8th grade English
Mrs. Barth
Name:
Section:
Date:
Edgar Allan Poe Vocabulary
Please learn the following words. Practice using them, as well as the words from ABC, in
our discussions and in your essays! You will be tested on these words throughout the year.
VEX (v.) Dictionary page: __________
…for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye (Tell-Tale 75).
Definitions:
1. To make someone feel annoyed or frustrated.
Synonyms: irritate, provoke, infuriate, exasperate
Antonyms: delight, please
2. To cause distress or to worry.
Synonyms: torment, plague, haunt
Antonyms: soothe, comfort
Related: vexing, vexingly, vexation, vexatious
ACUTENESS (n.) Dictionary page: __________
And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses? (Tell-Tale 76)
Definitions:
1. In terms of something bad or a bad situation, serious or severe.
2. In terns of an illness or situation, coming quickly or sharply to a crisis.
3. A severe illness or symptom.
4. Synonyms: sharp (as in a sharp pain, not a sharp knife)
Antonyms: mild, dull (as in a dull
pain, not a dull knife)
5. Possession of a quality to a severe or intense degree; experience of something to a severe and intense degree.
6. A highly developed or keen sense or faculty.
Synonyms: sharpness (as in a sharp sense of hearing, not a sharp knife) Antonyms: slowness, dullness
7. A perceptive understanding or insight.
Synonyms: astuteness, shrewdness, perceptiveness, quick-wittedness
Antonyms: slowness, slow-wittedness
Related: acute, acutely
REPOSE (n. or v.) Dictionary page: __________
...I myself…placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim (Tell-Tale 77).
“I drink,” he said, “to the buried that repose around us” (Cask 118).
Definitions:
1. noun: A state of rest or tranquility.
Synonym: rest, serenity, composure
Antonym: unrest, agitation
2. verb: To lie down in rest.
Synonym: rest, relax
Antonym: exert, energize
3. verb: To be lying, situated, or kept in a particular place or to lay something to rest in or on (something else).
Synonym: deposit, place, position
Antonym: remove, reposition
4. verb: (repose something in) To place one’s confidence or trust in.
Synonym: entrust
Antonym: --Related: reposeful, reposefully, reposition
DERISION (n.) Dictionary page: __________
Any thing was more tolerable than this derision! (Tell-Tale 78).
Definition: Contemptuous ridicule or mockery.
Synonym: ridicule, scorn, insult, disrespect
Related: derisive, deride
Antonym: flattery, praise
IMPUNITY (n.) Dictionary page: __________
I must not only punish, but punish with impunity (Cask 116).
Definition: Exemption from punishment; freedom from negative consequences of an action.
Synonyms: amnesty, immunity, exoneration, exemption
Antonyms: incarceration, accountability
IMMOLATION (n.) Dictionary page: __________
…and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation (Cask 116).
Definition: The act of killing or offering as a sacrifice, especially by burning.
Synonyms: sacrifice, annihilation
Antonyms: --Related: immolate
ABSCOND (v.) Dictionary page: __________
There were no attendants at home; they had absconded to make merry in honor of the time (Cask 117).
Definition: To leave hurriedly and secretly, typically to avoid detection of or arrest for an unlawful act.
Synonyms: take off, bolt, escape, flee
Antonyms: remain, face the consequences
GESTICULATION (n.) Dictionary page: __________
He laughed and threw the bottle upward with a gesticulation I did not understand (Cask 119).
I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations…(Tell-Tale77).
Definition: Gestures, especially dramatic ones, often used instead of speaking or to emphasize one’s words.
Synonyms: gesture
Antonyms: --Related: gesticulate, gesticulatory, gesture
PARADOX (n.) Dictionary page: __________
Such, I have long known, is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as a basis (Usher 16).
Definitions: A statement that sounds absurd or seems to contradict itself but may in fact be true; a person or
thing that combines contradictory features or qualities. Related to the literary term “oxymoron.”
Synonyms: contradiction, conundrum, oxymoron
Antonyms: --Related: paradoxical, paradoxically
WAN (adj.) Dictionary page: __________
It was with difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the identity of the wan being before me with the
companion of my early boyhood (Usher 17).
Definitions:
1. In terms of a person’s complexion or appearance, pale and giving the impression of illness, exhaustion, frailty.
Synonyms: pallid, anemic, waxen, sickly, drained
Antonyms: flushed, glowing
2. In terms of light, pale, weak.
Synonyms: dim, faint
Antonyms: bright
3. In terms of a smile, weak, strained, lacking enthusiasm.
4. In literature, can also mean dark and gloomy.
Related: wanness, wanly
TREPIDATION (n.) Dictionary page: __________
He accosted me with trepidation and passed on (Usher 17).
…and I soon found this to arise from a series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome an habitual trepidancy—an
excessive nervous agitation (Usher 18).
Definition: A feeling of fear, agitation, or nervousness about something that may happen.
Synonyms: fear, apprehension, dread
Antonyms: composure, calm, assurance
Related: trepidancy, trepidatious
ABHORRENCE (n.) Dictionary page: __________
I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect—in terror (Usher 18).
Definition: A feeling of repulsion; disgusted loathing.
Synonyms: hatred, detestation, revulsion
Antonyms: love, adoration
Related: abhor, abhorrent
INSIPID (adj.) Dictionary page: __________
He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone endurable… (Usher 18).
Definitions:
1. Lacking flavor.
Synonyms: bland, tasteless, flavorless
Antonyms: tasty
2. Not interesting or exciting.
Synonyms: unimaginative, uninteresting, boring
Antonyms: interesting, imaginative
Related: insipidly, insipidness
DIVULGE (v.) Dictionary page: __________
There were times, indeed, when I thought his unceasingly agitated mind was labouring with some oppressive
secret, to divulge which he struggled for the necessary courage (Usher 24).
Definition: To reveal private, sensitive, or secret information.
Synonyms: disclose, reveal
Antonyms: withhold, conceal
PROLIXITY (n.) Dictionary page: __________
…for, in truth, there is little in its uncouth and unimaginative prolixity which could have had interest for the lofty
and spiritual ideality of my friend (Usher 26).
Definition: In terms of speech or writing, using or containing too many words; wordiness that makes something
tediously lengthy. Long and boring speech.
Synonyms: verbosity, wordiness
Antonyms: brevity, conciseness, succinctness
Related: prolix
NOTES: