Metamorphosis: Part 1

by Franz Kafka
Gregor Samsa wakes up to find that he has transformed into a monstrous insect. Learn these words from Kafka's exploration of alienation, and conformity. Read the full text, translated by Ian Johnston, here.

Here are links our lists for the novel: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. monstrous
    distorted and unnatural in shape or size
    One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.
  2. melancholy
    grave or even gloomy in character
    The dreary weather (the rain drops were falling audibly down on the metal window ledge) made him quite melancholy.
  3. minion
    a servile or fawning dependent
    He was the boss's minion, without backbone or intelligence.
  4. reproach
    express criticism towards
    The boss would certainly come with the doctor from the health insurance company and would reproach his parents for their lazy son and cut short all objections with the insurance doctor's comments; for him everyone was completely healthy but really lazy about work.
  5. distort
    make false by mutilation or addition
    It was clearly and unmistakably his earlier voice, but in it was intermingled, as if from below, an irrepressibly painful squeaking which left the words positively distinct only in the first moment and distorted them in the reverberation, so that one didn't know if one had heard correctly.
  6. articulation
    the aspect of pronunciation that shapes the sounds of speech
    He made an effort with the most careful articulation and by inserting long pauses between the individual words to remove everything remarkable from his voice.
  7. incessantly
    without interruption
    Instead of these, however, he had only many small limbs which were incessantly moving with very different motions and which, in addition, he was unable to control.
  8. diminutive
    very small
    They would have only had to push their arms under his arched back to get him out of the bed, to bend down with their load, and then merely to exercise patience and care that he completed the flip onto the floor, where his diminutive legs would then, he hoped, acquire a purpose.
  9. premonition
    an early warning about a future event
    Actually just yesterday evening I had a small premonition.
  10. imminent
    close in time; about to occur
    In order to get as clear a voice as possible for the critical conversation which was imminent, he coughed a little, and certainly took the trouble to do this in a really subdued way, since it was possible that even this noise sounded like something different from a human cough.
  11. exertion
    use of physical or mental energy; hard work
    Gregor pushed himself slowly towards the door, with the help of the easy chair, let go of it there, threw himself against the door, held himself upright against it (the balls of his tiny limbs had a little sticky stuff on them), and rested there momentarily from his exertion.
  12. inflict
    impose something unpleasant
    But to make up for that his jaws were naturally very strong; with their help he managed to get the key really moving, and he did not notice that he was obviously inflicting some damage on himself, for a brown fluid came out of his mouth, flowed over the key, and dripped onto the floor.
  13. composure
    steadiness of mind under stress
    "Now," said Gregor, well aware that he was the only one who had kept his composure.
  14. amelioration
    the act of relieving ills and changing for the better
    Right away he believed that the final amelioration of all his suffering was immediately at hand.
  15. liberate
    grant freedom to; free from confinement
    Then his father gave him one really strong liberating push from behind, and he scurried, bleeding severely, far into the interior of his room.
Created on Thu Apr 25 19:47:44 EDT 2013 (updated Wed Jul 02 16:37:21 EDT 2025)

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