- extraordinaryadjectiveChapter 1 →
Remarkable or noteworthy in a way that stands out from the ordinary; here used to say Chandrapore has nothing worth special attention or wonder.
“the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary.”
- betrothedadjectiveChapter 4 →
Formally engaged to be married; promised to another person as a future spouse.
“He had come to see his mother and his betrothed, not to be introduced to Indians.”
- artisticadjectiveChapter 3 →
Here used to mean deliberately crafted for effect or impression, not literally about art — choosing vagueness because it feels more elegant or calculated.
“he did not specify them, feeling it more artistic to be vague.”
- monotonousadjectiveChapter 6 →
Unchangingly dull and repetitive, with no variation in tone or character; here describing the cave echo that turns every sound into the same flat boom.
“whatever is said, the same monotonous noise replies, and quivers up and down the walls until it is absorbed into the roof.”
- devoidadjectiveChapter 7 →
Completely lacking or empty of something; here meaning the cave echo has absolutely no distinguishing qualities whatsoever.
“The echo in a Marabar cave … is entirely devoid of distinction”
- pietynounChapter 7 →
Devout religious devotion and reverence; here listed alongside courage and pathos as a human virtue that the cave's echo renders meaningless and indistinguishable from everything else.
“Pathos, piety, courage — they exist, but are identical, and so is filth.”
- pathosnounChapter 7 →
A quality that evokes feelings of sadness, sympathy, or tenderness; here one of the human values the Marabar echo collapses into meaninglessness.
“Pathos, piety, courage — they exist, but are identical, and so is filth.”
- twilight of the double visionphraseChapter 6 →
A mental state in which a person simultaneously perceives both the vastness and the utter smallness of the universe, producing a disorienting, nihilistic sense that nothing matters.
“the twilight of the double vision in which so many elderly people are involved.”
- insularadjectiveChapter 4 →
Narrow-minded and cut off from outside influences; here describing the Anglo-Indian social world that keeps itself closed off from Indian people and culture.
- face valuephraseChapter 9 →
The apparent or surface meaning of something, accepted without questioning whether it might be false or more complicated underneath.
“She had been in the habit of taking the world at its face value, and now it had let her down.”
- thrown in his lot withphraseChapter 9 →
Decided to join or side with a group, accepting whatever consequences come from that choice; here meaning Fielding has chosen to align himself with Indians rather than the British community.
“Fielding had thrown in his lot with Indians, and the consequences were bound to follow.”
- machinery of the lawphraseChapter 8 →
The entire system and apparatus of legal institutions — courts, police, procedures — thought of as a powerful impersonal mechanism that operates on its own momentum.
“the machinery of the law, which had seemed so friendly and so English, was now turned against him.”
- muddlenounChapter 7 →
A state of confusion, disorder, and incoherence where nothing can be clearly understood or sorted out.
“He felt that he was in the middle of a muddle, and that the muddle was India.”
- BrahmannounChapter 11 →
A member of the highest caste in the Hindu social hierarchy, traditionally associated with priesthood, scholarship, and religious authority.
“He was a Brahman, he was a mystic, he was also a snob and a bully, but he was also a man of God.”
- mysticnounChapter 11 →
A person who seeks direct spiritual union with the divine through inner experience and contemplation, beyond ordinary religious practice or rational understanding.
“He was a Brahman, he was a mystic, he was also a snob and a bully, but he was also a man of God.”
- apotheosisnounChapter 12 →
The elevation of something to its highest or most glorified form; here used sarcastically to mock the idea of India becoming a nation as if it were a grand but absurd achievement.
“India a nation! What an apotheosis! Last comer to the drab nineteenth-century sisterhood!”
- drabadjectiveChapter 12 →
Dull, colorless, and lacking any excitement or distinction; here describing the uninspiring sameness of nineteenth-century nation-states that India would merely be joining.
“Last comer to the drab nineteenth-century sisterhood!”
- snobnounChapter 11 →
A person who looks down on those they consider socially or intellectually inferior and admires those they consider superior, placing excessive importance on status.
“He was a Brahman, he was a mystic, he was also a snob and a bully, but he was also a man of God.”
- quiversverbChapter 6 →
Trembles or vibrates with small rapid movements; here describing the way the cave echo shakes and reverberates along the walls before fading.
“the same monotonous noise replies, and quivers up and down the walls until it is absorbed into the roof.”
- absorbedverbChapter 6 →
Taken in and made to disappear into something larger; here meaning the cave's echoing sound is swallowed up and lost into the roof above.
“quivers up and down the walls until it is absorbed into the roof.”
A Passage to IndiaNovel by E. M. Forster