"The Scarlet Letter" Vocabulary

GingerSnap (United States of America)
Higher level vocabulary words from Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter". For my AP Literature class.
33 words 212 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. inauspicious
    boding ill
    "...nor was Pearl the only child to whom this inauspicious origin was assigned among the New England Puritans."
  2. edifice
    a structure that has a roof and walls
    "...with a view from its front windows adown this not very enlivening prospect, and thence across the harbour, stands a spacious edifice of brick."
  3. physiognomy
    the human face
    "...the grim rigidity that petrified the bearded physiognomies of these good people would have augured some awful business in hand."
  4. ignominy
    a state of dishonor
    "...and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped."
  5. contumely
    rude language intended to offend or hurt
    "...encounter the stings and venomous stabs of public contumely, wreaking itself in every variety..."
  6. phantasmagoric
    characterized by fantastic and incongruous imagery
    "...to relieve itself by the exhibition of these phantasmagoric forms, from the cruel weight..."
  7. sagacity
    the trait of having wisdom and good judgment
    "...and tempered energies of manhood and the sombre sagacity of age; accomplishing so much..."
  8. eminent
    standing above others in quality or position
    "...it imagined and hoped so little. the other eminent characters by whom the chief ruler was surrounded..."
  9. contumaciously
    in a rebellious manner
    "...again a mystic sisterhood would contumaciously assert itself..."
  10. vivify
    give new life or energy to
    "...and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty..."
  11. anathema
    a formal ecclesiastical curse accompanied by excommunication
    "...because they had so much the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue..."
  12. adduce
    advance evidence for
    "...answered the magistrate; "and hath adduced such arguments..."
  13. imminent
    close in time; about to occur
    "...such was the young clergyman's condition, and so imminent the prospect that his dawning light..."
  14. deportment
    the way a person behaves toward other people
    "...one peculiarity of the child's deportment remains yet to be told..."
  15. importunate
    making persistent or urgent requests
    "...were alike importunate that he should make trial..."
  16. inimical
    tending to obstruct or cause harm
    "...would become vaguely aware that something inimical to his peace had thrust itself..."
  17. somniferous
    sleep inducing
    "...it must have been a work of vast ability in the somniferous school of literature..."
  18. machination
    a crafty and involved plot to achieve your ends
    "...and given over to the machinations of his deadliest enemy..."
  19. abstruse
    difficult to understand
    "...among them, who had spent more years in acquiring abstruse lore..."
  20. expiation
    compensation for a wrong
    "...standing on the scaffold, in this vain show of expiation, Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome ..."
  21. scurrilous
    expressing offensive, insulting, or scandalous criticism
    "...satan dropped it there, i take it, intending a scurrilous jest against your reverence..."
  22. propinquity
    the property of being close together
    "...the constant shadow of my presence, the closest propinquity of the man whom he had most vilely wronged..."
  23. sedulous
    marked by care and persistent effort
    "...sort of herbs they were which the old man was so sedulous to gather..."
  24. enigma
    something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained
    "...Pearl's inevitable tendency to hover about the enigma of the scarlet letter..."
  25. capricious
    determined by chance or impulse rather than by necessity
    "...earnestness that was seldom seen in her wild and capricious character..."
  26. asperity
    harshness of manner
    "...with an asperity that she had never permitted to herself..."
  27. loquacity
    the quality of being wordy and talkative
    "...fearing, perhaps, that, with its never-ceasing loquacity, it should whisper tales..."
  28. vicissitude
    a variation in circumstances or fortune
    "...fading into the twilight of the woods; so great a vicissitude in his life..."
  29. probity
    complete and confirmed integrity
    "...become at once if he chose, a man of probity and piety on land..."
  30. necromancy
    conjuring up the dead, especially for prophesying
    "...being a principal actor in all the works of necromancy that were continually going forward..."
  31. portent
    a sign of something about to happen
    "...thrown all the light we could acquire upon the portent, and would gladly, now that it has done..."
  32. transitory
    lasting a very short time
    "...to barter the transitory pleasures of the world for the heavenly..."
  33. nugatory
    of no real value
    "...to express to the world how utterly nugatory is the choicest of man's own righteousness..."
Created on Wed Dec 11 18:09:25 EST 2013

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