Vocabulary Glossary: A Curated Collection

Vocabulary Glossary

Part 1

• Ragtime: A style of music characterized by a syncopated melodic line and regularly accented accompaniment, evolved by Black American musicians in the 1890s.
• Entwined: Wind or twist together; interweave.
• Crumbling: Breaking or falling apart into small fragments, especially as part of a process of deterioration.
• Loom: To appear as a large, often frightening or unclear shape or object; also, a device for weaving fabric.
• Sprawls: A small contrasting part of something.
• Haggard: Looking exhausted and unwell, especially from fatigue, worry, or suffering.
• Tenantry: The tenants of an estate; tenancy.
• Billowy: Characterized by or full of billows; surging.
• Cryptograph: A coded message or the art of writing or solving codes.
• Staggering: Deeply shocking; astonishing.
• Garish: Obtrusively bright and showy; lurid.

Part 2

• Scold: To reprimand or criticize angrily.
• Effluvium: An unpleasant or harmful odor, secretion, or discharge.
• Cognizant: Having knowledge or being aware of.
• Snug: Comfortable, warm, and cozy; well-protected from the weather or cold.
• Reddish: Having a red tinge or hue.
• Bedstead: The framework of a bed on which the mattress and bedclothes are placed.
• Polychromatic: Showing a variety or a change of colors; multicolored.
• Veiled: Partially concealed, disguised, or obscured.
• Splattered: Covered with or characterized by splashes of liquid.
• Forbearance: Patient self-control; restraint and tolerance.
• Lullaby: A soothing song sung to send a child to sleep.
• Rotten: Decayed or decomposed; morally corrupt.
• Demure: Reserved, modest, and shy.