The Road: Pages 3–37

by Cormac McCarthy
In this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, a man and a boy struggle for survival in a desolate, post-apocalyptic landscape.

This list covers pages 3–37 of the 2006 Vintage International edition.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4

Here is a link to our lists for All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy.
15 words 2272 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. congeal
    solidify, thicken, or come together
    Then he just sat there holding the binoculars and watching the ashen daylight congeal over the land.
  2. serpentine
    resembling a snake in form
    The road was empty. Below in the little valley the still gray serpentine of a river. Motionless and precise.
  3. ratchet
    device consisting of a toothed wheel moving in one direction
    He went through the drawers but there was nothing there that he could use. Good half-inch drive sockets. A ratchet.
  4. mote
    a tiny piece of anything
    The lamp in the rocks on the side of the hill was little more than a mote of light and after a while they walked back.
  5. thespian
    a theatrical performer
    His face in the small light streaked with black from the rain like some old world thespian.
  6. temporal
    of this earth or world
    The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void.
  7. cauterize
    burn, sear, or freeze using a hot iron or electric current
    They were days fording that cauterized terrain.
  8. marauder
    someone who attacks in search of loot
    No one traveled this road. No road-agents, no marauders.
  9. languor
    a feeling of lack of interest or energy
    He said the right dreams for a man in peril were dreams of peril and all else was the call of languor and of death.
  10. uncanny
    suggesting the operation of supernatural influences
    Lying there in the dark with the uncanny taste of a peach from some phantom orchard fading in his mouth.
  11. sconce
    a decorative wall bracket for holding candles or lights
    Gold scrollwork and sconces and the tall columnar folds of the drapes at either side of the stage.
  12. effigy
    a representation of a person
    In the produce section in the bottom of the bins they found a few ancient runner beans and what looked to have once been apricots, long dried to wrinkled effigies of themselves.
  13. gable
    the triangular wall between the sloping ends of a roof
    The day following some few miles south of the city at a bend in the road and half lost in the dead brambles they came upon an old frame house with chimneys and gables and a stone wall.
  14. litany
    a prayer consisting of a series of invocations by the priest with responses from the congregation
    The color of it moved something in him long forgotten. Make a list. Recite a litany. Remember.
  15. immolate
    kill as a sacrifice, especially by fire
    People sitting on the sidewalk in the dawn half immolate and smoking in their clothes. Like failed sectarian suicides.
Created on Tue Aug 07 10:20:37 EDT 2018 (updated Wed Aug 06 11:32:16 EDT 2025)

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