and I’m running a halfway house, fooling myself to think I’m running a school. I’m babysitting, Calvin. Most of the people who live here won’t be making music when they leave—they’ll be working backbreaking jobs, wishing for gigs on the weekends.”
  11. deceive
    cause someone to believe an untruth
    I blinked forcefully, questioning whether my eyes were deceiving me.
  12. forbid
    command against
    “I mean…they would. But my dad forbids me from playing jazz or any of my favorite artists. I’d be playing what everyone else listens to out there. My mom had to fight him just to let me keep my trumpet.”
  13. whereabouts
    the general location of someone or something
    She hadn’t heard I’d ditched, or I’d have been peppered with questions about my whereabouts.
  14. mesmerized
    having your attention fixated as though witchcraft
    I couldn’t deny I was mesmerized by her.
  15. undercurrent
    a feeling or tendency that is not explicitly expressed
    That was the undercurrent that threatened our relationship.
Created on Tue Aug 19 07:55:02 EDT 2025 (updated Thu Sep 18 15:57:12 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.