AP Lang Vocabulary Week 5

prodigal

adjective
recklessly wasteful

When the prodigal son comes home in Luke 15:20, "His father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him."
Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

assess

verb
evaluate or estimate the nature, quality, ability, extent, or significance of

The contractor came to assess the damage of the home

deter

verb
turn away from by persuasion

Prison did not deter crime significantly, many experts concluded.
The New Jim Crow

complacent

adjective
contented to a fault with oneself or one's actions

He was not complacent about the challenges, though the obstacles he foresaw were geographical and financial, not technical.
Big Science

contempt

noun
lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike

Mammachi's rage at the old one-eyed Paravan standing in the rain, drunk, dribbling and covered in mud was re-directed into a cold contempt for her daughter and what she had done.
The God of Small Things

eloquent

adjective
expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively

She did not speak, but she looked up at him with a face made very eloquent by happiness, and a smile which said, "No one can refuse me anything today."
Little Women

virtue

noun
the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong

I had less success arguing that the States' greatest virtue was its wide-open spaces where people never went.
Double Helix

ineviteble

adjective
incapable of being avoided or prevented

The spread of infectious diseases was inevitable, as were bitter arguments among old neighbors who fought over ownership of the land that was left.
Mountains Beyond Mountains

enigma

noun
something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained

Would Momma, who knew the ways of the whites and the wiles of the Blacks, try to answer her grandson, whose very life depended on his not truly understanding the enigma?
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

abstract

adjective
existing only in the mind; separated from embodiment

She didn't have any particular style; some of her paintings were what she called primitive, some were impressionistic and abstract, some were realistic.
The Glass Castle

reprove

verb
take to task

But she also felt reproved for her homebound boredom.
Atonement

eccentric

adjective
conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual

He is eccentric, and there is no changing that.
Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

hypocritcal

adjective
professing feelings or virtues one does not have

Just two artificial words, coming from my own hypocritical mouth.
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

guile

noun
shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception

What if history was not a reasonable citizen, but a madman full of paranoid guile and these boys his agents, his big surprise!
Invisible Man

disdain

noun
lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike

It was as though his disdain of human contact had converted itself into a craving for things humans had touched.
The Bluest Eye