English Vocab
Terms
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- tercet
- stanza with 3 lines
- alliteration
- repetition of identical initial consonant sounds (e.g. Sarah slung the stone)
- allusion
- a reference to an earlier literary work or to an historical event
- refrain
- repeated phrase or line (chorus?)
- dactyllic
- e.g. recently, loveliest, industry
- descry
- (physical) to catch sight of
- ostler
- (hostler) one who is employed to tend horses; one who services a large vehicle/engine
- overt
- open & observable; not hidden, concealed or secret
- malice
- a desire to harm others or to see other suffer; extreme ill will or spite
- inordinate
- exceeding reasonable limits; immoderate; excessive; not regulated; disorderly; uncontrolled
- blank verse
- un-rhymed iambic pentameter
- sestet
- stanza with 6 lines
- mountebank
- a hawker or quack medicines who attracts customers with stories, jokes or tricks; a flamboyant charlatan
- paucity
- smallness of number; fewness; scarceness; dearth
- extenuate
- to lessen or attempt to lessen the magnitude of seriousness of, especially by providing partial excuses; to underestimate, underrate, or make light of
- copious
- large in quantity, abundant
- onomatopoeia
- e.g. thwack, thunk, pow, meow
- trochaic
- e.g. bullet, soccer, engine, open
- castigate
- to inflict severe punishment; to criticize severely
- lethargy
- a state of sluggishness, inactivity and apathy; a state of unconsciousness resembling deep sleep
- enjamb
- to carry a thought from one line to the next without the interruption of punctuation
- sinuous
- winding; not direct; characterized by supple and lithe movements
- off rhyme
- e.g stone and comb, piece and race
- consonance
- the repetition of final consonant sounds with different final vowel sounds (e.g. fallen upon)
- politic
- crafty; cunning; shrewdness; artful; judicious
- construe
- to explain the meaning of; interpret; to translate, especially aloud/orally
- bestial
- beastly; lacking in intelligence or reason; subhuman
- obsequious
- full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning; obedient; dutiful
- zealot
- fanatically committed person
- discern
- to perceive with the eyes or intellect; detect; to recognize or comprehend mentally; to perceive differences
- cupidity
- excessive desire, especially for wealth; covetousness/avarice
- peevish
- querulous or discontented; ill-tempered; contrary; fractious
- octave
- stanza with 8 lines
- iniquity
- gross immorality or injustice; wickedness; a grossly immoral act; a sin
- dissolution
- decomposition into fragments or parts; disintegration; extinction (of life)/death; termination/annullment
- prate
- empty, foolish, or trivial talk; idle chatter
- alacrity
- cheerful willingness; eagerness; liveliness; briskness; speed or quickness; celerity
- villanelle
- 19-line poem written in iambic pentameter and composed of 5 tercets and 1 ending quatrain.
- lyric (poem)
- short poem where speaker expresses his/her feelings or thoughts (as opposed to narrative poem)
- voluminous
- having great volume, fullness, size or number
- sonnet
- 14-line poem written in iambic pentameter
- end-stop (line)
- to end a line with a punctuation mark, thus calling attention to the line as a structure within the poem
- theme
- literary work's central idea
- surmise
- to infer (something) without sufficiently conclusive evidence; to make a guess or conjecture
- sated
- to satisfy (an appetite) fully; to satisfy to excess
- conjure
- to summon (a devil or a spirit) by magical or supernatural power; to call or bring to mind; evoke
- slattern
- untidy, dirty woman
- elegy
- poem that mourns a death
- cavil
- to find fault unnecessarily; raise trivial objections; quibble
- carp
- cavil; to find fault unnecessarily; complain fretfully
- egregious
- conspicuously bad or offensive; flagrant ; extraordinary in some bad way
- temerity
- foolhardy disregard of danger; recklessness
- whim
- a sudden or capricious idea; a fancy; arbitrary thought or impulse
- pander
- to act as a go-between or liaison in sexual intrigues; to cater to the lower tastes and desires of others or exploit their weaknesses
- assonance
- repetition of identical vowel sounds within words (e.g. the child is mine)
- venial
- easily excused or forgiven; pardonable
- heroic couplet
- rhyming iambic pentameter couplet
- anapestic
- e.g. in july, on the hill, and a child
- truculent
- disposed to fight; pugnacious; expressing bitter opposition; fierce
- filch
- snitch; steal; pilfer (especially something of little value)
- avarice
- immoderate desire for wealth; cupidity
- inference
- deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true
- iambic
- e.g. occur, hotel, lacrosse, sincere
- spondaic
- e.g. staircase, hothead, fence post
- sardonic
- scornfully or cynically mocking
- lascivious
- given to or expressing lust; lecherous; exciting sexual desires; salacious
- amorous
- strongly attracted or disposed to love, especially sexual love; indicative of love or sexual desire; being in love; enamored
- hyperbole
- figure of speech that exaggerates what is true
- conceit
- a surprising, very clever, and elaborately extended metaphor
- dilatory
- intended to delay; tending to postpone or delay; tending to procrastinate; slow; tardy
- ballad
- a song-like narrative poem
- blithe
- carefree and lighthearted; happy; casual
- pernicious
- tending to cause death or serious injury; deadly; evil, wicked; causing great harm; destructive
- impious
- lacking reverence; not pious; lacking due respect or dutifulness
- connotation
- implied meaning of a word
- caesura
- a pause, usually marked by punctuation, within a poetic line
- fulsome
- offensively/insincerely flattering; unctuous
- petulance
- unreasonably irritable or ill-tempered; peevish
- timorous
- full of apprehensiveness/fear; timid
- paradox
- figure of speech that makes an apparently contradictory statement that is in some way true, e.g. the harder one works the less one accomplishes
- tranquil
- free from commotion or disturbance; calm; free from anxiety, tension, or restlessness; composed; steady
- censure
- an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism; an official rebuke/disapproval
- understatement
- figure of speech that represents less than the actual case or circumstance
- quatrain
- stanza with 4 lines
- restitution
- the act of restoring to the rightful owner something that has been taken away, lost or surrendered; reparation; compensating for loss; restoration of a previous state or position
- denotation
- literal meaning of a word (as opposed to connotation)
- end rhyme
- rhyme coming at the end of lines
- ruminate
- to turn a matter over and over in the mind; to reflect over and over again; to meditate or muse; ponder
- admonition
- mild, kind yet earnest reproof; cautionary advice or warning