Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: Second Part: Chapters 1–7

by Jules Verne
Board the Nautilus and travel under the sea with the mysterious Captain Nemo as you learn these words from the science fiction novel by Jules Verne. Read the full text, translated from the original French by F.P. Walter, here.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: First Part: Chapters 1–8, First Part: Chapters 9–16, First Part: Chapters 17–24, Second Part: Chapters 1–7, Second Part: Chapters 8–14, Second Part: Chapters 15–23
40 words 84 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. altitude
    elevation above sea level or above the earth's surface
    That day, January 21, 1868, the chief officer went at noon to take the sun's altitude.
  2. sextant
    an instrument for measuring angular distance
    While he took his sights with his sextant, one of the Nautilus's sailors—that muscular man who had gone with us to Crespo Island during our first underwater excursion—came up to clean the glass panes of the beacon.
  3. hoist
    raise
    delicious sailfish that can hoist their fins in a favorable current like so many unfurled sails
  4. latitude
    an imaginary line around the Earth parallel to the equator
    On the morning of the 24th, in latitude 12° 5' south and longitude 94° 33', we raised Keeling Island, a madreporic upheaving planted with magnificent coconut trees, which had been visited by Mr. Darwin and Captain Fitzroy.
  5. lever
    a simple machine giving a mechanical advantage on a fulcrum
    Several times we used our slanting fins, which internal levers could set at an oblique angle to our waterline.
  6. depth
    the extent downward or backward or inward
    Thus we went as deep as two or three kilometers down but without ever verifying the lowest depths of this sea near India, which soundings of 13,000 meters have been unable to reach.
  7. meridian
    an imaginary great circle on the surface of the earth
    The next day, January 26, we cut the equator on the 82nd meridian and we reentered the northern hemisphere.
  8. navigate
    travel by water
    Near seven o'clock in the evening, the Nautilus lay half submerged, navigating in the midst of milky white waves.
  9. bearing
    the direction or path along which something moves or lies
    After our position fix, I reentered the lounge, and when our bearings were reported on the chart, I saw that we were off the island of Ceylon, that pearl dangling from the lower lobe of the Indian peninsula.
  10. parallel
    an imaginary line around the Earth even with the equator
    I found it by the 9th parallel off the northwestern shores of Ceylon.
  11. skiff
    a small boat propelled by oars or by sails or by a motor
    But I have the skiff ready, and it will take us to the exact spot where we'll disembark, which will save us a pretty long trek.
  12. stern
    the rear part of a ship
    Captain Nemo, Conseil, Ned Land, and I found seats in the stern of the skiff.
  13. tiller
    lever used to turn the rudder on a boat
    The longboat's coxswain took the tiller; his four companions leaned into their oars; the moorings were cast off and we pulled clear.
  14. vigorously
    in an energetic manner
    I watched their strokes vigorously catch the water, and they always waited ten seconds before rowing again, following the practice used in most navies.
  15. thwart
    a crosspiece spreading the gunnels of a boat
    Captain Nemo stood up from his thwart and studied the sea.
  16. ebb
    the outward flow of the tide
    Instantly the skiff wheeled around under the ebb tide's outbound thrust.
  17. agility
    the gracefulness of a quick and nimble person or animal
    Here, under these clear waves, this crab raced around with matchless agility, while green turtles from the species frequenting the Malabar coast moved sluggishly among the crumbling rocks.
  18. locomotion
    the power or ability to move
    In this respect oysters are inferior even to mussels, to whom nature has not denied all talent for locomotion.
  19. element
    the most favorable environment for a plant or animal
    But this lofty plateau measured only a few fathoms, and soon we reentered Our Element.
  20. channel
    a deep and relatively narrow body of water
    During the day of January 29, the island of Ceylon disappeared below the horizon, and at a speed of twenty miles per hour, the Nautilus glided into the labyrinthine channels that separate the Maldive and Laccadive Islands.
  21. peninsula
    a large mass of land projecting into a body of water
    Setting its course to the north–northwest, the ship headed toward the Gulf of Oman, carved out between Arabia and the Indian peninsula and providing access to the Persian Gulf.
  22. canal
    long and narrow strip of water for boats or for irrigation
    the Red Sea is just as landlocked as the gulf, since the Isthmus of Suez hasn't been cut all the way through yet; and even if it was, a boat as secretive as ours wouldn't risk a canal intersected with locks.
  23. isthmus
    a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas
    On February 6 the Nautilus cruised in sight of the city of Aden, perched on a promontory connected to the continent by a narrow isthmus, a sort of inaccessible Gibraltar whose fortifications the English rebuilt after capturing it in 1839.
  24. skim
    travel on the surface of water
    So I called Conseil to my side, while at an average depth of eight to nine meters, the Nautilus slowly skimmed every beautiful rock on the easterly coast.
  25. gulf
    an arm of a sea or ocean partly enclosed by land
    The Arab Idrisi, referring to it by the name Gulf of Colzoum, relates that ships perished in large numbers on its sandbanks and that no one risked navigating it by night.
  26. hazardous
    involving risk or danger
    To a modern ship, well rigged, solidly constructed, and in control of its course thanks to obedient steam, some conditions are no longer hazardous that offered all sorts of dangers to the vessels of the ancients.
  27. venture
    proceed somewhere despite the risk of possible dangers
    Picture those early navigators venturing forth in sailboats built from planks lashed together with palm–tree ropes, caulked with powdered resin, and coated with dogfish grease.
  28. starboard
    right side of a ship or aircraft to someone facing the bow
    There, ahead to starboard, almost level with the beacon!
  29. coxswain
    the helmsman of a ship's boat or a racing crew
    The sailors went back to their sculling, and the coxswain steered the longboat toward the floating barrel.
  30. capsize
    overturn accidentally
    But thanks to our skillful coxswain, we were fouled on the bias rather than broadside, so we didn't capsize.
  31. submerged
    beneath the surface of the water
    At six o'clock, sometimes afloat and sometimes submerged, the Nautilus passed well out from El Tur, which sat at the far end of a bay whose waters seemed to be dyed red
  32. strait
    a narrow channel joining two larger bodies of water
    It seemed to me that the strait was getting narrower and narrower.
  33. helm
    steering mechanism for a vessel
    Set in the cabin's walls were four deadlights, windows of biconvex glass that enabled the man at the helm to see in every direction.
  34. compass
    navigational instrument for finding directions
    Captain Nemo never took his eyes off the two concentric circles of the compass hanging in the cabin.
  35. torrent
    a violently fast stream of water or other liquid
    Our engines tried to offer resistance by churning the waves with propeller in reverse, but the Nautilus went with the torrent, as swift as an arrow.
  36. proceed
    move ahead; travel onward in time or space
    After determining the Nautilus's heading, I noted that it was proceeding toward the ancient island of Crete, also called Candia.
  37. league
    an obsolete unit of distance of around 3 miles
    I estimate that the Nautilus covered a track of some 600 leagues under the waves of this sea, and this voyage was accomplished in just twenty–four hours times two.
  38. steer
    direct somewhere
    Moreover, to renew our air supply, the submersible rose to the surface of the waves only at night, and relying solely on compass and log, it steered by dead reckoning.
  39. maneuver
    direct the course of or determine the direction of traveling
    Consequently, the Nautilus had to maneuver with caution so as not to bump into this underwater barrier.
  40. casualty
    an accident that causes someone to die
    In essence, we were then crossing that part of the whole Mediterranean so fertile in casualties.
Created on Fri Mar 03 15:15:19 EST 2017 (updated Tue Sep 25 15:23:09 EDT 2018)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.