20 Literary Words Every Book Lover Should Know
Learn a new word every day
Free on iOS & Android
The words that fill great novels, from quixotic to vicissitudes. Here are 20 literary words every book lover should know — with what each one means and the flavor it carries.
20 Literary Words Every Book Lover Should Know
Great writers reach for words that carry more than a meaning — they carry a mood. Meet them once and you'll start spotting them everywhere: in the novel on your nightstand, the essay you underline, the line you reread.
Here are 20 literary words worth knowing, drawn from the vocabulary our readers return to most.
Words you'll meet in great novels
1. Quixotic (adj.) — extravagantly idealistic and gloriously impractical (after Don Quixote).
2. Vicissitudes (n.) — the unpredictable twists and turns of fortune.
3. Beguile (v.) — to charm or captivate, sometimes with a hint of deception.
4. Insipid (adj.) — dull, flat, and utterly without flavor.
5. Inane (adj.) — silly and empty of meaning.
Words for beauty, love, and folly
6. Pulchritude (n.) — striking physical beauty.
7. Amatory (adj.) — expressing or relating to romantic love.
8. Foible (n.) — a small, endearing flaw in someone's character.
9. Puerile (adj.) — childishly silly and immature.
10. Esurient (adj.) — hungry or greedy; ravenous.
Words for wit and wisdom
11. Abstruse (adj.) — difficult to understand; deeply obscure.
12. Pertinacious (adj.) — stubbornly persistent and unyielding.
13. Volubility (n.) — the gift of speaking fluently and at length.
14. Expatiate (v.) — to speak or write about something in great detail.
15. Poppycock (n.) — utter nonsense.
16. Veracity (n.) — truthfulness; conformity to fact.
17. Edify (v.) — to instruct and morally uplift.
18. Sapiential (adj.) — full of deep wisdom.
19. Sententious (adj.) — given to pompous moralizing.
20. Imbrue (v.) — to stain or soak, especially with blood.
Read deeper, every day. The Vocabulary app teaches you the words that fill great books — one at a time, with the story behind each.
Get The Vocabulary app