Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Chapters 13–18

by J.K. Rowling
In his sixth year at Hogwarts, Harry learns more about Voldemort's past and discovers a mysterious Potions textbook.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–6, Chapters 7–12, Chapters 13–18, Chapters 19–24, Chapters 25–30

Here are links to our lists for works in the Harry Potter universe: The Sorcerer's Stone, The Chamber of Secrets, The Prisoner of Azkaban, The Goblet of Fire, The Order of the Phoenix, The Half-Blood Prince, The Deathly Hallows, The Cursed Child, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
45 words 228 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. unrequited
    not returned in kind
    Of course, it is also possible that her unrequited love and the attendant despair sapped her of her powers; that can happen.
  2. admonition
    cautionary advice about something imminent
    She led him out of her office and up the stone stairs, calling out instructions and admonitions to helpers and children as she passed.
  3. bestial
    resembling an animal, especially by being vicious or cruel
    His face was transfigured: There was a wild happiness upon it, yet for some reason it did not make him better looking; on the contrary, his finely carved features seemed somehow rougher, his expression almost bestial.
  4. astute
    marked by practical hardheaded intelligence
    “Very astute, Harry, but the mouth organ was only ever a mouth organ.”
  5. enigmatic
    not clear to the understanding
    And on that enigmatic note he waved to Harry, who understood himself to be dismissed.
  6. squeamish
    easily disturbed or disgusted by unpleasant things
    “Don’t be squeamish, squeeze it out, they’re best when they’re fresh!” called Professor Sprout.
  7. resilient
    rebounding readily
    There was a pause while Harry continued to pound the resilient pod with a trowel.
  8. wry
    humorously sarcastic or mocking
    If Gryffindor won, Harry knew that the whole House would forget that they had criticized him and swear that they had always known it was a great team. If they lost...well, Harry thought wryly, he had still endured worse mutterings...
  9. disoriented
    having lost your bearings
    Harry hardly noticed the sound of shattering glass; he felt disoriented, dizzy; being struck by a lightning bolt must be something like this.
  10. blithely
    in a joyous, carefree, or unconcerned manner
    “Nearly time,” said Harry blithely.
  11. lofty
    having or displaying great dignity or nobility
    “Of course, Coote isn’t really the usual build for a Beater,” said Zacharias loftily, “they’ve generally got a bit more muscle —”
  12. irate
    feeling or showing extreme anger
    As the crowd shrieked and laughed, the Gryffindor team landed beside the wreckage of wood under which Zacharias was feebly stirring; Harry heard Ginny saying blithely to an irate Professor McGonagall, “Forgot to brake, Professor, sorry.”
  13. exuberant
    joyously unrestrained
    “Party up in the common room, Seamus said!” yelled Dean exuberantly.
  14. dispassionate
    unaffected by strong emotion or prejudice
    “It looks like he’s eating her face, doesn’t it?” said Ginny dispassionately.
  15. countenance
    the appearance conveyed by a person's face
    They waited, and a moment later the vulturelike countenance of Madam Pince appeared around the corner, her sunken cheeks, her skin like parchment, and her long hooked nose illuminated unflatteringly by the lamp she was carrying.
  16. depraved
    deviating from what is considered moral or right or proper
    “Mind you return anything you have borrowed to the correct—what have you been doing to that book, you depraved boy?”
  17. succinctly
    with concise and precise brevity; to the point
    “Told you,” said Hermione succinctly.
  18. agog
    having or showing keen interest or intense desire
    “No!” said Parvati, looking positively agog at this piece of gossip. “Wow, you like your Quidditch players, don’t you? First Krum, then McLaggen...”
  19. disconcerted
    having self-possession upset; thrown into confusion
    “I — what?” said Harry, disconcerted.
  20. emaciated
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
    Worple, who was a small, stout, bespectacled man, grabbed Harry’s hand and shook it enthusiastically; the vampire Sanguini, who was tall and emaciated with dark shadows under his eyes, merely nodded.
  21. unfathomable
    impossible to come to understand
    His expression unfathomable, he returned to the party.
  22. perceptible
    easily grasped by the senses or the mind
    The atmosphere around the table changed perceptibly.
  23. mull
    reflect deeply on a subject
    Harry had to mull that one over for a few seconds before responding.
  24. onerous
    burdensome or difficult to endure
    ‘“Stand alongside the Ministry’...What does that mean?”
    “Oh, well, nothing at all onerous, I assure you,” said Scrimgeour.
  25. tactless
    lacking what is considerate in dealing with others
    “I shouldn’t have said that,” said Scrimgeour quickly. “It was tactless —”
    “No, it was honest,” said Harry.
  26. besiege
    harass, as with questions or requests
    For the rest of the day, Harry was besieged with requests from the other sixth years to describe the sensation of Apparition.
  27. poised
    marked by balance or equilibrium and readiness for action
    “So,” said Dumbledore, in a ringing voice, “we meet this evening to continue the tale of Tom Riddle, whom we left last lesson poised on the threshold of his years at Hogwarts..."
  28. motley
    consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds
    They were a motley collection; a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty.
  29. succumb
    be fatally overwhelmed
    I believe that it was then that he dropped the name forever, assumed the identity of Lord Voldemort, and began his investigations into his previously despised mother’s family — the woman whom, you will remember, he had thought could not be a witch if she had succumbed to the shameful human weakness of death.
  30. rankle
    make resentful or angry
    “Dobby,” growled Harry; this injustice still rankled.
  31. congeal
    solidify, thicken, or come together
    Harry noticed that the contents proved difficult to empty into the Pensieve, as though they had congealed slightly; did memories go bad?
  32. rotund
    excessively large
    He was not quite as rotund as the Slughorn Harry knew, though the golden buttons on his richly embroidered waistcoat were taking a fair amount of strain.
  33. reprove
    reprimand, scold, or express dissatisfaction with
    “Tom, Tom, if I knew I couldn’t tell you,” said Slughorn, wagging a reproving, sugar-covered finger at Riddle, though ruining the effect slightly by winking.
  34. divulge
    make known to the public information previously kept secret
    It will be your job to persuade Professor Slughorn to divulge the real memory, which will undoubtedly be our most crucial piece of information of all.
  35. travesty
    a composition that imitates or misrepresents a style
    He is much more accomplished at Occlumency than poor Morfin Gaunt, and I would be astonished if he has not carried an antidote to Veritaserum with him ever since I coerced him into giving me this travesty of a recollection.
  36. disparate
    fundamentally different or distinct in quality or kind
    "...our primary aim is not the relatively simple one of selecting antidotes to those ingredients in and of themselves, but to find that added component that will, by an almost alchemical process, transform these disparate elements—”
  37. garish
    tastelessly showy
    Annoyed, Harry uncorked the poison he had taken from Slughorn’s desk, which was a garish shade of pink, tipped it into his cauldron, and lit a fire underneath it.
  38. decant
    pour out
    She was now decanting the mysteriously separated ingredients of her poison into ten different crystal phials.
  39. inordinate
    beyond normal limits
    Harry dawdled behind, taking an inordinate amount of time to do up his bag.
  40. affable
    diffusing warmth and friendliness
    “Come on, now, Harry, you’ll be late for your next lesson,” said Slughorn affably, snapping the gold clasps shut on his dragon-skin briefcase.
  41. upshot
    a phenomenon that is caused by some previous phenomenon
    Purplish-gray clouds hung low over the castle and a constant fall of chilly rain made the lawns slippery and muddy. The upshot of this was that the sixth years’ first Apparition lesson, which was scheduled for a Saturday morning so that no normal lessons would be missed, took place in the Great Hall instead of in the grounds.
  42. insubstantial
    lacking material form
    He was oddly colorless, with transparent eyelashes, wispy hair, and an insubstantial air, as though a single gust of wind might blow him away.
  43. deliberation
    the trait of thoughtfulness in action or decision
    “The important things to remember when Apparating are the three D’s!” said Twycross. “Destination, Determination, Deliberation!”
  44. pallid
    pale, as of a person's complexion
    “Okay,” said Harry, walking up to Ron to get a better look at the glazed eyes and the pallid complexion, “okay...Say that again with a straight face.”
  45. extremity
    an external body part that projects from the body
    Ron had dropped his glass; he half-rose from his chair and then crumpled, his extremities jerking uncontrollably.
Created on Tue Jan 02 17:33:22 EST 2018 (updated Tue Sep 11 11:57:41 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.