1-page Vocabulary Printables

Crowns the story's famous last image -- 'Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last.' A genuinely difficult, high-value word that rewards a close reading of the ending and recurs in academic prose. The strongest teaching word in this field.

Sits in the same iconic closing sentence as 'inscrutable,' giving the firing-squad fantasy its proud defiance. A strong Tier 2 word, clear in context and worth teaching, though it shares its line with 'inscrutable' (proximity to weigh later).

The parking attendant's 'insolent skill' needles Mitty and stirs his resentment of competent men. A useful, recurring academic word shown cleanly in a vivid moment.

The revolving doors' 'faintly derisive whistling sound' seem to mock Mitty -- a nice model of the scornful sense. A strong Tier 2 word with a memorable excerpt.

The 'faint, fleeting smile' is Mitty's signature recurring image, so the excerpt rewards readers across the whole story. A broadly useful Tier 2 word for something brief and passing.

'Pandemonium broke loose in the courtroom' captures the word's noisy chaos in one memorable line. A high-value, vivid Tier 2 word a target-grade student readily retains.

Dr. Renshaw 'looked distraught and haggard,' the worn appearance making the meaning plain. A solid, common academic word a target-grade student benefits from owning.

'The craven figure of Benbow, who drank' makes cowardice visible in context. A difficult, richly connoted word with real teaching payoff, even if it is not an everyday academic term.

'A rending of wood and splinters flew through the room' shows violent tearing vividly in the battlefield fantasy. A difficult, evocative word worth adding to a target-grade student's range.

'She seemed grossly unfamiliar' uses a familiar word in its less-expected sense -- glaringly, to an extreme degree -- exactly the kind of surprise worth teaching. Strong excerpt and good vocabulary growth.

menacing: Strong excerpt and high comprehension value, but most target-grade students already know it -- little left to teach.

rakishly: Vivid opening-fantasy word, but a jaunty adverb unlikely to recur much in academic reading; just below the line.

insinuatingly: Rich, difficult adverb with a clear excerpt, but its narrow literary register lowers its Tier 2 value; a close call.

cur: Colorful, difficult term of contempt, but archaic and unlikely to recur in academic reading; missed on Tier 2 value.

bedlam: Strong chaos word, but overlaps 'pandemonium,' which was selected, and is less likely to recur academically.

haggard: Vivid and worth teaching, but shares its sentence with 'distraught,' the stronger pick from the pair.

hurtling: Solid action verb with a clear excerpt, but less distinctive and lower-value than the selected words.