WORD LISTS

"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card, Chapters 9–10

Wed May 08 14:43:08 EDT 2019
By Cynthia (CA)
Ender Wiggin is a brilliant but lonely young strategist in a world where children are trained to defend humankind against alien attacks. Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–6, Chapters 7–8, Chapters 9–10, Chapters 11–13, Chapters 14–15
puerile
Yet at school he acted as though he were excited about the puerile lesson of the day.
collation
Oh, wow, I never knew that frogs looked like this inside, he’d say, and then at home he studied the binding of cells into organisms through the philotic collation of DNA.
castrate
“I’ve been thinking of castrating you in your sleep.”
sift
They had become quite deft at sifting accurate information out of the stories of the hopelessly ignorant, gullible news writers.
facade
The facade of peace and cooperation had been undisturbed almost since the bugger wars began.
flux
This is what historians usually do, quibble about cause and effect when the point is, there are times when the world is in flux and the right voice in the right place can move the world.
nonchalance
She pretended nonchalance, but she listened eagerly.
pseudonym
They were obvious pseudonyms, but that was part of the plan.
invective
His answer would be intelligent, and the debate would be lively, lots of clever invective and good political rhetoric.
rhetoric
His answer would be intelligent, and the debate would be lively, lots of clever invective and good political rhetoric.
alliteration
Valentine had a knack for alliteration that made her phrases memorable.
interpose
Sometimes a few other netters would interpose comments, but Peter and Val would usually ignore them or change their own comments only slightly to accommodate what had been said.
empathy
By having her write Demosthenes, it meant he also had some empathy, just as Locke also could play on others’ fears.
inextricable
But the main effect was to keep her inextricably tied to Peter.
deference
He had the respect of everyone, and he was treated with deference in his evening practices.
camaraderie
He watched the camaraderie of old friends who had known each other in the Battle School for years, who talked and laughed about old battles and long-graduated soldiers and commanders.
incognito
What worried her most was the comment of an Englishman: “Whether he likes it or not, Demosthenes cannot remain incognito forever.
discreet
The soldiers followed at a discreet distance; they split up and formed a large circle, to guard them from the widest possible perimeter.
megalomania
But they might well decide he was insane and needed treatment for his megalomania.
sequester
If we can’t solve it this way, then we’ll sequester your family and do as we like from then on.
acquiescence
His acquiescence calmed her.
epithet
The spelling of psychoanalyze, the epithet slumbitch for Peter, the joke about pronouncing knew like canoe were all things that no one could know but Val.
pastoral
Only when he coasted on the cloud, skimming over the autumnal colors of the pastoral world, only then did he realize what he hated most about Val’s letter.
archaic
Or are you in an archaic mood?’
arcane
“Not archaic, just arcane.
fleet
“The player’s deaths have always been sickening, I’ve always thought the Giant’s Drink was the most perverted part of the whole mind game, but going for the eye like that—this is the one we want to put in command of our fleet?”
grace
Alai saw the tears but had the grace not to say so.
desiccated
What could be torn by the small scavengers was torn; the maggots had done their work on the organs; now it was a desiccated mummy, hollowed-out, teeth in a rigid grin, eyes empty, fingers curled.
malicious
Ender remembered burrowing through the eye when it had been alive and malicious and intelligent.
apex
He could sit on the see-saw until he rose to the apex; then he fell.
centrifugal
When the merry-go-round went fast, he could not hold onto any of the bars, and centrifugal force hurled him off.
raucous
And the other children: their laughter was raucous, offensive.
dispatch
The children were easily dispatched, though they began following him in twos and threes at the end.
polyglot
“No, just a brilliant and talented polyglot.
sullen
There were other boys near him, tired-looking boys, sullen, the ones least valued.
contemptuous
When she said little boy it sounded friendly, not contemptuous.
initiative
Also, the individual soldiers were given little initiative.
gall
Galling, and yet he had no choice.
magnanimous
Still, he would only know that Ender had beaten him, and then rubbed his nose in it by being magnanimous.
muster
Ender noted with pleasure that Condor could only muster the minimal five soldiers necessary to open the gate to victory.
stolid
He kept his soldiers moving, darting from star to star, wallsliding to get behind and above the stolid Salamanders.
carnage
Though they were still fairly evenly matched with the enemy, they huddled together like the last survivors of a massacre, as if they hoped the enemy would overlook them in the carnage.
hegemony
So trust me now, Anderson, and don’t bring the whole damn Hegemony down on my neck.
forestall
He mocked himself to forestall the mocking comments of anti-semites—almost everyone he defeated in battle became, at least for a time, a Jew-hater—but he also made sure everyone knew what he was.
vigor
Dink trained his toon independently from the rest of Rat Army, with discipline and vigor; he never consulted with Rose, and only rarely did the whole army maneuver together.
contingent
“The direction I fire my gun is the direction of their main contingent.”
insubordination
There was no more talk about insubordination and whether Ender could use his desk.
ostentatious
They ostentatiously took down names.
haphazardly
But the enemy was coming haphazardly, uncoordinatedly; they had never worked together before...
wither
Only the crest of the Giant’s face was still visible, and it was white bone, like limestone protruding from a discouraged, withering mountain.

Word List Actions:

Create a new Word List