amok
Other forms: amoks
You think Mittens the kitten is gentle and sweet, and then one day she runs amok, ripping up Grandma's favorite armchair until its cottony guts are hanging out. Time to take Mittens to get her claws trimmed.
Most of our words are rooted in Greek, Latin, or German, so it's refreshing to see a word that arose in a whole different language: amok's origins are in the Malay language of Indonesia. In the 1500s, a Portuguese writer and explorer named Duarte Barbosa described a murderous tribe on the island of Java as the "Amuco," and the word passed on into English. Amuco came from Amuk, a Malay word meaning "attacking furiously."
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wildly; without self-controlsynonyms: amuck
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in a murderous frenzysynonyms: amuck, murderously
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frenzied as if possessed by a demon
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Vocabulary lists containing amok
Stargirl Caraway lives life on her own terms, but when she moves to a new town her unique personality rubs others the wrong way. As the school year goes on, Stargirl is torn between staying true to herself and fitting in.
As you read Jeffrey Kluger's "Simplexity," learn this word list. Here are links to lists for texts in Grade 10's Collection 3: Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Kuper's The Metamorphosis, Simplexity, Magic Island
In this international bestseller, four Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters try to understand each other.