The Scarlet Letter: Chapters 14–19

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
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. propinquity
    the property of being close together
    But it was the constant shadow of my presence, the closest propinquity of the man whom he had most vilely wronged, and who had grown to exist only by this perpetual poison of the direst revenge!
  2. verdure
    green foliage
    Hester gazed after him a little while, looking with a half fantastic curiosity to see whether the tender grass of early spring would not be blighted beneath him and show the wavering track of his footsteps, sere and brown, across its cheerful verdure.
  3. sedulous
    marked by care and persistent effort
    She wondered what sort of herbs they were which the old man was so sedulous to gather.
  4. deleterious
    harmful to living things
    Or might it suffice him that every wholesome growth should be converted into something deleterious and malignant at his touch?
  5. upbraid
    express criticism towards
    She upbraided herself for the sentiment, but could not overcome or lessen it.
  6. petulant
    easily irritated or annoyed
    Heretofore, the mother, while loving her child with the intensity of a sole affection, had schooled herself to hope for little other return than the waywardness of an April breeze, which spends its time in airy sport, and has its gusts of inexplicable passion, and is petulant in its best of moods, and chills oftener than caresses you, when you take it to your bosom...
  7. precocity
    intelligence achieved far ahead of normal development
    But now the idea came strongly into Hester's mind, that Pearl, with her remarkable precocity and acuteness, might already have approached the age when she could have been made a friend, and intrusted with as much of her mother's sorrows as could be imparted, without irreverence either to the parent or the child.
  8. asperity
    harshness of manner
    "Hold thy tongue, naughty child!" answered her mother, with an asperity that she had never permitted to herself before.
  9. cadence
    the rhythmic rise and fall of the voice
    The child went singing away, following up the current of the brook, and striving to mingle a more lightsome cadence with its melancholy voice.
  10. contiguity
    the attribute of being so near as to be touching
    The very contiguity of his enemy, beneath whatever mask the latter might conceal himself, was enough to disturb the magnetic sphere of a being so sensitive as Arthur Dimmesdale.
  11. consecration
    a solemn commitment of your life to some cherished purpose
    "Never, never!" whispered she. "What we did had a consecration of its own. We felt it so! We said so to each other. Hast thou forgotten it?"
  12. satiate
    fill to satisfaction
    "There is a strange secrecy in his nature," replied Hester, thoughtfully; "and it has grown upon him by the hidden practices of his revenge. I deem it not likely that he will betray the secret. He will doubtless seek other means of satiating his dark passion."
  13. vestige
    an indication that something has been present
    Deeper it goes, and deeper into the wilderness, less plainly to be seen at every step; until some few miles hence the yellow leaves will show no vestige of the white man's tread.
  14. subjugate
    make subservient; force to submit or subdue
    Such was the sympathy of Nature —t hat wild, heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by human law, nor illumined by higher truth — with the bliss of these two spirits!
  15. inured
    made tough by habitual exposure
    "Hasten, Pearl, or I shall be angry with thee!" cried Hester Prynne, who, however, inured to such behaviour on the elf-child's part at other seasons, was naturally anxious for a more seemly deportment now.
Created on Tue Mar 05 16:00:39 EST 2013 (updated Thu Jul 03 11:46:49 EDT 2025)

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