“The Most Dangerous Game” Vocabulary Words
Survival Unit
Sweiss, Literature
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1. Palpable
2. Cannibal
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When the Twin Towers collapsed, the sense of sadness was
so great, it was palpable.
X-rays indicated that it was a tumor, and a palpable one, too,
one that doctors could easily operate on.
Ricky regaled the class with a story that was so palpable that
we felt we were in the story ourselves!
The friendship between George and Lennie in Of Mice and
Men was so palpable that readers could easily relate to that
friendship.
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After being stranded on the island, the survivors resorted to
cannibalism and ate the flesh of those who did not survive
the plane crash.
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3. Dread
4. Indolent
Some people dread speaking in front of large crowds, while
others dread a mother’s disapproving countenance after a
parent phone call for bad behavior.
The dread I feel when walking through an empty dark street
is the reason I carry pepper spray on me!
The dread of the old man in “The Tell-Tale Heart” was so
palpable that he jumped in the night, shrieking “who’s
there?”
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It can take an indolent teenager hours to get out of bed on a
weekend morning. Often it is noon before he finally comes
shuffling down to breakfast in his pajamas.
Miss Sweiss likes for us to be studious, not indolent!
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5. Recede
6. Doggedly
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Flood waters recede, as do glaciers, and even abstractions
like "panic" and "hope." Think "receding hairline." (That
means bald.)
The Great Depression was a period of economic recession.
The crowd was forced to recede by security because they
were getting to close to the pop star.
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If your dog ran away, you might doggedly pursue him across
the park, down the road, and through the woods.
We doggedly ran that marathon!
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7. Anguish
8. Opaque
A trip to the dentist might cause a cavity-prone person a lot
of anguish. The animals that belonged to the narrator in
Poe’s “The Black Cat” felt anguish when he came home
intoxicated.
The anguish I felt over the loss of my friend was immense.
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The heavy curtains are opaque; and therefore the room is
always pitch black.
Sometimes math becomes an opaque subject for me.
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9. Vigor
If your new puppy runs all over the house, jumps on the
furniture, and enthusiastically chews up your socks, you may
congratulate yourself on your new pup's vigor.
My teacher teaches with such vigor that it is impossible to fall
asleep in her class.
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10. Floundered
11. Lacerate
12. Quarry
13. Chateau
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A flounder is a flat fish with both eyes on one side of its head;
and, as a verb, to flounder is to wobble around like a fish out
of water.
I floundered on the MAP test because I got weary testing all
day long.
I floundered climbing up the mountain.
If you flounder in the ocean, you need a surfer dude to help
you out.
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So the envelope that gave you that nasty paper cut? It
lacerated your finger.
Watch out for sharp-tongued people hurling hateful words
your way; those snide remarks and personal digs can lacerate
feelings like a knife slicing through butter.
The sharp glass that shattered lacerated my toe.
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Both meanings of quarry have to do with going after
something. An animal being hunted is called quarry, and
when you dig a hole in the earth looking for rocks, both the
digging and the hole are called quarry as well.
After our hunt in the wilderness, we cooked the quarry that
we hunted.
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King Louis IVX lived in a most luxurious chateau.
In “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar A. Poe, Prince
Prospero lived in a chateau to escape the pestilence of the
Red Death.
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14. Mirage
15. Affable
16. Ardent
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Next time you’re traveling in the desert, make sure you carry
plenty of water. That enticing pool of water you see far away
in the distance may be a mirage.
Even if you don’t spend much time in the desert, you may
have noticed this phenomenon when driving on the highway
on a hot day. Under certain conditions you can see in the
distance what appears to be a puddle of water across the
road. You’ll never reach the puddle, however: it’s just a
mirage.
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An affable host offers you something to drink and makes you
feel at home.
Teachers and doctors tend to be affable people, always
smiling.
If you’re stuck on an airplane next to someone affable, the
trip won’t be so bad because that person will be easy to chat
with but won’t talk your ear off
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A pop star's ardent admirers might go so crazy at his concert
that they faint from excitement.
My teacher’s ardent love for Edgar A. Poe is very apparent.
All the ardent supporters of Lady Gaga are called Little
Monsters.
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17. Bewilder
The complicated math problem bewildered the student.
I was bewildered when I heard the student talking to
himself, but I guess the other students perceived that as
normal.
The twists and turns in the maze bewildered us.
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Your best attribute might be your willingness to help
others, like when you stopped traffic so the duck family
could cross the street.
The attributes which she possesses include kindness and
ambition.
I attributed your high test scores to your awesome teacher
along with students’ willingness to do well 
He attributed his failing grade to the fact that he never
completed his homework.
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Religious people thank their god for his providence.
The word provide is a good clue to this word's meaning:
when a religious being is said to give people providence,
he's taking care of them — providing for them. For
religious people, any good thing that happens to them —
like landing a new job, getting healthy, or finding money
on the ground — could be considered an example of
providence.
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18. Attribute
19. Providence
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20. Elude
"Tom eluded his captors by hiding under a table.
In a game of chess, you must elude the Queen because she
has greatest power.
Prince Prospero thought to elude the Red Death by hiding in
a bolted castle.
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An opiate is a drug such as morphine or heroin that is derived
from opium.
Karl Marx famously said that religion was the opiate of the
masses, which means he thought that it was religion that
prevented working-class people from rising up against their
leaders. Today, you might say that television has replaced
religion as a mass opiate.
For some people, working long hours is an opiate, a
distraction from problems at home.
Reading is my opiate!
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Chess is a very intricate game that you could study your
entire life and still not know everything about. On the other
hand, a game like Connect Four is not very intricate.
My wedding dress was so intricate that you needed to be up
close to see the beading, lace, and other details.
A 2000-step plan is intricate; it's harder to wrap your head
around.
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I love to relax by the placid waters of the beach. Some
people have the patience of a saint; they are so placid even
under extremely stressful situations.
We live in a very placid neighborhood; there are no children,
just the elderly.
If you are going to work with children, it is integral that you
have a placid disposition.
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21. Opiate
22. Intricate
23. Placid
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