Ready Player One: Chapters 0003-0008

by Ernest Cline
In this science fiction novel, gamer Wade Watts goes on a quest for riches in a virtual reality simulation called the OASIS. To find the prize hidden by the eccentric creator of the OASIS, Wade must solve a series of puzzles based on 80s pop culture.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 0000-0002, Chapters 0003-0008, Chapters 0009-0017, Chapters 0018-0026, Chapters 0027-0039
15 words 628 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. peripheral
    on or near an edge or constituting an outer boundary
    My view of the classroom shrank from the limits of my peripheral vision to a small thumbnail window in the lower right of my display, allowing me to monitor what was in front of my avatar.
  2. poseur
    a person who habitually pretends to be something he is not
    I-r0k fancied himself an elite gunter, but he was nothing but an obnoxious poseur.
  3. decorum
    propriety in manners and conduct
    The guy had no sense of decorum.
  4. portly
    fairly large
    Mr. A’s avatar looked like a portly, bearded college professor.
  5. gamut
    a complete extent or range
    Their environments ran the gamut, from sword-and-sorcery settings to cyberpunk-themed planetwide cities to irradiated postapocalyptic zombie-infested wastelands.
  6. grail
    the object of any prolonged search or endeavor
    I kept everything in a notebook (which I’d started to call my “grail diary” after watching the third Indiana Jones film).
  7. inept
    revealing lack of perceptiveness or judgment or finesse
    By all accounts, James was a bright boy, but socially inept.
  8. latency
    the time it takes for a specific block of data to rotate
    At the time of its initial launch, the OASIS could handle up to five million simultaneous users, with no discernible latency and no chance of a system crash.
  9. dilettante
    an amateur engaging in an activity without serious intention
    I wasn’t some dilettante.
  10. detonate
    burst as through a violent chemical or physical reaction
    The realizations continued to detonate in my brain like atomic bombs going off, one after another.
  11. contiguous
    connecting without a break
    A single contiguous continent covered the surface.
  12. wreak
    cause to happen or to occur as a consequence
    There’s also a winged pterodactyl that appears once in a while to wreak havoc.
  13. asinine
    devoid of intelligence
    He used to challenge me to a game whenever he wanted to settle an argument or some asinine pop-culture dispute.
  14. rictus
    a gaping grimace
    “One game down, Parzival,” he said, flashing a rictus grin.
  15. axiom
    a saying that is widely accepted on its own merits
    This was an axiom in videogames, and would be until humans invented true artificial intelligence.
Created on Thu Feb 08 13:41:13 EST 2018 (updated Thu Aug 07 16:33:52 EDT 2025)

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.