Vocabulary in Never Let Me Go

In this world, a person who has been raised as a clone and whose job is to travel between medical centres supporting organ donors through their operations and recovery, before eventually becoming a donor themselves.

A clone who has begun the process of surgically giving up their vital organs, one operation at a time, until they die — referred to in the novel as 'completing.'

The euphemism used in this world for a clone dying after their organs have been harvested through successive donations; it replaces the word 'dying' in the clones' vocabulary.

The internal body parts — heart, lungs, kidneys, liver — that are surgically removed from the clones and transplanted into non-clone patients who need them.

The adults who work at Hailsham as a combination of teachers and supervisors, responsible for the children's education and welfare, roughly equivalent to teachers but with a different title that reflects the clones' unusual situation.

A standalone building on the school grounds, typically used as a changing room or shelter near a sports field, providing a private space away from the main group.

The small units of currency used inside Hailsham, earned by students and spent at the Sales to buy art and other items from one another — they have no value outside the school.

Periodic events held at Hailsham where students buy and sell each other's artwork and handmade objects using tokens, functioning as the school's internal marketplace.

A collection of the best student artwork chosen by Madame and taken away from Hailsham; the children believe it is a prestigious archive, though its true purpose is later revealed to be evidence that clones have souls.

A portable device that plays music recorded on magnetic tape cassettes; here it is a treasured object because the clones have limited access to the outside world's consumer goods.

A rundown collection of farm buildings where young clones live semi-independently after leaving Hailsham and before they begin their lives as carers or donors.

Clones who have been living at the Cottages longer than the newly arrived Hailsham students; they serve as informal role models whose habits and mannerisms the newcomers imitate.

Relaxed and comfortable in a situation, without anxiety or self-consciousness; used here to describe the veterans' confident familiarity with life at the Cottages.

To take in and make something entirely one's own without acknowledging where it came from; used here to describe Ruth unconsciously copying other people's gestures and speech as if they were naturally hers.

To pass by without being properly noticed or processed; used here to describe watching television passively, letting images and sound flow past without really paying attention.

British informal word for television; used casually throughout the novel to reflect the characters' everyday British speech.

A non-clone person whom a clone believes may be the human original they were copied from; clones sometimes search for their possible to understand something about their own identity.

A place imagined by the Hailsham students as the forgotten edge of England where misplaced or missing things somehow collect; used as a private myth the children share.

Extremely detailed and carefully worked, with many small, complex parts; used here to describe Tommy's tiny animal drawings, which are elaborate and painstaking.

A rumoured official postponement of a clone's donation schedule, supposedly granted to couples who can prove they are genuinely in love, allowing them extra time together before completing.

Visibly upset, agitated, or emotionally distressed; a British informal expression used here to describe Tommy's anxious or troubled mood.

A description of the way Hailsham deliberately gave the children information about their fate while keeping it vague enough that they never truly understood or confronted it.

A British expression meaning 'I suppose' or 'I would guess'; used to introduce a cautious opinion or assumption without stating it as definite fact.

Putting on an act for an audience rather than behaving naturally; used here to describe Ruth's habit of playing a role — adopting borrowed mannerisms — rather than being her genuine self.

Making up for a past wrong by doing something good; used in the overview to describe Ruth's final act of reuniting Kathy and Tommy as a way of making amends for having kept them apart.