Additional Material and Quizzes to practice
Vocabulary – Frankenstein
Introduction, Preface, Letters

Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Contextual Clues
Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence. Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think the underlined words mean in the space provided.
  1. “...how I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?”
  2. His success would terrify the artist; he would rush away from his odious handiwork, horror-stricken.
  3. And now, once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper.
  4. It was commenced partly as a source of amusement and partly as an expedient for exercising any untried resources of mind.
  5. I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve or amend my plans.
  6. I am too ardent in execution, and too impatient of difficulties.
  7. His limbs were nearly frozen, and his body dreadfully emaciated by fatigue and suffering.
  8. I never saw a man in so wretched a condition.
  9. Such words, you may imagine, strongly excited my curiosity; but the paroxysm of grief that had seized the stranger overcame his weakened powers....
  10. Strange and harrowing must be his story.

Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.

_________1. dilate A. spasm, convulsion
_________2. odious B. children, offspring
_________3. progeny C. thin, wasted
_________4. expedient D. expand
_________5. capacious E. distressing, agonizing
_________6. ardent F. passionate, enthusiastic
_________7. emaciated G. suitable, practical
_________8. wretched H. hateful
_________9. paroxysm I. miserable
_________10. harrowing J. spacious, roomy