Part I - The Hearth and the Salamander

1. Abyss

- Definition: A deep or seemingly bottomless chasm.

- Text Evidence: "He held his pants out into an abyss and let them fall into darkness." (Page 55)

2. Luminescent

- Definition: Emitting light not caused by heat.

- Text Evidence: "It was like a faint drift of greenish luminescent smoke, the motion of a single huge October leaf blowing across the lawn and away." (Page 62)

3. Ballistics

- Definition: The science of projectiles and firearms.

- Text Evidence: "It’s like a lesson in ballistics. It has a trajectory we decide on for it." (Page 39)

4. Mausoleum

- Definition: A stately or impressive building housing a tomb or tombs.

- Text Evidence: "It was like coming into the cold marbled room of a mausoleum after the moon has set." (Page 23)

5. Cacophony

- Definition: A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.

- Text Evidence: "The thunder faded. The music died. 'There,' said Mildred. And it was indeed remarkable. Something had happened. Even though the people in the walls of the room had barely moved, and nothing had really been settled, you had the impression that someone had turned on a washing machine or sucked you up in a gigantic vacuum. You drowned in music and pure cacophony." (Page 59)

6. Nomadic

- Definition: Living the life of a nomad; wandering.

- Text Evidence: "Towns turn into motels, people in nomadic surges from place to place, following the moon tides, living tonight in the room where you slept this noon and I the night before." (Page 72)

7. Cartographer

- Definition: A person who draws or produces maps.

- Text Evidence: "The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere." (Page 72)

8. Noncombustible

- Definition: Not capable of igniting and burning.

- Text Evidence: "Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information." (Page 76)

9. Centrifuge

- Definition: A machine that uses centrifugal force to separate substances of different densities.

- Text Evidence: "Stand back from the centrifuge." (Page 101)

10. Intact

- Definition: Not damaged or impaired in any way; complete.

- Text Evidence: "Her face, turned to him now, was fragile milk crystal with a soft and constant light in it. It was not the hysterical light of electricity but—what? But the strangely comfortable and rare and gently flattering light of the candle. One time, as a child, in a power failure, his mother had found and lit a last candle and there had been a brief hour of rediscovery, of such illumination that space lost its vast dimensions and drew comfortably around them, and they, mother and son, alone, transformed, hoping that the power might not come on again too soon. . . ." (Page 19)

11. Conjure

- Definition: To call upon or summon a spirit or ghost by invocation or incantation.

- Text Evidence: "He tried to conjure up a face to fit the words, but there was no face." (Page 35)

12. Condemnation

- Definition: The expression of very strong disapproval; censure.

- Text Evidence: "On the front porch where she had come to weigh them quietly with her eyes, her quietness a condemnation, the woman stood motionless." (Page 53)

13. Cower

- Definition: Crouch down in fear.

- Text Evidence: "So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man? Me? I won’t stomach them for a minute. And so when houses were finally fireproofed completely, all over the world (you were correct in your assumption the other night) there was no longer need of firemen for the old purposes. They were given the new job, as custodians of our peace of mind, the focus of our understandable and rightful dread of being inferior; official censors, judges, and executors. That’s you, Montag, and that’s me." (Page 73)

14. Melancholy

- Definition: A feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause.

- Text Evidence: "And the men with the cigarettes in their straight-lined mouths, the men with the eyes of puff adders, took up their load of machine and tube, their case of liquid melancholy and the slow dark sludge of nameless stuff, and strolled out the door." (Page 27)

15. Distilled

- Definition: Purified or concentrated by distillation.

- Text Evidence: "He lay down with the moonlight on his cheekbones and on the frowning ridges in his brow, with the moonlight distilled in each eye to form a silver cataract there." (Page 29)

16. Proboscis

- Definition: The nose of a mammal, especially when it is long and mobile.

- Text Evidence: "The Mechanical Hound leapt up in its kennel, its eyes all green flame. 'Montag, you forgot your helmet!' He seized it off the wall behind him, ran, leapt, and they were off, the night wind hammering about their siren scream and their mighty metal thunder!" (Page 48)

17. Feigning

- Definition: Pretend to be affected by (a feeling, state, or injury).

- Text Evidence: "A child feigning illness, afraid to call because after a moment’s discussion, the conversation would run so: 'Yes, Captain, I feel better already. I’ll be in at ten o’clock tonight.'" (Page 65)

18. Rationalize

- Definition: Attempt to explain or justify (one's own or another's behavior or attitude) with logical, plausible reasons, even if these are not true or appropriate.

- Text Evidence: "My uncle says the architects got rid of the front porches because they didn’t look well. But my uncle says that was merely rationalizing it; the real reason, hidden underneath, might be they didn’t want people sitting like that, doing nothing, rocking, talking; that was the wrong kind of social life." (Page 78)

19. Olfactory

- Definition: Relating to the sense of smell.

- Text Evidence: "Nights when things got dull, which was every night, the men slid down the brass poles, and set the ticking combinations of the olfactory system of the Hound and let loose rats in the firehouse areaway, and sometimes chickens, and sometimes cats that would have to be drowned anyway, and there would be betting to see which of the cats or chickens or rats the Hound would seize first." (Page 37)

20. Ravenous

- Definition: Extremely hungry.

- Text Evidence: "And his eyes were beginning to feel hunger, as if they must look at something, anything, everything." (Page 55)

21. Pagan

- Definition: A person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions.

- Text Evidence: "Funerals are unhappy and pagan? Eliminate them, too." (Page 74)

22. Pratfall

- Definition: A fall on to one's buttocks.

- Text Evidence: "Life becomes one big pratfall, Montag; everything bang, boff, and wow!" (Page 71)