- broodingadjectiveChapter 1 →
Heavy and oppressive in atmosphere, as if something dark or threatening is building up; used here to describe the suffocating, restless quality of the hot season.
“May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month.”
- viableadjectiveChapter 1 →
Capable of surviving or functioning; here used darkly to mean an age at which a person is realistically able to die, not too young for death to be plausible.
“She was thirty-one years old. Not old. Not young. But a viable, die-able age.”
- urbaneadjectiveChapter 2 →
Smoothly polite, confident, and socially charming in a way that seems effortless, especially in public company.
“He was charming and urbane with visitors, and cold and contemptuous with his family.”
- contemptuousadjectiveChapter 2 →
Showing a strong feeling that someone or something is worthless and beneath respect; treating others with open scorn.
“He was charming and urbane with visitors, and cold and contemptuous with his family.”
- wore her sorrow on her sleevephraseChapter 2 →
To display one's grief or sadness openly and publicly for others to see; the text uses it to say Ammu did the opposite — she kept her pain hidden.
“She was not a woman who wore her sorrow on her sleeve.”
- LaltainnounChapter 3 →
The Hindi/Malayalam word for a kerosene lantern — a larger, brighter light source used here as a metaphor for the more powerful or prominent person.
“Big Man the Laltain, Small Man the Mombatti — a lantern and a tallow candle.”
- MombattinounChapter 3 →
A tallow candle — a small, dim light made from animal fat, used here as a metaphor for the lesser or overlooked person compared to the lantern.
“Big Man the Laltain, Small Man the Mombatti — a lantern and a tallow candle.”
- tallownounChapter 3 →
Hard animal fat, especially from cattle or sheep, rendered down and used historically to make candles and soap.
“Big Man the Laltain, Small Man the Mombatti — a lantern and a tallow candle. Luminous both, but one outshines the other.”
- luminousadjectiveChapter 3 →
Giving off or reflecting light; glowing. Used here to acknowledge that both figures — the powerful and the humble — possess their own light.
“Luminous both, but one outshines the other.”
- covetedverbChapter 4 →
Desired something belonging to someone else with a strong, envious longing.
“sang Julie Andrews in the black Bata sandals that Rahel coveted.”
- Cuticura powdernounChapter 4 →
A brand of talcum powder widely used in South Asia, with a distinctive floral scent; here it identifies the man's grooming habits and social class.
“He smelled of sweat and Cuticura powder.”
- corrodeverbChapter 5 →
To slowly eat away at or destroy something from within, the way acid or rust damages metal; here used figuratively for the way Pappachi's bitterness gradually ruined his children's happiness.
“Pappachi's moth had managed to corrode his children's happiness.”
- AnglophilesnounChapter 5 →
People who admire and imitate English culture, language, and customs, often to the point of preferring them over their own heritage.
“They were a family of Anglophiles. Pointed in the wrong direction, trapped outside their own history.”
- vacuouslyadverbChapter 12 →
In a mindless, empty way, without purpose or thought; used to describe the aimless droning of flies.
“Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in the fruity air.”
- dissoluteadjectiveChapter 12 →
Given over entirely to pleasure and excess with no self-restraint or moral direction; here applied to flies to suggest their lazy, indulgent drifting.
“Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in the fruity air.”
- ParavannounChapter 11 →
A member of a specific Dalit (Untouchable) caste community in Kerala, historically forced into the lowest-status labor and forbidden from mixing with upper-caste people.
“What was he? A carpenter. A nobody. A Paravan.”
- tampered withphraseChapter 12 →
Interfered with or broke something — a rule, a law, a boundary — that was not supposed to be touched or changed.
“They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved and how.”
- fathomlessadjectiveChapter 10 →
So deep it cannot be measured or understood; bottomless in a way that suggests emotional emptiness or an absence that can never be filled.
“They were a family of Holes. Bottomless. Fathomless.”
- undiscovered speciesphraseChapter 2 →
A type of living organism not yet known to science and therefore not yet formally named or classified in scientific records.
“It was a moth that he had found in the hills above Kottayam, and which he believed to be an undiscovered species.”
- re-returnedverbChapter 1 →
Sent back a second time to where one originally came from; the novel's invented compound word captures the bureaucratic coldness of shipping Estha back to his father as if he were a parcel.
“drawn back by the news that her twin brother Estha has been "re-returned" to the family.”
- neat packagephraseChapter 11 →
A tidy, contained bundle; used figuratively here to describe the act of mentally folding away fear so it no longer intrudes on conscious thought.
“He folded his fear into a small, neat package and put it away, at the back of his mind.”
The God of Small ThingsNovel by Arundhati Roy