AP LIT LIST 1 VOCABULARY
Vocabulary List 1
WORD | PART OF SPEECH AND DEFINITION | EXAMPLE SENTENCE FROM LITERATURE |
approbation | n. official recognition or approval | His approbation laps me like a warm bath. - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood |
bellicose | adj. having or showing a ready disposition to fight | Honeybees become “wildly agitated and bellicose” on contact with it, perform frantic cleaning movements, and are near death within half an hour. - Silent Spring by Rachel Carson |
contentious | adj. inclined or showing an inclination to dispute or disagree, even to engage in lawsuits | He became contentious and started making comments that were audible to the judge. - Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson |
crass | adj. (of persons) so unrefined as to be lacking in discrimination and sensibility | Even when it came to arguing about God’s existence, he kept coming back to those crass gambling Frenchmen. - Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife |
discourse | n. an extended communication (often interactive) dealing with some particular topic | For a week or so they spoke cautiously of what they’d seen, and then it faded out of the realm of the discourse they shared together. - Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel by David Guterson |
fervor | n. Feelings of great warmth and intensity; the state of being emotionally aroused and worked up | I remembered the legend of how he had come to the college, a barefoot boy who in his fervor for education had trudged with his bundle of ragged clothing across two states. - Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison |
idyllic | adj. Suggestive of an idyll; charmingly simple and serine ; excellent and delightful in all respects | When most Lackses talked about Henrietta and Day and their early life in Clover, it sounded as idyllic as a fairy tale. - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot |
illicit | adj. contrary to accepted morality or convention | She whispered the word “fancy” like it was something illicit, as a smartly dressed couple in their fifties walked by. - When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon |
incongruous | adj. lacking in harmony or compatibility or appropriateness | He was wearing a combat helmet, which looked incongruous with his fine sports clothes and Italian shoes. - The House of the Spirits: A Novel by Isabel Allende |
lament | n. a cry of sorrow and grief; v. express grief verbally | But now she laments that she never did anything to stop them. - The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan |
litany | n. a prayer consisting of a series of invocations by the clergy with responses from the congregation ; any long and tedious address or recital | I spat a litany of things I’ll never repeat for the rest of my life, and he cowered and stared down into the dirt. - Tradition by Brendan Kiely |
ostentatious | adj. intended to attract notice and impress others; tawdry or vulgar | “I couldn’t agree with you more, sir,” he assented briskly in a tone of ostentatious disapproval. - Catch-22 by Joseph Heller |
piety | n. righteousness by virtue of being pious (showing reverence for a deity) | “Mr. Patel, Piscine’s piety is admirable. In these troubled times it’s good to see a boy so keen on God. We all agree on that.” - Life of Pi by Yann Martel |
profound | adj. Situated at or extending to great depth; too deep to have been sounded or plumbed ; showing intellectual penetration or emotional depth | Simple physical movements and observations can have a profound effect on how we feel and think. - The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell |
reprieve | v. relieve temporarily ; n. A temporary relief from harm or discomfort | The man raised his hands above his head and folded them there, seeking reprieve. -The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline |
strident | adj. unpleasantly loud and harsh | So the weekends, destined to disappoint, are strident, sullen, sprinkled with bruises and dots of blood. - Jazz by Toni Morrison |
sublime | adj. of high moral or intellectual value; elevated in nature or style | That rocky, misty summit, secreted in the clouds, was far more thrillingly awful and sublime than the crater of a volcano spouting fire. - Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer |
superficial | adj. of, affecting, or being on or near the surface | I lived at West Egg, the--well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald |
vacillate | v. be undecided about something; waver between conflicting positions or courses of action | Jam could see a whole river of things in his face, currents shifting and swelling, vacillating from grief to fury. - Pet by Akwaeke Emezi |
vehement | adj. marked by extreme intensity of emotions or convictions; inclined to react violently; fervid | Masondo could be a volatile fellow, and he was vehement in his assertions that no tigers had ever been found in Africa. - Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela |
Vocabulary List 1
WORD | PART OF SPEECH AND DEFINITION | EXAMPLE SENTENCE FROM LITERATURE |
approbation | n. official recognition or approval | His approbation laps me like a warm bath. - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood |
bellicose | adj. having or showing a ready disposition to fight | Honeybees become “wildly agitated and bellicose” on contact with it, perform frantic cleaning movements, and are near death within half an hour. - Silent Spring by Rachel Carson |
contentious | adj. inclined or showing an inclination to dispute or disagree, even to engage in lawsuits | He became contentious and started making comments that were audible to the judge. - Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson |
crass | adj. (of persons) so unrefined as to be lacking in discrimination and sensibility | Even when it came to arguing about God’s existence, he kept coming back to those crass gambling Frenchmen. - Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife |
discourse | n. an extended communication (often interactive) dealing with some particular topic | For a week or so they spoke cautiously of what they’d seen, and then it faded out of the realm of the discourse they shared together. - Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel by David Guterson |
fervor | n. Feelings of great warmth and intensity; the state of being emotionally aroused and worked up | I remembered the legend of how he had come to the college, a barefoot boy who in his fervor for education had trudged with his bundle of ragged clothing across two states. - Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison |
idyllic | adj. Suggestive of an idyll; charmingly simple and serine ; excellent and delightful in all respects | When most Lackses talked about Henrietta and Day and their early life in Clover, it sounded as idyllic as a fairy tale. - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot |
illicit | adj. contrary to accepted morality or convention | She whispered the word “fancy” like it was something illicit, as a smartly dressed couple in their fifties walked by. - When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon |
incongruous | adj. lacking in harmony or compatibility or appropriateness | He was wearing a combat helmet, which looked incongruous with his fine sports clothes and Italian shoes. - The House of the Spirits: A Novel by Isabel Allende |
lament | n. a cry of sorrow and grief; v. express grief verbally | But now she laments that she never did anything to stop them. - The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan |
litany | n. a prayer consisting of a series of invocations by the clergy with responses from the congregation ; any long and tedious address or recital | I spat a litany of things I’ll never repeat for the rest of my life, and he cowered and stared down into the dirt. - Tradition by Brendan Kiely |
ostentatious | adj. intended to attract notice and impress others; tawdry or vulgar | “I couldn’t agree with you more, sir,” he assented briskly in a tone of ostentatious disapproval. - Catch-22 by Joseph Heller |
piety | n. righteousness by virtue of being pious (showing reverence for a deity) | “Mr. Patel, Piscine’s piety is admirable. In these troubled times it’s good to see a boy so keen on God. We all agree on that.” - Life of Pi by Yann Martel |
profound | adj. Situated at or extending to great depth; too deep to have been sounded or plumbed ; showing intellectual penetration or emotional depth | Simple physical movements and observations can have a profound effect on how we feel and think. - The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell |
reprieve | v. relieve temporarily ; n. A temporary relief from harm or discomfort | The man raised his hands above his head and folded them there, seeking reprieve. -The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline |
strident | adj. unpleasantly loud and harsh | So the weekends, destined to disappoint, are strident, sullen, sprinkled with bruises and dots of blood. - Jazz by Toni Morrison |
sublime | adj. of high moral or intellectual value; elevated in nature or style | That rocky, misty summit, secreted in the clouds, was far more thrillingly awful and sublime than the crater of a volcano spouting fire. - Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer |
superficial | adj. of, affecting, or being on or near the surface | I lived at West Egg, the--well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald |
vacillate | v. be undecided about something; waver between conflicting positions or courses of action | Jam could see a whole river of things in his face, currents shifting and swelling, vacillating from grief to fury. - Pet by Akwaeke Emezi |
vehement | adj. marked by extreme intensity of emotions or convictions; inclined to react violently; fervid | Masondo could be a volatile fellow, and he was vehement in his assertions that no tigers had ever been found in Africa. - Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela |