Grade 11-12: Vocabulary Lesson for Wednesday, Week 11

Word List 11

1. abhor: to regard with horror or loathing; detest
2. acrimonious: bitter and sharp in language or tone; rancorous
3. adamant: impervious to pleas, appeals, or reason; stubbornly unyielding
4. ambiguous: open to more than one interpretation; doubtful or uncertain
5. arduous: demanding great effort or labor; difficult; testing severely the powers of endurance; strenuous
6. austere: severe or stern in disposition or appearance; somber and grave; strict or severe in discipline; ascetic; having no adornment or ornamentation; bare
7. ascertain: to discover with certainty, as through examination or experimentation

Wednesday Activities

1. Mind Mapping Tool - Go to the website and click on play for instructions. Create a mind map with your vocabulary words. Print it out and put it in your vocabulary notebook.
2. Mind Games - Create a mind map with words that mean the opposite or antonyms. Use the thesaurus built into your word program to find more words that are antonyms. Or you can go to this on-line thesaurus. Click on the button in front of Thesaurus at the top of the page, then type your word into the white area.
3. Copy your word list that you created yesterday and paste them in this link. See if you can state the definnition in a given period of time.

Other Help

If you need more information on your words, click on the link to use a on-line dictionary.

Use the daily activities to help you remember words that you learn each week. It is much easier to remember what the words mean if you do something with them and use them frequently in talking with your parents, family and friends.

Sample sentences:

"We abhor bullying," the headmaster told the class assembly, "and we shall not allow it to mar our school.^
"Do your own work," the professor told us, "I absolutely abhor cheating and will not allow it in my classroom.^

The acrimonious debate seemed to damage the entire political process.
Playing the role of peacekeeper, the chairman did his best to defuse an acrimonious situation.

The judge was adamant; no amount of argument was going to persuade him to resign.
The president was adamant and refused to change his schedule in the face of terrorist threats.

Since he was unsure of himself, the young lieutenant always gave ambiguous orders.
"Rosebud," the famous ending written by Orson Welles remains ambiguous to this day.

Yes, an AP course is arduous, but the effort will be well worth it when you reach college.
Arduous training is required before one becomes a Navy Seal.

The small number of men who have walked the moon's surface all describe it as having austere beauty
Grim and austere on the outside, we soon discovered that our teacher had a heart of gold on the inside.

I relaxed, confident that the famous detective would soon ascertain my innocence.
Some things are so ambiguous that it will probably impossible to ever ascertain their true meaning.

 
 

For more vocabulary, reading and other language arts resources, please visit our interactive skillbuilders.