Brave New World Vocabulary

Below is a list of vocabulary words from Brave New World that will be part of your multiple choice exam at the end of the unit.

Your notebook assignment for vocabulary is to create a 30-box flow map (that's one box per vocabulary word) and to illustrate that word after you encounter it in the reading. Not only will the illustrations hopefully cement the definition in your mind, but also when you are finished with the book, you will have a graphic representation of this futuristic novel to help you remember the plot.

If you have helpful hints to remember a word, add those hints to the comments of this post. For example, the word may be close to a word in French, Latin or Spanish.

Here are the words:

predestination: p. 10, all things are decided in advance

freemartins: p. 13, sterile female

conditioning: p. 24, providing a stimulus until desired behavior is achieved.

hypnopaedia: p. 25, sleep teaching

viviparous, p. 36, giving birth to offspring that develop in the mother’s body.

pneumatic, p. 44, filled with air; ample bust

simian: p. 58, ape or monkey

stupor: p. 59, lethargy; mental confusion

sententious: (p. 74, “sententiously”) terse; moralizing; short statements about life

soma: p. 75, a drug that dulls emotion and creates a false sense of happiness.

solecism: p. 96, impropriety, mistake, violation of etiquette

octoroon: p. 104, a person who is one-eighth Black.

pueblo: p. 107, a community dwelling up to five stories high built out of adobe by Indian tribes in the Southwest U.S.

goitre: p. 112, a non-cancerous enlargement of the thyroid, visible on the neck

mescal: p. 125, Mexican liquor fermented from the agave

viscose: p. 139, rayon—manufactured fabric

vestal: p. 144, chaste, pure, virgin

peritoneum: p. 146, membrane lining the abdominal walls

sonorous: p. 155, producing a full, deep or rich sound

brachylcephalic: p. 159, having a short, broad head

heretical: p. 173, departure from established beliefs or standards

sepulchral: p. 176, suggestive of the grave; funereal

abstemious: p. 193, eating and drinking in moderation

strumpet: p. 194, prostitute, whore

moribund: p. 202, Approaching death; about to die

derision: p. 210, contempt; ridicule

impunity: p. 219, exempt from punishment

postulates: p. 236, basic principles

copse: p. 247, a thicket of small trees or shrubs

turpitude: p. 258, depravity, baseness, moral corruption