Flowers for Algernon

Vocabulary

English Department

Bidwell Jr. High School

Absurd

• Adj

• Completely stupid or unreasonable

• The man’s mullet was absurd.

Introspective

• Adj

• tending to think deeply about your own thoughts, feelings, or behavior

• The eighth grader sat alone and was very deep and introspective.

Proportional

• Adj

• In the correct or most suitable relationship to it in size, amount, importance

• The mans head was not proportional to his body.

Shrew

• Noun

• an unpleasant woman who always argues and disagrees with people

• The mean old woman down the street was a shrew.

Syndrome

• Noun

• an illness which consists of a set of physical or mental problems

• Stockholm Syndrome is when a person who is kidnapped shows loyalty to the kidnapper.

Naïveté

• Adj

• not having much experience of how complicated life is

• The country bumpkin showed his naiveté when he went to the big city.

Regression

• Noun

• the act of returning to an earlier condition that is worse or less developed

• The boy regressed when his little sister was born.

Specialization

• Noun

• limiting one’s interests or activities to one particular subject

• The doctor’s specialization was feet.

Tangible

• Adj

• clear enough to be easily seen or noticed

• There is no tangible evidence of Casey’s guilt.

Hypothesis

• Noun

• Idea or guess about something that has yet to be proven

• The idea that Sasquatch is real is only a hypothesis.

Impair

• Verb

• to damage something or make it not as good as it should be

• The illness had impaired his ability to think and concentrate.

Opportunist

• Noun

• someone who uses every opportunity to gain power, money, or unfair advantages

• The dishonest kid was an opportunist.

Sensation

• Noun

• a feeling that you get from one of your five senses, especially the sense of touch

• One sign of a heart attack is a tingling sensation in the left arm.

Statistic

• Noun

• A set of numbers which represent facts or measurements

• Statistics show that 50% of new businesses fail in their first year.

Vacuous

• Adj

• showing no intelligence or having no useful purpose

• The kid’s vacuous expression showed he wasn’t very bright.