9th grade English
To Kill A Mockingbird-vocabulary
Mrs. Turpin
Name: _________________
Date: _________________
Period no: _________________
Vocabulary usage in To Kill A Mockingbird
The following worksheet assesses your prior knowledge and ability to use contextual clues.
Following are sentences in which vocabulary words appear in the text. Use any clues you can to
find in the sentence, combined with your prior knowledge, to write what you believe the
underlined word means in the space provided.
Part I: Prior knowledge and context clues
1. The fact that I had a fiancé was little compensation for his absence … (Lee 116).
In the sentence, compensation means:
2. In addition to Jem’s newly developed characteristics, he had acquired a maddening air of
wisdom (Lee 116).
In the sentence, acquired means:
3. I never understood her preoccupation with heredity (Lee 130).
In the sentence, preoccupation means:
4. Atticus looked pensive.
In the sentence, pensive means:
5. After many telephone calls, much pleading on behalf of the defendant, and a long
forgiving letter from his mother, it was decided that Dill could stay (Lee 144).
In the sentence, defendant means:
6. He was sitting in one of his office chairs, and he was reading, oblivious of the nightbugs
dancing over his head (Lee 151).
In this sentence, oblivious means:
7. We were accustomed to prompt, if not always cheerful acquiescence to Atticus’s
instructions, but from the way he stood Jem was not thinking of budging (Lee 152).
In this sentence, acquiescence means:
8. “…he gave the impression of dozing, an impression dispelled forever when a lawyer once
deliberately pushed a pile of books to the floor in a desperate effort to wake him up (Lee
165)”.
In this sentence, dispelled means:
9. Atticus was proceeding amiably, as if he were involved in a title dispute (Lee 169).
In this sentence, amiably means:
9th grade English
Name: _________________
To Kill A Mockingbird-vocabulary
Date: _________________
Mrs. Turpin
Period no: _________________
10. Mr. Ewell wrote on the back of the envelope and looked up complacently to see Judge
Taylor staring at him as if he were some fragrant gardenia in full bloom on the witness
stand … (Lee 177).
In this sentence, complacently means:
Part II: Determining the Meaning
In this section, you’ll match the vocabulary word to its dictionary definition. If there are
words for which you cannot figure out the definition by contextual clues and by process of
elimination (POE), then look them up in a dictionary.
___ 1. compensation
A. good-naturedly; cordially
___ 2. acquired
B. person against whom an action is brought
___ 3. preoccupation
C. something given or received as substitution or payment
___ 4. pensive
D. thoughtful
___ 5. defendant
E. done away with
___ 6. oblivious
F. passive agreement
___ 7. acquiescence
G. unaware
___ 8. dispelled
H. obtained
___ 9. amiably
I. the absorption of the attention or intellect
___ 10. complacently
J. to envy the possession or enjoyment of
K. in a self-satisfied manner
Part III: Usage
Use all the vocabulary words on this sheet in original sentences that reflect your
understanding of the words.