Across Five Aprils Vocabulary

Vocabulary words and definitions from Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt.

See bottom of this page for the unit study which includes vocabulary words and other chapter by chapter activities.

Chapter One Vocabulary Words

• Burlap - very coarse and rough fabric, also called gunnysack
• Hoisted - lift
• Mellow - soft
• Radiance - brightness
• Reverberations - echoes, repeated ideas
• Calvinism - a Christian group that taught all things that happen are God’s will
• Vanity - pride in unimportant things, particularly one’s looks
• Apathy - lack of concern
• Somber - gloomy
• Imminence - about to happen soon
• Comeuppance - getting what you asked for
• Furor - mad excitement
• Secede - to separate
• Shiftless - lazy
• Dissipate - eliminate, get rid of
• Waver - sway between two opinions
• Covet - strong desire for something that belongs to others
• Elicit - draw out, cause
• Paternal - fatherly
• Vague - not clear
• Preoccupation - something being considered but not discussed
• Monotony - boredom from the same thing

Chapter Two Vocabulary Words

• Tremulous - timid, fearful
• Reservoir - storage place
• Vehement - angry, loud
• Din - noise
• Veer - turn
• Constrain - force
• Skirt - move along the edges
• Seething - boiling, simmering
• Wince - tense from pain

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Chapter Three Vocabulary Words

• Eloquence - fluent at formal speech
• Baser - lower
• Fiasco - total failure
• Aloofness - distance
• Blithely - cheerfully
• Wastrel - wasteful person

Chapter Four Vocabulary Words

• Mite - small amount
• Wanly - sickly, pale

Chapter Five

• Indulgence - satisfying an unnecessary want
• Appalled - overcome with dismay or disgust
• Passel - a non-specific number of miscellaneous things
• Precariously - with danger, outside of one's control
• Stoic - unemotional
• Reluctant - unwilling
• Wistfully - with longing
• Extravagance - unnecessary and expensive luxury
• Forte - a person’s particular skill or ability
• Inconspicuous - not noticeable
• Oblige - do a favor or duty
• Astute - smart
• Monotony - sameness, lack of variety that causes boredom
• Revulsion - strong feeling of dislike, repulsed
• Resonance - echo or reverbration, a sound that is held longer
• Tacit - agreement between who people who do not speak directly
• Plaintive - sad

Chapter Six Vocabulary

• Bolster - support
• Fraility - weakness
• Subtle - faint, not easy to see
• Peer - a person with the same status or position
• Optimism - a positive view of things
• Tranquil - calm and peaceful
• Dissipated - dissolved
• Curt - brief and tense
• Ominous - threatening
• Raucous - loud, rowdy
• Allay - calm, relieve
• Gullible - easily deceived
• Malice - evil intent to harm

Chapter 7

• Dispel - drive away
• Tenacious - persistent, not giving up
• Wary - guarded, careful
• Immunity - protection, exemption from something
• Accomplice - someone who helps another secretly, often in a crime or joke
• Embellish - enhance, add to
• Inept - incapable, incompetent
• Ineffectual - ineffective, not capable
• Essence - important part of a thing

Chapter 8

• Inevitably - unable to be avoided
• Exasperation - extreme annoyance
• Contradict - disagree, state the opposite
• Contagion - condition of being contagious, spreads from one to another
• Tenacity - stubborness, holding on
• Plummet - fall rapidly
• Genial - friendly
• Obscurity - condition of being unknown
• Dissuade - convince to not do something
• Travail - labor, hard work

Chapter 9

• Deserters - those who leave or desert their military postion without permission
• Droves - large number, large herd
• Foray - a quick attack by thieves
• Adhere - stick to, believe
• Gangrenous - a disease that infects wounds and can killed many soldiers
• Antagonize - oppose, make oneself an enemy
• Credence - the condition of being credible or believable
• Audible - able to be heard
• Grimace - contorted facial expression
• Vex - annoy or anger
• Filch - steal
• Assent - agree
• Interminable - unending, seems like it will never terminate or end
• Impudent - unwise
• Curt - short and sharp
• Meddle - get involved in something that is not one’s concern
• Forestall - delay
• Reiterate - repeat

Chapter 10

• Egotism - thinking oneself more important than others
• Maneuver - planned movement
• Incoherent - unable to understand
• Contradictory - facts that oppose each other
• Monotonous - boredom from sameness
• Fierce - intense aggression
• Brook (verb) - tolerate
• Convey - carry

Chapter 11

• Vindictiveness - mean spirited, desiring revenge
• Clemency - mercy, forgiveness
• Tenacity - persistent, holding on
• Deluded - mentally confused, deceived
• Siege - surrounding of a town by an army
• Paeans - joyful or triumphant song

Chapter Twelve

• Atrocities - cruel acts
• Secesh - slang for seccession or leaving the country
• Taut - drawn tight, tense
• Angular - forms angles, not straight
• Reserve- holding back
• Assuaged - soothe or decrease pain

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Across Five Aprils

Lesson plans for the Civil War novel by Irene Hunt