A Wrinkle in Time: Chapters 10-12

by Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle's classic novel details the adventures of the precocious Murry children as they travel across space and time to track down their missing father.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1-3, Chapters 4-6, Chapters 7-9, Chapters 10-12
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. atrophied
    diminished in size or strength from disease or injury
    No mind has tried to hold out against IT for so many thousands of centuries that certain centers have become soft and atrophied through lack of use.
  2. imperceptible
    impossible or difficult to sense
    In contrast to the drabness of color, to the cold that numbed her, the air was filled with a delicate, springlike fragrance, almost imperceptible as it blew softly against her face.
  3. corrosive
    capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action
    Disappointment was as dark and corrosive in her as the Black Thing.
  4. omnipotent
    having unlimited power
    She was frozen, and Charles Wallace was being devoured by IT, and her omnipotent father was doing nothing.
  5. fallible
    likely to fail or make errors
    I am a human being, and a very fallible one.
  6. assuage
    provide physical relief, as from pain
    But with the tentacle came the same delicate fragrance that moved across her with the breeze, and she felt a soft, tingling warmth go all through her that momentarily assuaged her pain.
  7. trepidation
    a feeling of alarm or dread
    The middle beast, a tremor of trepidation in his words, said, “You aren’t from a dark planet, are you?”
  8. relinquish
    release, as from one's grip
    The Black Thing does not relinquish its victims willingly.
  9. oppressive
    weighing heavily on the senses or spirit
    Nevertheless there was a sense of openness, a feel of a gentle breeze moving lightly about, that kept the darkness from being oppressive.
  10. despondency
    feeling downcast and disheartened and hopeless
    Such a wave of despondency came over Meg that she was no longer able to eat.
  11. distraught
    deeply agitated especially from emotion
    “The child is distraught. Don’t judge her harshly. She was almost taken by the Black Thing. Sometimes we can’t know what spiritual damage it leaves even when physical recovery is complete.”
  12. appalling
    causing shock, dismay, or horror
    For an appalling moment Meg believed, and in that moment she felt her brain being gathered up into IT.
  13. unadulterated
    without qualification
    No, it was not anger, it was loathing; it was hatred, sheer and unadulterated, and as she became lost in hatred she also began to be lost in IT.
  14. vulnerable
    susceptible to attack
    Her own Charles Wallace, the real Charles Wallace, the child for whom she had come back to Camazotz, to IT, the baby who was so much more than she was, and who was yet so utterly vulnerable.
  15. exuberance
    joyful enthusiasm
    He dashed across the lawn to join in the joy, and almost knocked them all over with the exuberance of his greeting.
Created on Mon Aug 19 20:25:31 EDT 2013 (updated Wed Jul 23 18:49:52 EDT 2025)

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