From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Chapter 5-6

by E.L. Konigsburg
When Claudia Kincaid and her brother run away from home, they find themselves caught up in a mystery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Learn these words from E. L. Konigsburg's award-winning novel.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: To My Lawyer-Chapter 2, Chapters 3-4, Chapters 5-6, Chapters 7-8, Chapters 9-10
40 words 417 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. insist
    be emphatic or resolute and refuse to budge
    Claudia insisted on a fresh change of underwear every day.
  2. dismally
    in a dreadful manner
    When all was done, they were disappointed; all of it looked dismally gray.
  3. convince
    make realize the truth or validity of something
    Her determination convinced Jamie that Saturday should be spent just this way.
  4. catalogue
    a complete list of things, usually arranged systematically
    In the downstairs Art Room the librarian helped them find the books which Claudia selected from the card catalogue.
  5. delinquent
    a young offender
    “He got in a fight and had his nose broken when he was a teenager.”
    “Was he a juvenile delinquent? Maybe they do have his fingerprints on file.”
  6. pagan
    relating to a polytheistic, pre-Christian religion
    “Angels wear clothes and wings and are Christian. Cupids wear bows and arrows; they are naked and pagan.”
    “What’s pagan?” Jamie asked. “Boy or girl?”
    “How would I know?” Claudia answered.
    “You said they are naked.”
    “Well, pagan has nothing to do with that. It means worshipping idols instead of God.”
  7. humble
    cause to feel shame
    Claudia had begun her research confident that a morning’s study would make her completely an expert; but Michelangelo had humbled her, and humility was not an emotion with which she felt comfortable; she was irritable.
  8. humility
    a lack of arrogance or false pride
    Claudia had begun her research confident that a morning’s study would make her completely an expert; but Michelangelo had humbled her, and humility was not an emotion with which she felt comfortable; she was irritable.
  9. sculpture
    create by shaping stone or wood or any other hard material
    He leaned back and yawned; he was becoming bored with pictures of David and Moses and the Sistine Ceiling; he wanted to find clues. Already he knew enough to tell if Michelangelo had sculptured the little angel.
  10. impatience
    irritation with anything that causes delay
    Claudia’s impatience surfaced. She had to pick a fight with Jamie.
  11. irritated
    aroused to impatience or anger
    Jamie was irritated. “Couldn’t it just happen that someone dropped it?”
  12. staple
    a necessary commodity for which demand is constant
    Their bulging pockets were now full of the staples of life: food and clothing.
  13. routine
    an unvarying or habitual method or procedure
    First bell, second bell, it was routine just as boarding the school bus had once been routine.
  14. fussy
    exacting especially about details
    They always checked for dust under the bed first. And for once Claudia’s fussiness was not the reason. Reason was the reason. A dustless floor meant that it had been cleaned very recently, and they stood less chance of being caught by a mop.
  15. brace
    prepare for something unpleasant or difficult
    He leaned his head against the wall of the booth and braced himself for what would happen next.
  16. inspection
    a formal or official examination
    Jamie still felt a ping during that short inspection; that was the only part that still wasn’t quite routine, and that’s why he braced himself.
  17. lag
    the time between one event, process, or period and another
    Jamie would wait twelve minutes (lag time, Claudia called it) and emerge from hiding.
  18. corpuscle
    (nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything
    The hardest part was that every corpuscle of Jamie’s nine-year-old self was throbbing with readiness to run, and he had to bind up all that energy into a quiet lump.
  19. realization
    coming to understand something clearly and distinctly
    He sat down on the seat as he allowed the familiar darkness as well as new realization to fill him.
  20. telepathy
    extrasensory communication from one mind to another
    Who would give her the information? He would. By mental telepathy. He would think a message to Claudia. He folded his hands across his forehead and concentrated. “Stay put, Claudia, stay put. Stay put. Stay put. Claudia, stay put.”
  21. embroider
    decorate with needlework
    “Come along, Sir James. To our bath. Bring your most elegant pajamas. The ones embroidered in gold with silver tassels will do.”
  22. furious
    marked by extreme anger
    It makes me furious to think that I must explain that restaurant to you, Saxonberg.
  23. embarrassed
    feeling or caused to feel uneasy and self-conscious
    Claudia was embarrassed, so she spoke sternly, “We’ll go to bed now, and we’ll think about the statue very hard. Don’t fall asleep until you’ve really thought about the statue and Michelangelo and the entire Italian Renaissance.”
  24. stern
    serious and harsh in manner or behavior
    Claudia was embarrassed, so she spoke sternly, “We’ll go to bed now, and we’ll think about the statue very hard. Don’t fall asleep until you’ve really thought about the statue and Michelangelo and the entire Italian Renaissance.”
  25. conscience
    motivation deriving from ethical or moral principles
    “We probably have no conscience. I think we ought to be homesick. Do you think Mom and Dad raised us wrong? They’re not very mean, you know; don’t you think that should make us miss them?”
  26. adjusted
    showing emotional stability
    “I’m glad you asked that about homesickness, Jamie. Somehow, I feel older now. But, of course, that’s mostly because I’ve been the oldest child forever. And I’m extremely well adjusted.”
  27. disciplined
    exhibiting self-control and obeying the rules
    The two children wouldn’t even allow themselves a sigh of relief. They were that well disciplined.
  28. logic
    reasoned and reasonable judgment
    Jamie led the way back up the great stairway. As he did so, his logic became clear to Claudia. Thank goodness Jamie thought so clearly so fast, and thank goodness for those twenty acres of floor space. It would take the watchman more than an hour before he passed that way again.
  29. stealthily
    in a manner marked by quiet and caution and secrecy
    They stealthily climbed the wide stairway, staying close to the rail.
  30. pedestal
    an architectural support or base
    All the way to the top until they found themselves in front of the pedestal on which Angel had stood just the day before.
  31. platform
    a raised horizontal surface
    “I wonder why they allow the workers to do it? What if he had spilled it on Angel? See where he must have put his beer can on that platform.”
  32. emblem
    special design representing a quality, type, or group
    Those are the marks of the beer can itself. After all, the emblem on the can is flat against the can. It could have been any kind of beer.
  33. plush
    a fabric with a nap that is longer and softer than velvet
    “The rings the beer cans made would have crushed the plush of the velvet down...and the plush of this velvet is crushed up.”
  34. thoroughly
    in an exhaustive manner
    She had studied hard and read the chapter thoroughly.
  35. browse
    reading superficially or at random
    When he finally moved the platform and drape and took them to the basement for storage, Claudia and Jamie had already left and were browsing around the crowded bookshop peeking under the dust jackets of books about Michelangelo.
  36. identify
    give the name or characteristics of
    He had chipped it into the base of the marble to identify himself as owner, much as brands are burned into the hides of cattle to identify their owners.
  37. income
    the amount of money one makes over a period of time
    “We have income now. All we have to do is take a bath whenever we need money.”
  38. publicity
    the quality of being open to general view
    “Let’s call the New York Times,” Jamie suggested.
    “All that publicity! They’ll want to know how we found out.”
  39. modest
    humble in spirit or manner
    “I think you’re different already, Claude.”
    “Do you?” she asked.
    She was smiling and her eyes were modestly lowered, ready for a compliment.
  40. appropriate
    suitable for a particular person, place, or situation
    She thought it appeared appropriate to their message and would add a proper note of mystery besides.
Created on Thu Sep 14 18:07:27 EDT 2017 (updated Thu Sep 21 09:38:47 EDT 2017)

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.