8th grade English
Mrs. Barth
Name:
Section:
Date:
Edgar Allan Poe Vocabulary
Please learn the following ten words. Practice using them, as well as the ten 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 (“The Tell-Tale Heart” 75).
Definitions:
1. To make someone feel annoyed, frustrated, or worried.
Synonyms: irritate, provoke, infuriate, exasperate
Antonyms: delight, please
2. To cause distress.
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? (“The Tell-Tale Heart” 76)
Definitions:
1. Possession of a quality to a severe or intense degree; experience of something to a severe and intense degree.
2. A highly developed or keen sense or faculty.
Synonyms: sharpness (as in a sharp sense of hearing, not a sharp knife) Antonyms: slowness, dullness
3. A severe illness or symptom.
Synonyms: sharp (as in a sharp pain, not a sharp knife)
Antonyms: mild, dull (as in a dull pain, not a dull knife)
4. A perceptive understanding or insight.
Synonyms: astuteness, shrewdness, perceptiveness, quick-wittedness Antonyms: dullness, slowness, slow-wittedness
Related: acute, acutely
REPOSE (v.) Dictionary page: __________
…while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim
(“The Tell-Tale Heart” 77).
Definitions:
1. To lie down in rest.
Synonym: rest, relax
Antonym: exert, energize
2. 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
Related: reposeful, reposefully, reposition
DERISION (n.) Dictionary page: __________
Any thing was more tolerable than this derision! (“The Tell-Tale Heart” 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 (“The Cask of Amontillado” 116).
Definition: Exemption from punishment; freedom from negative consequences of an action.
Synonyms: amnesty, immunity, exoneration, exemption
Antonyms: incarceration, liability, accountability
IMMOLATION (n.) Dictionary page: __________
…and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation (“The Cask of Amontillado” 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 (“The Cask of Amontillado” 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 ((“The Cask of Amontillado” 119).
I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations, but the noise steadily increased (“The Tell-Tale Heart” 77).
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 (“The Fall of the House of Usher” 16).
Definition: A statement that, despite sound reasoning, leads to a senseless or logically unacceptable conclusion, or a statement that seems absurd
but when explained proves to be well-founded or true. A self-contradictory statement; a situation, 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 (“The Fall of
the House of 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 (like a glowing complexion)
2. In terms of light, pale, weak.
Synonyms: dim, faint
Antonyms: bright
3. In terms of a smile, weak, strained.
4. In literature, can also mean dark and gloomy.
Related: wanness, wanly
TREPIDATION (n.) Dictionary page: __________
He accosted me with trepidation and passed on (“The Fall of the House of 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
(“The Fall of the House of Usher” 18).
Definition: A feeling of fear or agitation 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 (“The Fall of the House of 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… (“The Fall of the House of Usher” 18).
Definitions:
1. Lacking flavor.
Synonyms: bland, tasteless, flavorless
Antonyms: tasty
2. Lacking vigor or interest.
Synonyms: unimaginative, uninteresting, boring
Antonyms: interesting, imaginative
Related: insipidly, insipidness
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 (“The
Fall of the House of Usher” 26).
Definition: In terms of speech or writing, using or containing too many words; wordiness that makes something tediously lengthy.
Synonyms: verbosity, wordiness
Antonyms: brevity, conciseness, succinctness
Related: prolix
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 (“The Fall of the House of Usher” 24).
Definition: To make known, especially private or sensitive information.
Synonyms: disclose, reveal
Antonyms: withhold, conceal