The Handmaid's Tale Vocabulary 1

Question 1

strong smell

Answer 1

pungent
I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat… (p. 3)

Question 2

a manuscript where the original writing has been erased to make room for more writing but traces still remain

Answer 2

palimpsest
Dances would have been held there; the music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound… (p. 3)

Question 3

can’t be satisfied or pleased

Answer 3

insatiability
We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability? (p. 3-4)

Question 4

building where nuns live

Answer 4

nunnery
Time here is measured by bells, as once in nunneries. As in a nunnery too, there are few mirrors. (p. 8)

Question 5

in a way that torments with the promise of something not able to be obtained

Answer 5

tantalizingly
I’ve heard them at it sometimes, caught whiffs of their private conversations. Stillborn, it was…Or, tantalizingly, It was toilet cleaner she used. (p. 11)

Question 6

etiquette; polite behavior

Answer 6

decorum
[E]ven if I were to violate decorum to that extent, Rita would not allow it. (p. 11)

Question 7

associate and be friends with someone, especially when one is not suppose to

Answer 7

fraternize
The Marthas are not supposed to fraternize with us. (p. 11)

Question 8

too concerned about minor details or rules

Answer 8

pedantic
I used to tease him about being pedantic. (p. 11)

Question 9

something that causes disapproval

Answer 9

reproach
She doesn’t speak to me, unless she can’t avoid it. I am a reproach to her; and a necessity. (p. 13)

Question 10

previous case that sets the example for following similar situations

Answer 10

precedent
She probably longed to slap my face. They can hit us, there’s Scriptural precedent. (p. 16)

Question 11

shaking or quivering slightly

Answer 11

tremulous
She could smile and cry at the same time…as her voice lifted through its highest notes, tremulous, effortless. (p.16)

Question 12

move with smooth up and down motion

Answer 12

undulating
That is the landscape I focus on, a field of oblongs, gently undulating where the earth beneath has buckled, from decade after decade of winter frost. (p. 18)

Question 13

use flattery to persuade something to do something

Answer 13

wheedling
Think of yourselves as seeds, and right then her voice was wheedling, conspiratorial, like the voices of those women who used to teach ballet classes to children… (p. 18)

Question 14

conforming to what is generally accepted as right or true

Answer 14

orthodox
During these walks she has never said anything that was not strictly orthodox, but then, neither have I. (p. 19)

Question 15

very hungry

Answer 15

ravenous
Sometimes I wish she would just shut up and let me walk in peace. But I’m ravenous for new, any kind of news… (p. 20)

Question 16

violation of what is thought of as sacred

Answer 16

sacrilege
They have no outlets now except themselves, and that’s a sacrilege. (p. 22)

Question 17

secretly

Answer 17

furtively
Nobody talks much, though there is a rustling, and the woman’s heads move more furtively from side to side…(p. 25)

Question 18

unusually small

Answer 18

diminutive
They’re diminutive and neatly turned out; each has his or her camera, his or her smile. (p.27

Question 19

something belonging to a different time period than it is in

Answer 19

anachronism
These bodies hanging on the Wall are time travelers, anachronisms. (p.33)