"The Perils of Indifference," by Elie Wiesel: List 1

As part of a Millennium Lecture series at the White House in 1999, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel defined indifference (etext found here) to an audience he knew had the power to recognize and prevent its dangers.

This list covers vocabulary in the first eight paragraphs of the speech.
10 words 346 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. gratitude
    a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation
    Gratitude is a word that I cherish. Gratitude is what defines the humanity of the human being.
  2. indifference
    the trait of remaining calm and seeming not to care
    What is indifference? Etymologically, the word means "no difference."
  3. compassion
    a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering
    A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil.
    Etymologically, the word can be broken down in Latin into "com" which means "together" and "pati" which means "to suffer, endure." Here, examples are given of opposites that an attitude of indifference would erase, but the entire speech suggests that the opposite of indifference is compassion.
  4. virtue
    the quality of doing what is right
    Can one possibly view indifference as a virtue?
  5. harrowing
    causing extreme distress
    Is it necessary at times to practice it simply to keep one's sanity, live normally, enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine, as the world around us experiences harrowing upheavals?
  6. seductive
    tending to entice into a desired action or state
    Of course, indifference can be tempting -- more than that, seductive.
  7. despair
    a state in which all hope is lost or absent
    It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person's pain and despair.
  8. consequence
    the state of having important effects or influence
    Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence.
    A consequence can also be "the outcome of an event." This definition is seen when Wiesel asks about indifference: "What are its courses and inescapable consequences?" But the example sentence is focused on how an indifferent person sees others as inconsequential ("lacking worth or importance").
  9. anguish
    extreme distress of body or mind
    Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest.
  10. abstraction
    a concept or idea not associated with any specific instance
    Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction.
Created on Tue Jun 03 11:46:03 EDT 2025 (updated Tue Jun 03 11:57:58 EDT 2025)

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.