We haven’t played the Five Words Game in a while, so I thought I’d resurrect this thing from the trash can.

This is an exercise to improve vocabulary. We need good vocabularies if we want to become rich and famous. I’ve selected five obscure words at random from the dictionary. Then I’ve written a one-paragraph story, where I incorporated the five words, and put them in boldface. It’s your job to figure out the boldface words without looking them up.

Short, contextual definitions of each word are provided at the bottom, so you won’t have to consult a dictionary. It’s bad enough that I had to, in order to write this. But don’t look until you’ve tried to figure the words out first!

Good luck!

Culture Cops

Was it the right thing to do, to expurgate such eloquence from this old classic? The literary professor had been recently conscripted as a censor, into President Pence’s newly-formed Department of Culture. Whenever his conscience wrestled with his fear, he consulted the Kabbalah for guidance. There in his secret library were rows of mysterious books arranged abecedarian, by title. But the text he needed lay superincumbent at its empty-slotted home. He often consulted this intriguing volume but never took it beyond his library, lest the rapine forces of the culture cops confiscate it for their ceremonial bonfires.

Your Score:

5 right: You’re a word genius, and may soon be rich and famous! Can I ride your coattails?
4 right: You’re still pretty smart. I see 15 minutes of fame coming your way.
3 right: Would you settle for 5 minutes of fame?
2 right: Respectable, but you’ll never rise from obscurity. Unless maybe you’re struck by a meteorite.
1 right: Don’t worry. There’s more to life than being rich and famous.
0 right: I’ll bet you’re real handy with street language, so I won’t mess with you.

Definitions:

abecedarian: Alphabetical order.
expurgate: To edit out language judged to be offensive, from a book, blog post, or other publication.
Kabbalah: Esoteric teachings that reconcile the eternal and mysterious with the finite and known.
rapine: Seizure of property by force. Plunder.
superincumbent: Lying or resting on top of something. Or, Barack Obama, had he ran for a third term.