The Moon Within: List 1

by Aida Salazar
Eleven-year-old Celi faces the challenges of growing up, including crushes, changing relationships with friends, and honoring her family obligations and heritage.

This list covers "New Moon."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3
25 words 204 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. delirious
    experiencing hallucinations
    Maybe she’ll just think I’m
    delirious and say,
    Celi, are you running a fever?
    while she kisses my forehead.
  2. sliver
    a small thin sharp bit of wood, glass, or metal
    I watch her light up a sliver of dust
    in my room.
  3. improvise
    perform without preparation
    I try to memorize their choreography
    to use during bomba dance class
    when Magda drums for me
    and I am free to improvise
    bring my own moves.
  4. conquest
    the act of defeating and taking control of
    It is a ritual taken away from us
    during so many conquests.
  5. gnarled
    old and twisted and covered in lines
    But they are
    little nubs at my fingertips
    small, gnarled, and crusty.
  6. contort
    twist and press out of shape
    I contort into a pretzel
    inside that
    shrinking
    closet
  7. sear
    become superficially burned (also figurative)
    Mima’s high pitch sears my ears.
  8. bleat
    the sound of sheep or goats (or any sound resembling this)
    Juju cracks up
    lets out his annoyingly loud goat bleat
  9. conservatory
    a schoolhouse with special facilities for fine arts
    After school, I walk seven steps ahead of Mima and Juju
    to my ballet class at the Oakland Ballet Conservatory
  10. unfurl
    unroll, unfold, or spread out
    the sun sets brightly in this almost summer
    it unfurls an orange-gray glaze over the city.
  11. sprawl
    go, come, or spread in a rambling or irregular way
    He seems to be getting to the other
    side of growing up with that crackle in his voice
    and the bumps sprawled on his forehead.
  12. auburn
    (of hair) colored a moderate reddish-brown
    Auburn-haired Aurora says,
    You can't really be in the girls' bathroom.
  13. tincture
    a medicine consisting of an extract in an alcohol solution
    I watch Mima make tinctures
    strong teas, and salves
    for friends and clients who are sick.
  14. salve
    a preparation applied externally as a soothing remedy
    I watch Mima make tinctures
    strong teas, and salves
    for friends and clients who are sick.
  15. wane
    decrease in phase
    Luna wanes.
  16. pirouette
    rapidly spin the body, usually as part of a dance
    As I watch them pirouette
    I can hear Mima and Papi
    speaking in the dining room
    outside our bedroom.
  17. ignorance
    the lack of knowledge or education
    I'll be damned if MY daughter comes into her womanhood in ignorance of her body and her connection to the universe.
  18. brittle
    having little elasticity
    He came the night of a big storm
    so tiny he looked brittle
    and was sort of ugly.
  19. holistic
    emphasizing the organic relation between parts and the whole
    Teresa’s a chiropractor
    easy harmony with herbalist Mima.
    They reconnected when they went for
    their doctorate degrees at NCHU—
    Northern California Holistic University
  20. zany
    ludicrous or foolish
    I don’t bring up my worry about
    Mima’s crazy moon ceremony idea
    which is Teresa’s same zany hope for Magda.
  21. frilly
    having decorative ruffles or similar ornamentation
    A girl not interested
    in frilly dresses
    nor makeup messes
    but warm and kind
    and funny and smart.
  22. raspy
    unpleasantly harsh or grating in sound
    the way he talks in a raspy voice
    like he’s about to get laryngitis
  23. laryngitis
    an inflammation characterized by hoarseness or loss of voice
    the way he talks in a raspy voice
    like he’s about to get laryngitis
  24. corduroys
    trousers made of cotton fabric with vertical ribs
    how he wears his jerseys not too tight
    and corduroys with a slight sag
  25. remnant
    a small part remaining after the main part no longer exists
    I look up behind Magda
    to see nothing
    but the
    remnants of a shadow.
Created on Wed Mar 31 14:33:54 EDT 2021 (updated Thu Apr 01 16:01:15 EDT 2021)

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.