Into the Wild
Vocabulary
Directions —
As you read the quote from Into
the Wild and the additional
sentence (if provided), write down
what you believe is the correct
definition. Use context clues, the
terms and definitions that you’ve
received (do not use the
handout), and the image to help
you determine the meaning.
unsullied: unblemished; faultless
 "Alaska has long been a
magnet for dreamers and
misfits, people who think the
unsullied enormity of the Last
Frontier will patch all of the
holes in their lives" (4).
 On our vacation, we went to
an isolated island that was
unsullied by tourist attractions.
congenial: pleasant because of a personality,
qualities, or interests that are similar to one's own;
amiable
 “The more they talked, the less
Alex struck Gallien as a
nutcase. He was congenial
and seemed well educated.
 While Hank’s team acts
congenial after a win, they
secretly wish that they could
rub it in the other team’s face.
incongruously: lacking in harmony,
compatibility or appropriateness; unsuitably
 “A vintage International
Harvester from the 1940’s, the
derelict vehicle is located
twenty-five miles west of Healy
as the raven flies, rusting
incongruously in the fireweed
beside the Stampede, just
beyond the boundary of
Denali National Park” (10),
 Barbara told stories
incongruously to different
friends who consequently
found out and would never
trust her again.
contumacious: rebellious; stubbornly or
willfully disobedient to authority
 “The prospect of fording this lattecolored torrent discourages most
people from traveling any farther.
Thompson, Samel, and Swanson,
however, are contumacious
Alaskans with a special fondess
for driving where motor vehicles
aren’t designed to be driven” (11)
itinerant: traveling from place to place; a
person who travels from place to place
 “The Slabs functions as the
seasonal capital of a teeming
itinerant society—a tolerant,
rubber-tired culture
comprising the retired, the
exiled, the destitute, the
perpetually unemployed” (43).
 Because the traveling
salesman hated his itinerant
lifestyle, he was happy to be
nearing his age of retirement.
convivial: hospitable, welcoming, and
enjoyable
 “The living arrangements were
loose and convivial. The four
or five inhabitants took turns
cooking for one another, went
drinking together, and chased
woman together, without
success” (18).
onerous: involving an amount of effort and
difficulty that is oppressively burdensome
 “He had spent the previous
four years, as he saw it,
preparing to fulfill an absurd
and onerous duty: to
graduate college” (22).
 When Joe agreed to help his
father cut the grass, he did not
realize the chore would be so
onerous.
egress: means to go out of or leave a place
 “…water came rushing down
from the high country, he had just
enough time to gather his tent
and belongings and save them
from being swept away. There
was nowhere to move the car,
however, as the only route of
egress was now a foaming, fullblown river” (28).
indolently: showing a disposition to avoid
exertion; slothfully; lazily
 “Emasculated by dams
and diversion canals, the
lower Colorado burbles
indolently from reservoir to
reservoir through some of
the hottest, starkest country
on the continent” (32).
desiccated: dried; lacking moisture;
dehydrated
 “Away from the lakeshore the
land rises gently and then
abruptly to form the desiccated,
phantasmal badlands of AnzaBorrego” (49).
 It is possible to desiccate fruit for
storage by leaving it on trays out
in the sun.
phantasmal: ghostly; unreal; illusory
 “Away from the lakeshore the
land rises gently and then
abruptly to form the desiccated,
phantasmal badlands of AnzaBorrego” (49).
 The phantasmal aura
occasionally lures unwary
travelers to their doom.
fulminate: to issue a heated verbal
attack
"...McCandless's face
would darken with
anger and he'd
fulminate about his
parents or politicians
or the endemic
idiocy of mainstream
American life" (52).
opprobrium: harsh criticism; the public
disgrace arising from someone's shameful
conduct.
 “The article about McCandless in
Outside generated a large
volume of mail, and not a few
letters of the letters heaped
opprobrium on McCandless—and
on me, as well, the author of the
story, for glorifying what some
thought was a foolish, pointless
death” (70-71)
taciturn: reserved or uncommunicative
in speech; saying little
 "Samuel Walter McCandless,
Jr., fifty-six years old, is a
bearded taciturn man..." (103).
 By nature, Sheila is a taciturn
woman who keeps her
thoughts to herself.
gregarious: fond of company;
sociable; outgoing
 “He was intensely private but
could be convivial and
gregarious in extreme” (115).
Incorrigible- uncontrollable; incapable
of being reformed.
 “…he was no tightlipped, perpetually grim
do-gooder who frowned
on fun. To the contrary,
he enjoyed tipping a
glass now and then and
was an incorrigible ham”
(115).
Sanctimonious: making a show of being
morally superior to other people; selfrighteous
“…Chris would fixate
on his father’s own
less than sterling
behavior many years
earlier and silently
denounce him as a
sanctimonious
hypocrite” (122).
Extemporaneous- spoken or done
without preparation; impromptu
“Chris took his Datsun
on another
prolonged,
extemporaneous
road trip” (124).
Idyll- an extremely happy, peaceful, or
picturesque experience or scene
 “…the contentment that
began in mid-May
resumed and seemed to
continue through early
July. Then, in the midst of
this idyll, came the first of
two pivotal setbacks”
(168).
Moldering: slowly decaying or
disintegrating; rotting
“Immediately inside
the door is the torn
mattress, stained and
moldering, on which
McCandless expired”
(178).