Through the Looking-Glass: Chapters 5–12

by Lewis Carroll
In this sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice climbs through a mirror (or looking-glass) into a fantastical land where she encounters the Red Queen, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Humpty Dumpty, and other whimsical characters. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–12

Here is a link to our lists for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. brooch
    a decorative pin
    ‘When I fasten my shawl again,’ the poor Queen groaned out: ‘the brooch will come undone directly. Oh, oh!’
  2. plaintive
    expressing sorrow
    ‘Things flow about so here!’ she said at last in a plaintive tone, after she had spent a minute or so in vainly pursuing a large bright thing, that looked sometimes like a doll and sometimes like a work-box, and was always in the shelf next above the one she was looking at.
  3. provoke
    annoy continually or chronically
    ‘And this one is the most provoking of all — but I’ll tell you what — ’ she added, as a sudden thought struck her, ‘I’ll follow it up to the very top shelf of all. It’ll puzzle it to go through the ceiling, I expect!’
  4. obstinacy
    the trait of being difficult to handle or overcome
    ‘The prettiest are always further!’ she said at last, with a sigh at the obstinacy of the rushes in growing so far off, as, with flushed cheeks and dripping hair and hands, she scrambled back into her place, and began to arrange her new-found treasures.
  5. relent
    give in, as to influence or pressure
    ‘I know it’s very ignorant of me,’ Alice said, in so humble a tone that Humpty Dumpty relented.
  6. portmanteau
    a new word formed by combining two others
    ‘Well, “slithy” means “lithe and slimy.” “Lithe” is the same as “active.” You see it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.’
  7. gyroscope
    rotating mechanism in the form of a mounted spinning wheel
    ‘To “gyre” is to go round and round like a gyroscope.
  8. ingenuity
    the power of creative imagination
    ‘And “the wabe” is the grass-plot round a sun-dial, I suppose?’ said Alice, surprised at her own ingenuity.
  9. saunter
    walk leisurely and with no apparent aim
    At this moment the Unicorn sauntered by them, with his hands in his pockets.
  10. brandish
    exhibit aggressively
    At this moment her thoughts were interrupted by a loud shouting of ‘Ahoy! Ahoy! Check!’ and a Knight dressed in crimson armour came galloping down upon her, brandishing a great club.
  11. toil
    productive work, especially physical work done for wages
    He said “I go my ways,
    And when I find a mountain-rill,
    I set it in a blaze;
    And thence they make a stuff they call
    Rolands’ Macassar Oil—
    Yet twopence-halfpenny is all
    They give me for my toil.”
  12. ballad
    a narrative song with a recurrent refrain
    As the Knight sang the last words of the ballad, he gathered up the reins, and turned his horse’s head along the road by which they had come.
  13. piteous
    deserving or inciting a feeling of sympathy and sorrow
    ‘I only said “if”!’ poor Alice pleaded in a piteous tone.
  14. drawl
    a slow speech pattern with prolonged vowels
    Alice almost stamped with irritation at the slow drawl in which he spoke.
  15. etiquette
    rules governing socially acceptable behavior
    ‘Certainly not,’ the Red Queen said, very decidedly: ‘it isn’t etiquette to cut any one you’ve been introduced to. Remove the joint!’
Created on Fri Jun 22 11:56:31 EDT 2018 (updated Wed Aug 06 15:01:41 EDT 2025)

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