Transcript Speak Vocabulary

SPEAK
BY LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON
Vocabulary
Part I: Pages 3-46
1. Obscene: indecent, offensive
2. Idiot savants: retarded persons who exhibit genius in a
highly specialized area
3. Fascists: people who follow totalitarian dictatorship
4. Indoctrination: state of being taught a belief of principle
5. Morphing: changing, transforming
6. Drones: talks in a monotonous tone
7. Blathers: talks foolishness; speaks nonsense
8. Interim: meantime; temporary; intervening
9. Synchronized: happening at the same time
10. Floundering: struggling; proceeding in a bungling or
hesitant manner
Part II: Pages 49-137
1. Eurocentric: centered around pride in European
background or heritage
2. Patriarchs: rulers of a family
3. Xenophobic: morbidly fearful of strangers or foreign people
4. Hypothalamus: part of the brain controlling temperature,
hunger, and thirst
5. Imperial: majestic
6. Vermilion: bright red color
7. Dormant: not acting
8. Abysmal: miserable; extremely bad
9. Marsupials: animals that carry their young in a pouch
10. Conundrum: riddle
Part II: 49-137
11. vespiary: nest of social wasps
12. tenure: conditions or period of holding an office
13. dynamic: physical or moral force
14. germination: sprouting; starting to grow or
develop
15. asphyxiated: suffocated because of lack of oxygen
in the blood
Part III: 141-198
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Tenacious: persistent
Profoundly: strongly; deeply; intensely
Recessive: a less dominant characteristic
Delinquency: failure in duty or obligation
Indentured servitude: an apprentice bound to a
master because of paperwork
6. Detonate: explode
7. Dormancy: not acting
8. Shards: broken fragments
9. Muse: source of inspiration
10. Incriminate: charge with a crime