Grade 11-12: Vocabulary Lesson for Monday, Week 5

Word List 5

1. omnipotent: having unlimited or universal power, authority or force; all-powerful
2. metamorphosis: a transformation as if by magic or sorcery; a marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function.
3. acumen: quickness, accuracy, and keenness of judgment or insight.
4. obsequious: full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning
5. plagiarize: to use, and pass off, the writing and ideas of another as one's own
6. quasar: an extremely distant, and thus old, celestial object whose power output is several thousand times that of our entire galaxy
7. lexicon: a vocabulary; a dictionary; a stock of terms used in a particular profession or subject

Monday Activities

1. On Week One, we suggested you purchase a notebook. You will be keeping your weekly words, definitions and assignments in this notebook.
2. Write the words and definitions in your vocabulary notebook.
3. Create your own sentence using each word and write this in your vocabulary notebook. We have provided samples below to get you started.

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:

A dark theme of science fiction features omnipotent machines which dominate mankind.
Many religions of the world pray to an omnipotent god.

At our ten year reunion I was amazed at the metamorphosis that had changed my old girlfriend into the hit of the party.
The audience screamed in terror at the frightening metamorphosis unfolding on the huge screen.

Thanks to his remarkable business acumen the trust fund manager retired as a wealthy man.
The Captain's tactical acumen brought a quick win for the football team.

The CEO was looking for a yes-man, someone to give him obsequious service.
I had thought of not leaving a tip but the obsequious nature of our waiter's service quickly banished that thought.

Lazy or uncreative writers often plagiarize the work of others.
"Plagiarize," my thesis adviser told me, "and any credibility you might have built up, goes right out the window.^

Astronomers once called very bright distant objects quasi-stellar objects; a name which has been shortened to quasar.
Astronomers say that looking at quasars is like looking back in time; very far back in time.

The lexicon for soccer is radically different from the descriptive terms used in American football.
Espionage agents often adopt a lexicon quite different from their native language.

 
 

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