10th Grade Recommended Reading List: "The Briefcase" by Rebecca Makkai

Explore this curated collection of vocabulary lists for books that are frequently assigned by educators in Grade 10.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. inversion
    the act of turning inside out
    These addresses of friends; this card of identification; this riddle about the inversion of the universe.
  2. equidistant
    exactly as far from one point as from another
    He wrote in his small notebook: “The light of my cigarette is a fire like the sun. From where I sit, all the universe is equidistant from my cigarette. Ergo, my cigarette is the center of the universe. My cigarette is on Earth. Ergo, the Earth is the center of the universe. If all heavenly bodies move, they must therefore move in relation to the Earth, and in relation to my cigarette.”
  3. ergo
    (used as a sentence connector) therefore or consequently
    He wrote in his small notebook: “The light of my cigarette is a fire like the sun. From where I sit, all the universe is equidistant from my cigarette. Ergo, my cigarette is the center of the universe. My cigarette is on Earth. Ergo, the Earth is the center of the universe. If all heavenly bodies move, they must therefore move in relation to the Earth, and in relation to my cigarette.”
  4. transpire
    come about, happen, or occur
    What exactly had transpired?
  5. dispatch
    an official report, usually sent in haste
    Staining his fingers in cheap black ink were the signal fires of the world, the distress sirens, the dispatches from the trenches and hospitals and abattoirs of the war; but here, on the wall, a sign from another world.
  6. abattoir
    a building where animals are butchered
    Staining his fingers in cheap black ink were the signal fires of the world, the distress sirens, the dispatches from the trenches and hospitals and abattoirs of the war; but here, on the wall, a sign from another world.
  7. unfathomable
    impossible to come to understand
    And here, a clue, perfect and round and unfathomable.
  8. usurp
    take the place of
    This city will leave its spot, and the city to the west will usurp its place.
  9. rite
    an established ceremony prescribed by a religion
    Hence the Aztec sacrifices, the ancient rites of the eclipse.
  10. flagrant
    conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible
    Whereas: If it is we who turn, how can we so flagrantly leave behind that which has warmed us and given us light?
  11. havoc
    violent and needless disturbance
    He has the papers, after all—and in the havoc of war, what else will they have
    the time to look for?
  12. denounce
    accuse or condemn openly as disgraceful
    The witnesses who would denounce him are mostly gone or killed, and the others would fear to come before the law.
Created on Tue Jun 16 07:59:33 EDT 2020 (updated Wed Jul 01 07:18:20 EDT 2020)

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