I have already credited my very good friend, Allen, for guiding and helping me with The Promise of the Orb.

I also mentioned in the introduction to that novel that Allen is of the opinion that much of the vocabulary I used was both complicated and, well, difficult. He created a list. I cross-referenced his list with one I had Thing #1 create (circling all of the challenging words).

Below please find the output. All definitions are straight out of my head and many likely are at odds with your favorite dictionary/dictionary app.

I would like to hold fast to the opinion that this book is meant for young adults and above, but completing this exercise in self-flagellation (I’m doing it again) has convinced me that I do need to pay more attention to the words I choose. It also reminds me of my tendency to use amongst and whilst, which my bride frequently reminds me are better suited for writers in jolly-old-England (said writers having produced their novels in the late 1800’s).

With that, please enjoy a glimpse into the inner-workings (failings) of my muddled mind.

Abduct	take; kidnap
Abide	go along with (The Dude abides if you’re old enough to have seen The Big Lebowski)
Abundance	lots of
Adamant	strong, unchangeable position
Adaptable	flexible
Aeon	A VERY long period of time (in Buddhism variations of this term involve millions, billions and potentially a trillion years)
Agitation	irritation
Amorous	feeling frisky; needing to be with boyfriend/girlfriend
Angst	deep worry or concern
Antagonizing	bugging (a lot)
Array	wide range of
Audible	you can hear it
Authoritarian	rulers who have it their way with no interest in the opinions of others
Bedazzled	lots of sparkly things that delight the eyes (and may hide something not so nice)
Behalf	doing something for someone else
Bemused	quietly thinking about why something has made you not so happy
Billowed	blew hard
Breached	broke the surface/seal
Candor	honesty
Cannister	container with a lid
Catapults	old weapons that hurled things
Chaos	a complete lack of order; everyone doing anything they want
Chided	scolded
Clenching	squeezing hard
Collage	a mixture of lights/colors/things
Combusted	lit on fire
Compatible	gets along with
Compelled	something that made you do something
Composure	keeping your cool
Concede	give up or quit
Concussed	hit so hard on your head that you have a concussion
Condensation	dew that forms on the windows
Configuration	the way a thing is put together
Conjunction	connecting or combining one with another separate thing
Conjuring	making something appear as if by magic
Conspiratorially	whispering to others about doing something that someone in authority might not be happy about
Constituents	the people that “belong” to a ruler/king/leader
Contemplation	deep thoughts
Contour	the line the shows the shape of something
Conveyed	told
Cooperative	willing to do something
Corresponding	next
Craned	stuck his neck out
Crescendo	reached the maximum amount of noise
Cryptic	short; minimal information
Decomposing	breaking down (a fish on a beach slowly decomposes)
Defiance	standing up to; resistant
Deforestation	wiping out all of the trees
Deluge	lots of rain, or information
Depression	low spot; or a very sad mood
Designated	identified or named (that park has been designated as a national monument)
Deteriorating	breaking down
Dilute	water down to lose strength
Dimension	aspect (another dimension of someone’s personality); or a completely separate reality
Discern	be able to tell
Discreet	not obvious; able to do things without others noticing
Disembark	get off
Disembodied	lacking a body (disembodied voice calls out from nowhere)
Distinctive	unique
Diversionary	doing something to distract people from something else that you’re doing
Diverted	changed the course of
Divulged	told
Dormant	not active; asleep
Dubious	questionable
Elongated	stretched
Emanating	combing from
Emblazoned	written or painted brightly (the rocket was emblazoned with red stripes)
Emboldening	giving someone the confidence to do something they wouldn’t have done previously
Emissary	representative or messenger (powers and duties can be very different depending on the situation)
Endowing	giving the power to do something
Ensemble	assembled group
Entity	lifeform
Envious	jealous
Envision	to be able to picture something
Eons	a long period of time (thousands of years)
Equilibrium	balance
Eroded	ate away (the river eroded its bank)
Escalated	increased intensity
Euphoria	really, really happy
Evasive	not answering questions; moving quickly to escape capture
Exuded	gave lots of (he exuded confidence)
Finite	a specific amount (with the notion that there is no more)
Forfeit	give up; lose
Formulated	planned or calculated
Fraught	full of danger
Fungible	changeable (his opinion was fungible)
Glistening	brightly reflecting light
Gnarled	twisted, old
Gravitational	a force (gravity) that causes things to move (the earth’s spot in our solar system is caused by the gravitational force of the sun)
Grimaced	scowled, frowned
Hefty	big, strong
Hormone-induced	making decisions because of love (particularly amongst teenagers who are new to love)
Hovered	hanging in the air above something; staying quite close to something
Illuminating	bringing light to
Immersion	a deep state of involvement or dedication to something (he was in a French immersion program and all of his classes and homework were in French)
Imperative	most important
Impugned	tainted; to say something bad about someone
Incentive	inspiration
Inclination	when someone wants to do something
Incredulous	when something is too fantastic or crazy to believe
Incumbent	existing ruler
Indefinitely	no time limit (potentially forever)
Indignation	to be offended by
Initiating	starting
Interaction	to talk or do things with others
Interjected	to add a thought (perhaps interrupting someone with your idea)
Intervention	get in the middle of
Interwoven	tied together
Intuitively	knowing how to do something without ever studying it or being trained
Juxtaposed	in comparison to something else (and very different)
Largesse	more than someone needs
Leverage	having information or power that gives control over another
Loathed	hated
Malleable	able to be made into different shapes
Manipulated	twisted and changed (usually in a bad way)
Mesmerized	can’t take your eyes off
Methodically	step by step
Millennium	1,000 years
Mitigate	lessen the damage
Musing	thinking deeply about
Muted	made silent
Nasally	when someone’s voice sounds like their nose is being pinched shut as they talk
Nauseated	sickened
Negated	took away or stopped
Nonchalantly	casually
Noncompliance	out of order; not doing what was asked
Nonplussed	puzzled and maybe a little unhappy about it
Obnoxious	loud, and perhaps rude
Ominous	when something happens that makes it seem that something else — bad — will soon occur
Omnipresent	everywhere at the same time
Outliers	way out on the edge; not with the  majority
Paramount	most important
Paraphrasing	repeating something but making it shorter and leaving out some of the details
Perilous	dangerous
Perimeter	edge; border
Perplexed	puzzled to the point that it bothers you
Pew	bench in a church
Pilgrimages	long journeys (often involving a visit to what someone considers a holy place for their religion)
Pondered	thought about
Preoccupied	thinking about something so much that it’s distracting
Presumably	you would think that______
Prevail	win
Proclamation	announcement
Proficiency	something someone is good it
Prompted	encouraged something to happen or someone to do something
Propelled	pushed with force
Protocol	formal rules
Provisions	food, water and gear
Pterodactyls	flying dinasaur
Punctuated	repeatedly doing something
Queasily	doing something while feeling a little sick to your stomach about it
Rationalize	coming up with a reason to do something that you probably shouldn’t do
Realization	understanding something for the first time
Rebar	piece of metal often used to support concrete (concrete is poured around metal frames of rebar)
Receptacles	containers
Reiterated	said again
Reluctance	does not want do to it
Repelling	forcing back/away
Repercussions	what happens because of something said or done
Repetition	repeating
Replicas	models of
Revelation	a sudden understanding
Reveled	partied, loved
Rudimentary	basic
Scenario	one set of facts/ideas
Segment	a part of something (segmented worm has many individual segments)
Sensory	things detected by your senses
Simultaneously	happening at the same time
Sinister	evil
Sparse	not much of
Stalemate	no one is going to win
Stasis	like being frozen
Stoically	taking abuse or pain without complaining
Subsequent	next
Succor	to help, aid, feed
Teleport	to move from one spot to the other without using your legs or a vehicle
Terra-forming	creating a new world fit for humans
Theoretically	the idea could at least be possible (it just might not have happened yet; no one has yet tried it)
Thriving	doing really well
Thwart	deny
Tolerated	put up with
Torso	the chest and stomach of the body
Tousled	fought
Transgressions	bad things that were done
Treasonous	acting against your ruler/country
Tributary	a stream or river that ultimately flows into a larger stream/river
Tyranny	evil rule(r)
Ultimately	what happens at the end
Underestimation	to not consider just how strong a person can be (or how hard a challenge or obstacle might be)
Uninhabitable	nothing lives there
Unnerving	something that makes you really nervous
Usurper	someone who takes over a country (steps in to replace a ruler) but is not seen as the rightful ruler
Variables	various things that could happen
Vehemently	strongly
Veneer	thin layer
Vile	nasty
Voluminous	writing a lot of words; something big enough to fill a great big space