It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime: Part II

by Trevor Noah
In this adaptation of Born a Crime for young readers, Trevor Noah recounts his childhood in apartheid-era South Africa.

Here are links to our lists for the memoir: Part I: Preface–Chapter 4, Part I: Chapters 5–8, Part II, Part III

Here is a link to our lists for the original edition of Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.
15 words 1337 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. lineage
    the kinship relation between an individual and progenitors
    If they trace their lineage back far enough, at a certain point it splits into white and native and a tangled web of "other."
  2. affinity
    a natural attraction or feeling of kinship
    Since their native mothers are gone, their strongest affinity has always been with their white fathers, the Afrikaners.
  3. assimilate
    become like one's environment
    People are willing to accept you if they see you as an outsider trying to assimilate into their world.
  4. disavow
    refuse to acknowledge
    But when they see you as a fellow tribe member attempting to disavow the tribe, that is something they will never forgive.
  5. barrage
    an overwhelming or vigorous outpouring
    I tried to cover my face with my hands, but there was a barrage coming at me from all sides.
  6. deliberate
    unhurried and with care and dignity
    He sat there on the couch listening to me, not saying a word. Then, very calm and deliberate, he stood up.
  7. gradient
    the property of a line that departs from the horizontal
    She was the master of coasting. She knew every downhill between work and school, between school and home. She knew exactly where the gradient shifted to put it into neutral.
  8. gridlock
    a traffic jam so bad that no movement is possible
    If we were stuck in gridlock, my mom would turn the car off and it was my job to get out and push it forward six inches at a time.
  9. microcosm
    a miniature model of something
    Being a Model C school and not a government school, Sandringham drew kids from all over, making it a near-perfect microcosm of postapartheid South Africa as a whole — a perfect example of what South Africa has the potential to be.
  10. niche
    a position well suited to the person who occupies it
    Every day I’d take orders, assembly would end, and I’d make my mad dash and buy everybody’s hot dogs and Cokes and muffins. If you paid me extra you could even tell me where you’d be and I’d deliver it to you.
    I’d found my niche.
  11. reprisal
    a retaliatory action against an enemy
    The white neighborhoods of Johannesburg were built on white fear — fear of black crime, fear of black uprisings and reprisals — and as a result virtually every house sits behind a six-foot wall, and on top of that wall is electric wire.
  12. ostracize
    expel from a community or group
    Most people were forced to learn at least some Afrikaans, so it’s useful to keep that, too. Plus we didn't want the white minority to feel ostracized in the new South Africa, or else they'd take all their money and leave.
  13. gist
    the choicest or most vital part of some idea or experience
    You'll be at a party with a dozen people where bits of conversation are flying by in two or three different languages. You'll miss part of it, someone might translate on the fly to give you the gist, you pick up the rest from the context, and you just figure it out.
  14. scrimp
    be very thrifty or frugal
    I’d scrimped and saved my tuckshop money and my CD money to buy them.
  15. mortified
    made to feel uncomfortable because of shame or wounded pride
    I was mortified. I’d spent four years of high school carefully avoiding any kind of romantic humiliation whatsoever, and now, on the night of the matric dance, the night of all nights, my humiliation had turned into a circus bigger than the event itself.
Created on Thu May 23 18:31:32 EDT 2019 (updated Thu Jun 26 15:43:05 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.