Vocabulary in The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

Feeling or expressing great happiness and delight; used here to describe the festive, celebratory mood of the city during its summer festival.

A group of people moving forward in an orderly, ceremonial line, as part of a public celebration or ritual event.

Splendidly rich, luxurious, and impressive in appearance or quality; used to describe the lavish abundance of the festival.

A fictional drug or intoxicant in the story that produces pleasure without harmful side effects or addiction, unlike real-world substances.

Here used in its older, broader sense: an occasion of excessive, unrestrained indulgence in pleasure or festivity, not necessarily sexual.

The point in the year when the sun reaches its highest or lowest point in the sky; here the summer solstice marks the date of Omelas's great annual festival.

A loud, continuous, and confused noise made by a crowd or many voices and sounds all at once.

Moving in a way that is gracefully flexible and supple; used to describe the fluid, easy movements of the festival dancers.

Belonging to or typical of an earlier, ancient period; used to describe old-fashioned customs or institutions that have survived from the past.

Gentle, kindly, and causing no harm; used to describe a quality of the city's happiness that is not threatening or cruel in its outward form.

Bending and moving easily and gracefully without stiffness; describes the physical ease and fluidity of people or things in motion.

An old-fashioned term meaning having a very low level of intelligence or mental capacity; used in the story to describe the condition of the imprisoned child.

An outdated clinical term for a person with a severe intellectual disability; used here to describe the degraded mental state of the child kept in the basement.

A tool with a bundle of thick strings or a sponge on a stick used for cleaning floors; significant here because the child is kept in a room with a mop and bucket.

Became infected and filled with pus, or worsened over time without being treated; describes the infected, untreated sores on the child's body.

Causing moral disgust and revulsion; deeply and shockingly wrong or evil in a way that offends any decent person's sense of right.

Based on the ethical principle that the right action is whatever produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, even at a cost to a few.

Understood or agreed upon without being openly stated or spoken aloud; an unspoken but accepted arrangement or condition.

Enjoying financial success, wealth, and good fortune; used to describe the thriving, well-off condition of Omelas and its citizens.

Taught to accept a set of beliefs uncritically and completely, so that one does not question them; describes how citizens are made to accept the terms of the city's bargain.

To use vague or ambiguous language in order to avoid committing to a clear position or to conceal the truth; to speak in a deliberately unclear way.

The act of saving someone from suffering, sin, or a bad situation; here it refers to the impossible act of freeing or rescuing the child from its condition.

Too great, extreme, or overwhelming to be expressed or described in words; beyond what language can capture.

A ghost or haunting presence; used figuratively to describe something that looms over a situation as a disturbing, inescapable shadow.

To separate and go in different directions from a common point; used to describe the moment when some citizens choose a path away from Omelas rather than back into it.