Vocabulary Lists

In January 2016, I explained in the blog how I found it really effective when I taught vocabulary around the idea of words closely linked together in meaning. Students were able to make more meaningful descriptions and interpretations when they knew the subtle differences. Understanding the difference between an angelic view and an alluring view is incredibly important when developing an interpretation or creating a mood.

Below is a collection of the words grouped together. They are a collection of synonyms and antonyms grouped around one idea. Like the example below, students learn the words and then in class we look at the subtle variations of the word beautiful. We look at the meaning, effect and use of the words. The beach on holiday could be bewitching, exquisite, or enticing - just each word has a different effect.

The original blog can be found here.

Thanks for reading,

Xris

Beautiful

Word	Definition	Word Class
Alluring	Very attractive or tempting	A
Angelic	Like or belonging to an angel	A
Beauteous	Beautiful	A
Bewitching	As if witches or some form of magic makes you like it	A
Comely	Pleasing in appearance	A
Delicate	Fragile and easily damaged	A
Elegant	Tasteful or luxurious in style or appearance	A
Enticing	To attract someone	A
Exalted	Raised or elevated to a high position of rank, power, character or quality	A
Exquisite	A special and rare beauty or charm	A
Imposing	Very impressive because of great size, appearance or elegance	A
Pulchritudinous	Physically beautiful	A
Radiant	Emitting rays of light or bright with joy and hope	A
Ravishing	Extremely beautiful	A
Refined	Free from impurities	A
Resplendent	Shining brilliantly	A
Statuesque	Like or suggesting a statue	A
Sublime	Impressing the mind with a sense of power and inspiring awe	A
Transcendental	Beyond ordinary or common experience	A
Wondrous	Wonderful or remarkable	A

Fear  

Word	Definition	Word Class
Abhorrence	A feeling of extreme dislike and loathing	N
Agitation	A feeling of physical unrest leading to pacing and hand-wring	N
Angst	A feeling of dread, anxiety or anguish	N
Aversion	A strong feeling of dislike or opposition	N
Awe	A feeling of something bigger and greater	N
Bewilder	To confuse or make a person puzzled	V
Consternation	A sudden feeling of alarming amazement or dread that caused confusion	N
Despair	A loss of hope	N
Discompose	To upset the order of things	V
Dismay	To break up a person’s courage	NV
Disquietude	A sense of being uneasy	N
Doubt	To hesitate to believe	V
Dread	To be in great fear	V
Foreboding	A strong feeling of something bad about to happen	N
Misgiving	A feeling of doubt or distrust	N
Qualm	An uneasy feeling or attack of conscience	N
Revulsion	A violent dislike of an item	N
Timid	Lacking confidence or courage	A
Tremor	A shaking of the body called by fear	N
Trepidation	A feeling of alarm or anxiety about something about to happen	N

Happy  

Word	Definition	Word Class
Bitter	Resentful or cynical – doesn’t like what happens	A
Blissful	Full of extreme happiness	A
Contended	Feeling satisfied	A
Dismal	Causing gloom	A
Ecstatic	Feeling extreme joy	A
Elated	Very happy or proud	A
Glad	A sense of joy created by being pleased with something	A
Glum	Silently miserable	A
Grieved	To feel grief or great sadness / sorrow	V
Heartbroken	Suffering from intense grief	A
Joyous	Full of joy	A
Jubilant	Feeling triumph or success – extreme joy	A
Melancholy	A depressed or gloomy state of mind	A
Mournful	A feeling of grief or mourning for the dead	A
Overjoyed	To create a feeling of great joy or delight	V
Pessimistic	Expecting the worst thing to happen	A
Sombre	Extremely serious	A
Sorrowful	A feeling of sadness caused by a loss	A
Thrilled	To cause a sense of excitement	V
Upbeat	Feeling cheerful and optimistic	A

 Loneliness  

Word	Definition	Word Class
Alienation	Being an outsider or the feeling of being an isolated by society	N
Aloof	Having different feelings to others or no sharing feelings with others	A
Concealment	A way or place of hiding	N
Confined	To shut up or keep in	V, A
Desolated	Deprived of inhabitants	V, A
Detachment	The act of separating	N
Disengage	To free a person from something	V
Insular	Detached or standing alone	N
Isolated	Separated from other persons or things	V, A
Partition	Something that separates two things	N
Privacy	Being away from people or hidden from view	N
Quarantine	Isolation is enforced by the government	N. V
Reclusive	A person who lives on their own, usually for religious reasons	N
Retreat	Withdrawing for safety or privacy	N, V
Rootless	Having no place in society	A
Sanctuary	A place of safety	N
Secluded	Sheltered or hidden from view	V, A
Segregation	Separating one part of society from another	N
Solitude	Living alone	N
Withdrawal	The act of retreating or removing a person from society	N

  

Love  

Word	Definition	Word Class
Adore	To admire something very much	V
Adulation	Extreme admiration	N
Affection	A feeling of fondness or tenderness to a person	N
Affinity	A natural liking or attraction to a person	N
Amorous	Displaying love or desire	A
Cherish	To show great tenderness or to treasure a person	A
Devotion	A strong attachment demonstrated by dedicated loyalty	N
Endearment	An act or utterance that shows affection	N
Fidelity	Faithful to a loved one and keep to their promise	N
Fondness	Showing tenderness or affection	N
Glorification	Treating something as more splendid than it actually is	N
Idolatry	Excessive or blind devotion to a person	N
Infatuation	An obsessive attachment which makes the person act foolishly	N
Lust	Intense sexual desire	N
Rapture	Ecstatic joy or delight – as if taken to another place	N
Tender	Treating something as if it is soft or delicate	A
Unconditional	Without conditions or limits	A
Unrequited	Not returned or repaid	A
Worship	To be devoted to and full of admiration	V
Yearning	An intense or overpowering longing, desire or need	N

People and Society

Word	Definition	Word Class
Aristocrat	A member of the superior, privileged or upper class part of society	N
Bourgeois	A member of the middle class	N
Commonwealth	A group of people united in a common interest	N
Conflux	A coming together of people or a crowd	N
Conservative	Wanting to preserve existing conditions or restore traditional ones	A
Democracy	A form of government in which the people vote for who is in power	N
Emancipation	The act of freeing or the state of being freed	N
Equalitarianism	The belief that all people should be equal	N
Federation	A union by agreement of several different groups	N
Mob	A disorderly or riotous crowd of people	N
Monocracy	A government led by only one person	N
Orthodox	An established or traditional point of view	A
Patrician	A person of noble or high rank or a very good background	N
Plebeian	Belonging to the common people	A
Populace	The common people or the inhabitants of a place	N
Proletariat	A class of workers who earn their living by manual work – the working class	N
Republic	A state in which the power rests in the people and not a monarch	N
Schism	A division of group into opposing factions	N
Sovereignty	Supreme power or authority	N
Suffrage	The right to vote, especially in a political election	N

Poverty

Word	Definition	Word Class
Bankruptcy	To lose all money or utter failure	N
Beggarly	Like a beggar	A
Depleted	To decrease by a large amount	V
Deprive	To remove or withhold something from the enjoyment or possession of a person	N
Despair	A loss of hope or hopelessness	N, V
Destitute	Lacking food, clothing or shelter	A, V
Distressed	Suffering from great pain or agony	A
Famine	Extreme hunger or a lack of food	N
Hardship	A situation that is hard to cope with or causes suffering	N
Impoverish	To reduce to poverty or to make worse	V
Inadequate	Not suitable	A
Insufficiency	Not having enough power, money or amount of something	N
Malnourish	Not fed enough food	A, V
Meagre	Small, thin or lacking richness	A
Neglect	To pay no attention or pay too little attention to	N, V
Pauper	A person without any means of support	N
Penniless	Without any money	A
Scarcity	When there is a lack of something	N
Starve	To die or perish because of a lack of food	V
Woeful	Unhappy	A

Savagery

Word	Definition	Word Class
Barbarity	A brutal or inhuman contact	N
Bloodthirsty	Eager to shed blood	A
Brutal	To describe a cruel, inhuman, savage aspect	A
Callousness	Hardened or unsympathetic attitude	A, V
Civilised	To be educated, refined and enlightened	V, A
Crude	Natural, blunt or underdeveloped	A
Deprave	To make morally bad or evil	V
Feral	Having the characteristics of a wild animal	A
Ferocious	A violently cruel or as a wild beast, person or aspect	A
Homicidal	Wanting to kill a person	A
Ill-bred	Showing a lack of social breeding; unmannerly; rude	A
Inhuman	Not human or lacking human feelings such as sympathy, warmth or compassion	A
Malice	A desire to inflict injury, harm or suffering on another because of meanness or an impulse	N
Masochism	To take enjoyment from being cruel to oneself through own actions or another’s actions	N
Merciless	Showing no mercy or compassion	A
Ruthless	To act without pity or compassion	A
Sadism	To take enjoyment from being cruel	N
Spite	A desire to harm, annoy, frustrate or humiliate another person	N
Uncivilised	To not be educated or cultured	V, A
Vicious	Bad tempered or violent	A

Ugly  

Word	Definition	Word Class
Appalling	Causing dismay or horror	A
Beastly	Like a beast	A
Coarse	Harsh or of an inferior quality	A
Debased	To reduce in quality or value	V
Deformed	Having the form changed to lose beauty	A
Degenerate	To fall below normal levels of physical, mental or moral qualities	V
Disfigured	To destroy the appearance or beauty of an item	V
Grisly	Causing a shudder or a feeling of horror	A
Homely	Lacking in physical attractiveness	A
Ignoble	Inferior or of a low grade or quality	A
Iniquitous	Something we associate with wickedness	A
Loathsome	Causing feelings of disgust	A
Misshapen	Badly shaped	A
Nauseating	Causing sickness	A
Nefarious	Something extremely wicked	A
Noxious	Harmful or likely to cause injury	A
Repelling	To make people want to leave	V
Repugnant	Not to a person’s taste or offensive	A
Repulsive	Causing people to avoid	A
Vulgar	A lack of taste	A

Villains / heroes

Word	Definition	Word Class
Agitator	A person who stirs things up to make people unhappy	N
Anarchist	A person who wants to change the order of thing. They usually use violence	N
Antihero	A hero who lacks the usual qualities associated with a hero such as courage, strength and kindness	N
Brute	A brutal, cruel person	N
Creep	An unpleasant, obnoxious person	N
Daredevil	A reckless and daring person	N
Entrepreneur	A person who takes the initiative	N, V
Gallant	A brave person who usually does things for the right reason	N
Idol	A person who admired and respected	N, V
Lowlife	A despicable person who has done something to be disliked	N
Mercenary	A person who only does things for money	A, N
Mischief-maker	A person who likes to cause mischief or problems	N
Opportunist	A person who adapts their behaviour to take advantage of the situation	N, A
Protector	A person who protects	N
Rascal	A dishonest person	N
Role model	A person whose behaviour is copied by others	N
Romantic	An unrealistic or exceptionally positive point of view	A
Saint	A person of great goodness	N
Scoundrel	A person without honour	N
Vanquisher	A person who conquers through force	N

War 

Word	Definition	Word Class
Affray	A fight in a public place	N, V
Barrage	A large quantity of artillery fire to protect one’s own advancing or retreating troops	N
Battle	A fight between two opposing military forces	N, V
Carnage	The slaughter of a great number of people	N
Clash	To disagree or to engage in physical conflict	V
Cold war	A political, economic, military rivalry which doesn’t include violence or military action	N
Combat	Active, armed fighting with an enemy force	N
Conflict	A fight that takes over a longer period	N, V
Contention	A struggle between opponents – a competition	N
Crusade	A long, on-going fight for a particular reason – often led by a religious idea	N
Dispute	To argue, quarrel or debate about something	N, V
Enmity	A feeling of hatred or ill will	N
Fray	A fight or a noisy quarrel	N
Havoc	Great destruction or devastation	N, V
Hostility	Opposition or resistance to an idea, plan or project	N
Onslaught	A violent attack	N
Ravage	To cause a large amount of damage or havoc	N, V
Skirmish	A small or brisk fight between very few soldiers	N
Struggle	To advance with violent effort or to battle or fight	N, V
Warfare	Armed struggle between two nations or groups of nations	N

Boredom 

Word	Definition	Word Class
Apathy	A lack of interest, concern, passion for a subject	N
Ardour	With great warmth and feeling	N
Detachment	When a person doesn’t engage with a topic / aspect	N
Eagerness	Impatiently keen or determined to do something	A, N
Ecstasy	Excitement that overpowers a person	N
Elation	A feeling of great joy or pride	N
Exhilaration	To be lively and cheerful	N
Fatigue	To be physically or mentally tired	A
Fervour	With great intensity or belief	N
Frenzy	Wild excitement	N
Indifference	A lack of interest or concern	N
Lassitude	Physical or mental weariness	N
Lethargy	Feeling tired, drowsy and having no energy	N
Listlessness	Showing no interest in something	A
Monotony	A lack of variety and that the same thing is happening all the time	N
Passion	A strong extravagant feeling of fondness, enthusiasm or desire	N
Tedious	Causing a person to be tired or sleepy	A
Tedium	The state of being bored	N
Verve	Showing enthusiasm or spirit	N
Vivacity	Being lively or very animated	N