ELA Brave New World Book Vocab 📚

disparity

A noticeable and usually significant difference or dissimilarity.

prescience

Foreknowledge of events; foresight.

mercenary

Adj: Primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics. Noun: A professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army.

eugenics

A discredited belief that selective breeding for certain inherited human traits can improve the “fitness” of future generations.

ambivalent

Having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone.

viscosity

A liquid’s resistance to flow, or how “thick” it is.

sibilant

Adj: Making or characterized by a hissing sound. Noun: A sibilant speech sound.

maudlin

Being foolishly sentimental and tearful, or a work of art, song, or book that is overly sentimental, often with a negative connotation.

surreptitious

Done secretly, without anyone seeing or knowing.

pneumatic

Adj: Containing or operated by air or gas under pressure. Noun: An item of pneumatic equipment.

indignant

Feeling or showing anger or annoyance at what is perceived as unfair treatment.

imperious

Assuming power or authority without justification; arrogant and domineering.

furtive

Something done quietly or slyly, as if trying not to draw attention.

queue

A line or sequence of people or vehicles often waiting for something.

contemptuous

Showing contempt; scornful.

waylay

To intercept or attack from ambush, as in to rob, seize, or slay.

plaintive

Sounding sad and mournful.

caste

A traditional social group within a hierarchical system, especially in Hindu society. Individuals are born into fixed, hereditary social classes with specific rights and limitations.

sententious

Speaking or writing in a way that is full of moral lessons and wise sayings.

viviparous

Producing living young instead of eggs from within the body in the manner of nearly all mammals, reptiles, and fish.

imperative

Adj: Of vital importance; crucial. Noun: Absolutely necessary or required; unavoidable.

Viviparous

Giving birth to live offspring rather than producing eggs.

Inculcate

To instill ideas, values, or attitudes in someone through persistent instruction and repetition.

Indissolubly

In a way that cannot be undone, separated, or broken apart.

Posthumous

Occurring, awarded, or appearing after the death of the originator.

Axiomatic

Self-evident or unquestionable; something assumed to be universally true.

plutocracy

Government by the wealthy.

Marxism

Socioeconomic and political theory that analyzes society through the lens of class struggle between the owning class and the working class.

Nazism

The political principles of the far-right National Socialist German Workers’ Party.

proletariat

Workers or working-class people, regarded collectively.

modernism

Modern character or quality of thought, expression, or technique.

communism

A totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production.

socialism

An economic system in which industries are owned by workers rather than by private business.

mass production

The production of large quantities of a standardized article by an automated mechanical process.

consumerism

The social and economic belief that acquiring and consuming goods and services is essential for personal well-being.

totalitarianism

A political system where government exercises total control over every aspect of public and private life, with no regard for individual freedoms.

propaganda

Information, especially biased or misleading, used to promote a particular cause, doctrine, or point of view.

Karl Marx

For his critiques of capitalism and co-authoring The Communist Manifesto, he inspired communist movements, revolutions, and socialist thought worldwide.

Ivan Pavlov

A Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs.

Maurice Bokanowski

A respected French politician who became the inspiration for the infamous “Bokanovsky’s Process” in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

Henry Ford

Revolutionized industry by pioneering the moving assembly line for the Ford Model T and founding the Ford Motor Company.

Thomas Malthus

Proposed the theory that population growth will inevitably outpace the food supply, leading to famine, disease, and conflict.

Sigmund Freud

Invented and developed psychoanalysis, a theory of the mind and a therapeutic technique.

Le Corbusier

A founder of modern architecture and a visionary urban planner.

Leon Trotsky

Key leader in the Russian Revolution and founder/commander of the Red Army.

Vladimir Lenin

Leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and the founding architect of the Soviet Union.