The Scarlet Letter: Chapters 5–8

by Nathaniel Hawthorne
After having a child out of wedlock, Hester Prynne is shunned by her Puritan community and forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her clothing—but Hester is not the only one who has transgressed. This classic novel explores guilt, sin, and hypocrisy.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: The Custom-House, Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–8, Chapters 9–13, Chapters 14–19, Chapters 20–24

Here are links to our lists for other works by Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter, The Blithedale Romance, The House of the Seven Gables, Dr. Heidegger's Experiment, Feathertop, Rappaccini's Daughter, The Minister's Black Veil, Young Goodman Brown, The Birthmark
15 words 13272 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. inscrutable
    difficult or impossible to understand
    ...having also the passes of the dark, inscrutable forest open to her, where the wildness of her nature might assimilate itself with a people whose customs and life were alien from the law that had condemned her — it may seem marvellous that this woman should still call that place her home, where, and where only, she must needs be the type of shame.
  2. ascetic
    practicing great self-denial
    Hester sought not to acquire anything beyond a subsistence, of the plainest and most ascetic description, for herself, and a simple abundance for her child.
  3. imbibe
    receive into the mind and retain
    She grew to have a dread of children; for they had imbibed from their parents a vague idea of something horrible in this dreary woman gliding silently through the town, with never any companion but one only child.
  4. prolific
    bearing in abundance especially offspring
    They were now illuminated by the morning radiance of a young child's disposition, but, later in the day of earthly existence, might be prolific of the storm and whirlwind.
  5. caprice
    a sudden desire
    As to any other kind of discipline, whether addressed to her mind or heart, little Pearl might or might not be within its reach, in accordance with the caprice that ruled the moment.
  6. inexplicable
    incapable of being explained or accounted for
    It was a look so intelligent, yet inexplicable, perverse, sometimes so malicious, but generally accompanied by a wild flow of spirits, that Hester could not help questioning at such moments whether Pearl was a human child.
  7. anathema
    a formal ecclesiastical curse accompanied by excommunication
    If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations, that made her mother tremble, because they had so much the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue.
  8. imperious
    having or showing arrogant superiority
    Often, nevertheless, more from caprice than necessity, she demanded to be taken up in arms; but was soon as imperious to be let down again, and frisked onward before Hester on the grassy pathway, with many a harmless trip and tumble.
  9. extant
    still in existence; not extinct or destroyed or lost
    This was a large wooden house, built in a fashion of which there are specimens still extant in the streets of our older towns now moss-grown, crumbling to decay, and melancholy at heart with the many sorrowful or joyful occurrences, remembered or forgotten, that have happened and passed away within their dusky chambers.
  10. cabalistic
    having a secret or hidden meaning
    It was further decorated with strange and seemingly cabalistic figures and diagrams, suitable to the quaint taste of the age which had been drawn in the stucco, when newly laid on, and had now grown hard and durable, for the admiration of after times.
  11. burnish
    polish and make shiny
    There was a steel head-piece, a cuirass, a gorget and greaves, with a pair of gauntlets and a sword hanging beneath; all, and especially the helmet and breastplate, so highly burnished as to glow with white radiance, and scatter an illumination everywhere about upon the floor.
  12. panoply
    a complete and impressive array
    This bright panoply was not meant for mere idle show, but had been worn by the Governor on many a solemn muster and training field, and had glittered, moreover, at the head of a regiment in the Pequod war.
  13. exigency
    a sudden unforeseen crisis that requires immediate action
    For, though bred a lawyer, and accustomed to speak of Bacon, Coke, Noye, and Finch, as his professional associates, the exigencies of this new country had transformed Governor Bellingham into a soldier, as well as a statesman and ruler.
  14. expatiate
    add details to clarify an idea
    Governor Bellingham, in a loose gown and easy cap — such as elderly gentlemen loved to endue themselves with, in their domestic privacy — walked foremost, and appeared to be showing off his estate, and expatiating on his projected improvements.
  15. depravity
    moral perversion; impairment of virtue and moral principles
    "Here is a child of three years old, and she cannot tell who made her! Without question, she is equally in the dark as to her soul, its present depravity, and future destiny! Methinks, gentlemen, we need inquire no further."
Created on Tue Mar 05 15:17:30 EST 2013 (updated Thu Jul 03 11:21:05 EDT 2025)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.