American Literature Vocabulary Notes

Vocabulary Set One

• Balk: (verb) Refuse to proceed or to do something.

  • Example: At the company retreat, he reluctantly agreed to participate in the ropes course but balked at walking over hot coals as a “trust exercise.”

• Complacent: (adjective) Self-satisfied, smug; overly content (and therefore lazy, neglectful, or some other bad quality).

  • Example: The coach gave a pep talk saying that the other team of reigning champs has grown complacent with their success, and now they just assume they’ll win without having to sweat.
  • Important Note: Don’t confuse complacent with complaisant, which means “eager to please.”

• Esoteric: (adjective) Understood by or intended for only a few; secret.

  • Example: He spent his days pouring over esoteric journal articles that few people had ever read or understood.

• Moreover: (adverb) Besides; in addition to what was just stated.

  • Example: You are fired. Moreover, the police are coming to arrest you for theft.

• Obsequious: (adjective) Servile, very compliant, fawning.

  • Example: An obsequious assistant, Sammy thought he could get ahead by doing everything asked of him, but instead, his boss gave a promotion to someone he viewed as more of a peer; truthfully, he thought Sammy’s sucking up was pretty pathetic.

• Penchant: (noun) Liking or inclination (usually penchant for).

  • Example: He seems like a mild-mannered accountant, but twice a year he jets off to Australia to satisfy his penchant for adventure sports.

• Quandary: (noun) Uncertainty or confusion about what to do, dilemma.

  • Example: He knew it sounded like the plot of a cheesy movie, but he really had accidentally asked two girls to the prom, and now he was in quite a quandary.

• Skirt: (verb) Border, lie along the edge of, go around; evade.

  • Example: Melissa spent all of Thanksgiving skirting the issue of whom she was dating and when she might get married and make her mother a grandmother.
  • This word is a metaphor related to the clothing item skirt, which passes around a person’s body in a somewhat circular manner.

• Tenuous: (adjective) Flimsy, having little substance; long and thin, slender.

  • Example: Your argument is quite tenuous—it depends on our accepting the results of a 1995 study published in an obscure medical journal not subject to peer review.

• Whimsical: (adjective) Marked or motivated by whims (odd, fanciful ideas); erratic, unpredictable.

  • Example: She enjoyed a whimsical day at the seashore—no plan, just wandering around and making sand castles as the mood struck.

Vocabulary Set Two

• Assuage: (verb) Make milder, relieve; soothe, pacify, or calm.

  • Example: After losing a million-dollar account, he tried to assuage his furious boss by pointing out that he was close to winning a new account worth at least as much.

• Cogent: (adjective) Very convincing, logical.

  • Example: Studying logic is an excellent way to improve at formulating cogent arguments.

• Doleful: (adjective) Expressing sorrow; mournful.

  • Example: The doleful look on Abby’s face after dropping her newly bought ice cream cone was met with the cashier’s indifference.

• Ignominy: (noun) Deep personal humiliation and disgrace.

  • Example: He had to endure the ignominy of being forced to resign as class president in front of the entire school.

• Mendacious: (adjective) Lying, habitually dishonest.

  • Example: She was so mendacious that, when she broke the television, she blamed it on her little brother, even though he was so small he could hardly have tipped over a piece of furniture.

• Onerous: (adjective) Burdensome, oppressive, hard to endure.

  • Example: Doctors are often faced with the onerous task of telling waiting families that their loved one has passed away.

• Reticent: (adjective) Not talking much; private (of a person), restrained, reserved.

  • Example: She figured that, to rise to the top, it was best to be reticent about her personal life around her colleagues and coworkers.

• Surmise: (verb) Guess, infer, opine.

  • Example: I surmise that you have no idea how to drink Capri Sun since you stuck the straw in the middle of the juice pouch and caused a spill.

• Vituperate: (verb) Verbally abuse, rebuke or criticize harshly.

  • Example: All couples fight, but your partner vituperates you so severely that I’m not sure they love you at all. Verbal abuse is actually a good reason to break up.

• Wary: (adjective) Watchful, motivated by caution, on guard against danger.

  • Example: Be wary of anyone who tells you to sign a contract without allowing you to read it all the way through first. (Do not be confused with weary.)

Vocabulary Set Three

• Atrocious: (adjective) Shockingly bad or lacking in taste; awful.

  • Example: Despite her effort, the cranberry-salmon surprise tasted atrocious.

• Basely: (adverb) Dishonorably; meanly.

  • Example: Mary Warren basely gave up John Proctor, going against her earlier code of truth, in order to save herself from the wrath of Abby and the town of Salem.

• Derision: (noun) Harsh ridicule or mockery; scorn.

  • Example: The class laughed in derision, jeering openly at the substitute teacher’s futile attempt at Tik Tok-dancing his way onto their good side.

• Felicity: (noun) Happiness; bliss.

  • Example: I experienced pure felicity upon receiving my report card since my final grades were better than what was projected on Synergy.

• Impertinence: (noun) Improper boldness; rudeness.

  • Example: The bullies teased me and laughed at me with impertinence until the day I ninja-kicked them!

• Inanimate: (adjective) Not alive; lifeless.

  • Example: I do not keep dolls or toys in my house because of a great fear I have that, one day, those inanimate objects may come to life.

• Patent: (adjective) Obvious; apparent.

  • Example: She acted with a patent disregard for the store’s rules as she unapologetically tried to enter without a mask—only to be turned away by security.

• Perseverance: (noun) Persistence in the face of difficulty; determination.

  • Example: As hard as online learning was, students were showing great perseverance by continuing to show up for class even when the comfort of their bed might have beckoned them instead.

• Querulous: (adjective) Given to complaining.

  • Example: My brother’s querulous and unwilling tone was heard down the hallway after I called him for the fifth time to step away from games to eat dinner.

• Undulating: (adjective) Moving with a wavelike motion.

  • Example: Several jellyfish drifted by, their undulating tentacles propelling them further in the water.

Vocabulary Set Four

• Circumvent: (verb) To avoid or get around by clever maneuvering.

  • Example: Lana circumvented her mother’s request to do chores by directing her attention to other problems in the house.

• Coquettish: (adjective) Flirtatious.

  • Example: His coquettish behavior was known to all since he was notorious for sweet talking any new classmates who joined their group.

• Diffident: (adjective) Shy and timid; lacking self-confidence.

  • Example: Miya’s diffident demeanor made him difficult to approach since he often never looked people in the eye and kept mostly to himself.

• Edict: (noun) An order put out by a person in authority.

  • Example: After 10 years of court sessions, the final edict by the judge in our estate case declared me as the owner of my grandfather’s home; though the state of the home was nearly in shambles by now.

• Encroach: (verb) To advance beyond original limits; intrude.

  • Example: Our professor encroached on our mid-class break gradually over the course of the semester and breaks that once were 15 minutes were now a mere, laughable 5.

• Obliterate: (verb) To wipe out, leaving no trace.

  • Example: To say that my four brothers obliterated the food at our holiday dinner was an understatement, because they did not even leave a single crumb behind.

• Pallid: (adjective) Abnormally pale.

  • Example: Their illness was the cause of their pallid, dull complexion.

• Profoundly: (adverb) Deeply; intensely.

  • Example: Cara profoundly valued her study time that she often worked endlessly—even on weekends.

• Temerity: (noun) Foolish boldness.

  • Example: Even though Josh had only been working with us for one week, he had the temerity to give our boss instructions on how to manage the onboarding process.

• Virulent: (adjective) Extremely poisonous or harmful.

  • Example: Staring into the sun for too long can do virulent damage to your eyes.

The Great Gatsby Vocabulary: Set One

• Anon: (adverb) In a short time; soon.

  • Example: I will see you anon.

• Apathetic: (adjective) Feeling or showing a lack of interest or concern; indifferent.

  • Example: The apathetic upper classes do not care about the plight of the working class.

• Banter: (-ing): (verb) To speak in a playful or teasing way.

  • Example: The students bantering during the Socratic Seminar seemed harmless; however, those exchanges were the cause of the fight that happened after school.

• Capacious: (adjective) Spacious.

  • Example: Gatsby’s capacious mansion could hold three armies and the population of Belgium.

• Contiguous: (adjective) Sharing an edge or boundary; touching.

  • Example: Nick’s property is contiguous to Gatsby’s property.

• Cordial: (adjective) Courteous and gracious; friendly.

  • Example: The Buchanans were happy to see Nick and gave him a cordial welcome.

• Cynical: (adjective) Expressing jaded or scornful skepticism or negativity.

  • Example: After the horrors of World War I, many young people became cynical about their future.

• Desolate: (adjective) Devoid of inhabitants; deserted.

  • Example: The Valley of Ashes is a desolate, industrial wasteland.

• Extemporizing: (verb) To speak extemporaneously (making it up on the spot).

  • Example: Just to keep the conversation going, she extemporizes upon the recent election, even though she knows nothing about it.

• Feign: (verb) Pretend; sham; counterfeit.

  • Example: Although Tom Buchanan’s mistress calls during dinner, Daisy feigns ignorance because she does not want to confront her husband.

• Fractious: (adjective) Refractory or unruly.

  • Example: The fractious party at Gatsby’s mansion kept Nick awake.

• Intimation: (noun) An indirect suggestion; a slight suggestion or vague understanding.

  • Example: He watches her for just the slightest intimation that she still has feelings for him.

• Languid: (adjective) (-ly): (adverb) Lacking in vigor or vitality; slack or slow.
  Example: The summer heat caused the young ladies to drape themselves languidly across the sofas.

• Levity: (noun) Lightness of mind, character, or behavior; lack of appropriate seriousness or earnestness.

  • Example: Daisy always laughs things off and her constant levity shows she is in denial and rather shallow.

• Ostentatious: (adjective) Pretentious, opulent, conspicuous; intended to attract attention; to show-off. (opulent/opulence: ornate, fancy).

  • Example: Gatsby’s excessive lifestyle is ostentatious and vulgar.

• Prodigal: (adjective) Wastefully or recklessly extravagant in spending. (noun) A person who spends, or has spent, his or her money or substance with wasteful extravagance; spendthrift.

  • Example: Gatsby’s prodigal parties are ostentatious.

• Rapacious: (adjective) Predatory greed; ravenous; voracious.

  • Example: The American Dream has become a rapacious monster.

• Supercilious: (adjective) Haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression.

  • Example: Tom’s supercilious comments about immigrants and people of color reflect the racism of the era.

• Superfluous: (adjective) Being beyond what is required or sufficient.

  • Example: People like Gatsby and the Buchanans have an excess of superfluous possessions.

• Wan: (adjective) Of an unnatural or sickly pallor; pallid lacking color.

  • Example: At the mention of Gatsby’s name, Daisy’s wan expression gives the reader a clue.