English Vocab Glossary

Root: Ami/Amo

love

Amiable

friendly, pleasant, lovable.

Amorous

showing or expressing romantic love.

Enamor

to charm or captivate, to fill with love.

Root: de

away, from

Dejected

depressed in spirit, disheartened.

Despondent

showing profound hopelessness and discouragement.

Despair

to lose or give up hope.

Root: Eu

Good, well

Euphoria

a feeling of great happiness and confidence.

Eulogy

a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially in honor of a deceased person.

Euphonious

pleasing sound.

Root: Fid/Fide

Faith, Trust

Confide

to share secrets or discuss private matters, to have full trust.

Fidelity

loyalty, faithfulness.

Confidant

a close friend or individual with whom secrets or private matters are shared.

Perfidy

breach of faith or trust, treachery, faithlessness.

Root: Grav

heavy, weighty

Grave

serious, solemn, weighty, involving serious issues.

Gravity

seriousness or critical nature of a situation.

Root: path

Feeling, Emotion

Empathy

feeling the same emotions with another.

Sympathy

feeling for another, especially in difficult times, pity, compassion.

Apathy

absence of passion or emotion.

Antipathy

extreme dislike.

Root: sent/sens

feel

Sentimental

showing tender feelings or emotions such as love, pity, or nostalgia.

Resent

to feel displeasure from a sense of injury or insult.

Sensory

pertaining to the senses (taste, touch, sight, sound, smell).

Connotation

Words, images, and emotions associated with a word

Denotation

The dictionary definition of a word

Diction

An author's choice of words

Extended metaphor

a comparison that is more than one or two lines; usually it is a comparison that runs throughout the whole poem or passage.

Hyperbole

A device that uses exaggeration for emphasis

Understatement

A figure of speech in which the words written are less than what a writer or speaker means; the opposite of hyperbole or exaggeration.

Pun

A play on words based on the similarity of sound between two words with different meanings.

Oxymoron

A contradictory combination of words

Malapropism

Humorous misuse of words—usually by confusing similar-sounding words.

Verbal Irony

A device in which what one means does not match what one says.

Situational Irony

A device in which what one expects to happen does not actually occur.

Dramatic Irony

A device in drama in which the audience knows something that the characters do not.

Syntax

Syntax is the same thing as sentence structure.