Scarlet Letter Focused Vocabulary

  1. Ponderous - slow and clumsy because of great weight

  2. Indubitably - unquestionably

  3. Scourged - subjected to severe criticism

  4. Infamy - fame for something evil

  5. Behoof - advantage

  6. Abashed - embarrassed

  7. Sumptuary - designed to regulate habits on moral or religious grounds

  8. Congenial - pleasant, friendly

  9. Inauspicious - not prosperous or promising

  10. Gentility - the upper class

  11. Evanescent - tending to vanish, like vapor

  12. Ignominy - public shame for dishonorable conduct, quality, or action

  13. Brazen - bold

  14. Iniquity - wickedness

  15. Visage - face

  16. Mien - appearance; aspect

  17. Sagacity - shrewdness/wisdom

  18. Efficacy - effectiveness

  19. Mutability - changeableness

  20. Erudition - knowledge acquired chiefly from books

  21. Latent - present but not visible or active; dormant

  22. Odious - deserving of hatred

  23. Ethereal - celestial; heavenly

  24. Petulant - insolent or rude

  25. Precocity - the quality of exhibiting mature qualities at an unusually early age

  26. Acrid - bitter

  27. Enigma - something hard to understand or explain; mystery

  28. Accosting - attacking

  29. Propensity - intense inclination

  30. Misanthropy - hatred or distrust of humankind

  31. Vicissitude - changing circumstances

  32. Introspection - examination of one’s own emotional or mental state

  33. Irrefragable - not to be disputed or contested

  34. Gratuitous - without apparent reason or justification

  35. Penitence - regret for sin or wrongdoing