The Scarlet Letter – Vocabulary List #1
1. indulgent (adj): not strict; gratified by compliance; giving oneself up to
2. intrusive (adj): thrusting forward or unwarrantably into any place or position; forcing one’s self
upon others; encroaching
3. communion (n): participation of something in common: fellowship; concord; interchange of
thoughts or acts; union in religious worship
4. decorous (adj): suitable to the time, place, or occasion; becoming; seemly; proper; befitting
5. prolix (adj): long and wordy; extending to a great length
6. portico (n): a porch
7. truculency (n): fierceness, savageness, barbarity, ferociousness
8. vixenly (adj): having the qualities of a turbulent, forward, quarrelsome woman; like a scold or
termagant
9. inclement (adj): unmerciful, severe or harsh; tempestuous, rough, stormy, boisterous, or
otherwise difficult to bear, as in weather
10. apostolic (adj): relating to one of the twelve disciples of Christ who were commissioned to
preach the gospel; pertaining to one with a similar mission
11. besom (n): a broom; a brush of twigs or other materials for sweeping
12. emoluments (n): the profit arising from office or employment; salary
13. tenacity (n): adhesiveness; that property of material bodies by which their parts resist an effort
to force or pull them asunder
14. indolent (adj): habitually idle or indisposed to labor; lazy; slothful; sluggish
15. vicissitude (n): a passing from one state or condition to another; change, esp. in regard to the
affairs of life or the world
16. tenure (n): the term or condition upon which anything is held or possessed
17. talisman (n): a charm; an amulet
18. gout (n): a disease giving rise to acute pain with inflammation affecting the joints
19. torpid (adj): having lost motion or the power of motion; numb; dull; sluggish
20. sagaciously (adv): wisely
21. obtuseness (n): not pointed or acute; blunt; stupid; dull
22. alacrity (n): a cheerful readiness to do some act; cheerful briskness
The Scarlet Letter – Vocabulary List #2
1. eulogium (n): praise; a panegyric
2. coadjutors (n. pl.): people who aid others; associates
3. tenement (n): an abode; a habitation
4. florid (adj): flowery; bright in color; flushed with red; embellished with profuse ornamentation,
especially with rhetoric or elaborately elegant language, often high-flown
5. vitiated (v): rendered faulty or imperfect; to have injured the quality or substance of; to impair
or spoil
6. maw (n): the throat and stomach of a brute
7. expatiate (v): to atone for; to make reparation for
8. inveterate (adj): firmly established by long continuance or habit; deep-rooted or ingrained in a
person’s nature;
9. cumbrous (adj): burdensome; troublesome; unwieldy
10. polemical (adj): given to controversy; referring to the art of debating
11. evanescent (adj): fleeting; vanishing; liable to disappear or come to an end
12. interloper (n): one who comes into a matter where one has no right
13. esoteric (adj): unintelligible to most, unless trained to it
14. impunity (n): freedom from punishment
15. chirography (n): the art of handwriting
16. foolscap (n): paper of the smallest regular size but one, its watermark in early times being the
outline of a fool’s head and cap
17. inefficacious (adj): not having power adequate to the purpose intended
18. enervating (v): depriving of nerve, force, or strength; weakening; rendering feeble
19. residuum (n): that which is left over; a residue; dregs or refuse
20. pith (n): a soft cellular substance in the center of a root, stem or branch; strength, vigor or force;
closeness and vigor of thought
21. moil (v): to labor, toil, or work with painful efforts
22. ignominiously (adv): disgracefully, shamefully
23. predilections (n. pl.): previous liking of something; a predisposition to favor something
24. hap (n): chance; accident; casual event
25. lucubration (n): nocturnal study; what is composed by night; a literary composition of any kind