Choice Words from Philip Seymour Hoffman's Roles

Philip Seymour Hoffman died on Sunday, Feb. 2nd at the age of 46. One of the most acclaimed actors of his generation, he had the uncanny ability to inhabit a role and make it memorable, no matter how much or how little screen or stage time he actually had. Here are eleven vocabulary words from dialogue from the roles he played. Because he was such a captivating presence, it is not an exaggeration to say that he contributed to these roles almost as much as the authors of the words he spoke. He left his mark on everything from "Mission Impossible III" to "The Seagull" by Chekov, and he will be missed. As George Clooney said: “There are no words.”
11 words 222 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. desolation
    sadness resulting from being forsaken or abandoned
    Caden Cotard: Try to keep in mind that a young person playing Willy Loman thinks he's only pretending to be at the end of a life full of despair. But the tragedy is that we know that you, the young actor will end up in this very place of desolation.- "Synecdoche," New York, Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman
  2. salvation
    rescuing or protecting someone or something from harm
    Well it is like salvation sort of. I mean the smell. I love the smell of toast. And the sun's coming up. It makes me feel like anything's possible. Y'know?- "True West" by Sam Shepard
  3. persist
    refuse to stop
    When you consider all the writers who never even had a machine. Who would have given an eyeball for a good typewriter. Any typewriter. All the ones who wrote on a matchbook covers. Paper bags. Toilet paper. Who had their writing destroyed by their jailers. Who persisted beyond all odds.- "True West" by Sam Shepard
  4. aspersion
    a disparaging remark
    Gust Avrakotos: Well, that's because Harold Holt is a tool. He's a cake-eater, he's a clown, he's a bad station chief, and I don't like to cast aspersions on a guy, but he's going to get us all killed.- "Charlie Wilson's War," Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
  5. caliber
    a degree or grade of excellence or worth
    WILLY: [coming out of the bathroom in his pajamas]: Remember him? What’s the matter with you, you crazy? If he’d stayed with Oliver he’d be on top by now! Wait’ll Oliver gets a look at him. You don’t know the average caliber any more. The average young man today—[he’s getting into bed]—is got a caliber of zero. Greatest thing in the world for him was to bum around.- "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller
  6. filch
    make off with belongings of others
    Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
    ’Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
    But he that filches from me my good name,
    Robs me of that which not enriches him,
    And makes me poor indeed.- Iago, in "Othello" by William Shakespeare
    Act III scene 3
  7. imposition
    an uncalled-for burden
    Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving.-Iago, in "Othello" by William Shakespeare, Act II Scene 3
  8. sanctimonious
    excessively or hypocritically pious
    And they'll buy you drinks, you'll meet girls, they'll try to fly you places for free... I know. It sounds great. But they are not your friends. These are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of the rock stars, and they will ruin rock and roll and strangle everything we love about it.-Lester Bangs in "Almost Famous," Screenplay by Cameron Crowe
  9. exacerbate
    make worse
    Truman Capote: Perry, I know what 'exacerbate' means.
    Perry Smith: Okay... well...
    Truman Capote: There is not a word or a sentence or a concept that you can illuminate for me.- "Capote," Screenplay by Dan Futterman
  10. banal
    repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse
    She loves the theatre, she thinks she is serving humanity and the sacred cause of art, while in my opinion, the theatre of today is...conventional. When the curtain goes up, and, in a room with three walls and artificial light, those great geniuses, those priests of holy art, show me how people eat, drink, love, walk about, and wear their jackets; when from those banal scenes and phrases they try to fish out a moral...then I flee- Konstantin in "The Seagull" by Anton Chekov
  11. currency
    the metal or paper medium of exchange that is presently used
    The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool. -- Lester Bangs in "Almost Famous," Screenplay by Cameron Crowe
Created on Sun Feb 02 21:46:47 EST 2014 (updated Mon Feb 03 07:15:47 EST 2014)

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.