100 Words That All High School Graduates � And Their Parents

							Semester 2 Vocabulary Assignment                                    AP English 11 Fitzgerald


Attached is a handout titled 100 Words That All High School Graduates Should Know.
The editors of the American Heritage dictionaries have compiled the list as words that
will provide “a superior command of the language.” Most of these words, with a few
added or replaced, are from that list.

Each week, on Friday, you will complete the assignment below for 10 words on the list.
That assignment will be randomly collected as a graded assignment, so have that week’s
complete assignment with you each Friday. Also once each week, likely on Mondays, we
will have a vocabulary quiz over those words, and any words that came before that
week’s list. You should be memorizing these words and adding them to your regular
reading, speaking, and writing vocabularies.

The Particulars
Each week, for a set of 10 words:

You will write (neatly, in black or blue ink) or type:
    The word, including its part of speech
    Its definition, which you should make as brief though accurate as possible
    Four sentences using the word properly
    A list of 3 to 5 synonyms for the word.

Example ~

1) Ameliorate (verb)
To make or become better; improve; lessen

1. John expected to ameliorate the situation by bringing Suzy flowers, but she only got
angrier.
2. When nations get involved in another country’s unrest, they hope to ameliorate the
tensions, but often make things worse.
3. When the restaurant offered Martha a free meal, it simply did not ameliorate her
disgust at having found a worm in her sandwich.
4. Good faith efforts at peer mediation can ameliorate conflicts among fighting student
groups.

Synonyms: Amend, improve, repair, fix, rectify

YOUR ASSIGNMENT EACH WEEK SHOULD LOOK EXACTLY AS THE
EXAMPLE ABOVE LOOKS (without the box). PLEASE DO NOT USE
INORDINATELY LARGE TYPE, PLEASE BOLD FACE AND NUMBER THE NEW
WORD, PLEASE NUMBER YOUR EXAMPLES, PLEASE UNDERLINE
“SYNONYMS.” IT SHOULD BE A MIRROR IMAGE OF THE EXAMPLE!!
Notes: If there are multiple definitions for a given word, talk with your peers, your
parents, etc., to decide upon the most common usage or couple of usages for that word. A
few words here may simply have no synonym. In those cases, after typing “Synonym,”
write: None.

100 Words That All High School Graduates Should Know
The editors of the American Heritage dictionaries have compiled a list of 100
words they recommend every high school graduate should know, in order to
have “a superior command of the language.” Most of those words are below,
with a few added or replaced.

WEEK ONE
                               daunting                        feckless
aberration
                               dearth
abhor                          deciduous                       WEEK FOUR

abrogate                       deleterious                     fiduciary

abstemious                     denigrate                       filibuster

acumen                         diffident                       gauche

auspicious                                                     gerrymander
                               WEEK THREE
behemoth                                                       grievous
                               enervate
belie                                                          harangue
                               egregious
bellicose                                                      haughty
                               epiphany
callous                                                        hegemony
                               emulate
                                                               homogeneous
WEEK TWO                       enmity
                                                               hubris
chicanery                      evanescent

chide                          expurgate                       WEEK FIVE

churlish                       facetious                       idiosyncratic

circumlocution                 fatuous                         impeach
incognito          nonsectarian   sanguine

incontrovertible   obfuscate      soliloquy

inculcate          obsequious     subjugate

infrastructure     omnipotent     sublime

irony              onerous        supercilious

judicious          oxidize        tautology

kinetic            paradigm       taxonomy

kowtow             paragon        temerity

                   pejorative     tempestuous
WEEK SIX
                                  totalitarian
laudatory          WEEK EIGHT

lexicon            perfunctory    WEEK TEN

loquacious         plasma         unctuous

lugubrious         plethora       usurp

magnanimous        precipitous    vacuous

metamorphosis      quandary       vehement

moiety             quotidian      vortex

nanotechnology     rancor         winnow

nebulous           reciprocal     wrought

nihilism           rectitude      xenophobe

                   respiration    yoke
WEEK SEVEN
                                  zenith
nomenclature       WEEK NINE