- semblancenounChapter 2 →
An outward appearance of something that may not reflect the true inner state; a surface show or imitation of a quality, here pretending to be friendly without actually feeling it.
“Ramsay to soften his voice into some semblance of geniality at least.”
- highhandednessnounChapter 9 →
Behaving as though you have the right to do whatever you want without considering others' feelings or opinions; arrogant, bossy conduct that ignores other people.
“She had been annoyed the other night by some highhandedness.”
- gesticulationnounChapter 6 →
Expressive, often wild movement of the hands and arms to show strong feeling, especially when it comes across as excessive or embarrassing.
“Already ashamed of that petulance, of that gesticulation of the hands when charging at the head of his troops, Mr.”
- metaphysiciannounChapter 7 →
A philosopher who studies the fundamental nature of reality, existence, and knowledge — questions that go beyond what science can answer.
“Charles Tansley thought him the greatest metaphysician of the time, she said.”
- authenticatedadjectiveChapter 5 →
Officially confirmed as genuine and not a copy or fake; here describing a painting that experts have verified really was made by a named master artist.
“stocking, with her head outlined absurdly by the gilt frame, the green shawl which she had tossed over the edge of the frame, and the authenticated masterpiece by Michelangelo, Mrs.”
- knickerbockersnounChapter 14 →
Loose trousers that fasten just below the knee, associated here with an unconventional, tomboyish style of dress for a woman in the early twentieth century.
“She wore very short skirts and black knickerbockers.”
- eighteen-pencenounChapter 8 →
A sum of one shilling and sixpence in pre-decimal British currency — a small, specific amount of money that signals the pettiness and awkwardness of the moment.
“eighteen-pence?”
- wedge-shapedadjectiveChapter 11 →
Having the tapering shape of a wedge — broad at one end and narrowing to a point; here used metaphorically to describe the self as a solid, pointed core that cuts through the world.
“All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others.”
- fire-encircledadjectiveChapter 17 →
Surrounded by fire on all sides, leaving no escape; used here to describe the sensation of being mocked and exposed from every direction at once.
“tuft to tuft of furze, her children laughed; her husband laughed; she was laughed at, fire-encircled, and forced to vail her crest, dismount her batteries, and only retaliate by displaying”
- indefatigableadjectiveChapter 22 →
Never tiring, never stopping no matter how long the work goes on; here describing a relentless, mechanical persistence in dealing out the same treatment to everything.
“The winter holds a pack of them in store and deals them equally, evenly, with indefatigable fingers.”
- reiteratingverbChapter 23 →
Saying or doing the same thing over and over again, often to the point of becoming wearing; here the sea airs repeat their questioning endlessly as they move through the empty house.
“shrouded jugs and sheeted chairs even the prying of the wind, and the soft nose of the clammy sea airs, rubbing, snuffling, iterating, and reiterating their questions —“Will you fade?”
- incorrigibleadjectiveChapter 24 →
Impossible to correct or change; stubbornly persisting in a habit or feeling no matter how circumstances argue against it — here said of a hope that refuses to die.
“taking up mats, putting down china, looking sideways in the glass, as if, after all, she had her consolations, as if indeed there twined about her dirge some incorrigible hope.”
- promptitudenounChapter 22 →
The quality of acting quickly and without delay; here used in a lofty, almost religious sense to describe the swift, obedient responsiveness one might wish from a divine helper.
“by himself to walk on the sand, no image with semblance of serving and divine promptitude comes readily to hand bringing the night to order and making the world reflect”
- witlessnessnounChapter 24 →
The state of lacking intelligence or sense; here used to describe speech emptied of any real meaning — words spoken out of habit rather than thought.
“from the toothless, bonneted, care-taking woman, was robbed of meaning, was like the voice of witlessness, humour, persistency itself, trodden down but springing up again, so that as she lurched”
- amorphousadjectiveChapter 26 →
Having no clear or fixed shape; formless and hard to define; here applied to huge, dark, shapeless masses heaving in the sea.
“have been heard tumbling and tossing, as the winds and waves disported themselves like the amorphous bulks of leviathans whose brows are pierced by no light of reason, and mounted”
- acquiesceverbChapter 29 →
To accept or go along with something without actively agreeing or objecting — a quiet, passive giving-in; here, to stop resisting and simply accept things as they are.
“Carmichael, and Lily Briscoe so that they lay with several folds of blackness on their eyes, why not accept this, be content with this, acquiesce and resign?”
- prepossessionsnounChapter 40 →
Pre-existing opinions or biases that colour how you see things before you have examined them fairly; fixed ideas you bring to a situation rather than forming from evidence.
“going was a reproach to them, gave a different twist to the world, so that they were led to protest, seeing their own prepossessions disappear, and clutch at them vanishing.”
- revivificationnounChapter 31 →
The act of bringing something back to life or vigour after it has faded; here a sudden renewed energy or excitement in a person who had seemed deflated.
“And then, she recalled, there was that sudden revivification, that sudden flare (when she praised his boots), that sudden recovery of vitality and interest in ordinary human things, which too”
- impertinencesnounChapter 32 →
Rude, disrespectful intrusions or interruptions that go beyond what is appropriate; here, distracting irrelevant thoughts that keep pulling attention away from the work at hand.
“And now that she had put that right, and in so doing had subdued the impertinences and irrelevances that plucked her attention and made her remember how she was such”
- ignominiousadjectiveChapter 36 →
Deeply shameful and humiliating, especially in a public or undignified way; here describing a cry of pain that felt like a disgraceful admission of weakness.
“Heaven be praised, no one had heard her cry that ignominious cry, stop pain, stop!”
- dispassionatelyadverbChapter 33 →
Without letting personal feelings or emotions affect your judgement; in a calm, detached, and impartial way — as though watching from a cool distance.
“with blood on its gills) for she thought, looking at James who kept his eyes dispassionately on the sail, or glanced now and then for a second at the horizon”
- particularizeverbChapter 32 →
To turn a broad, general question into a specific, concrete one; to narrow something large and vague down to a particular instance or detail.
“the sky of the soul perpetually, the vast, the general question which was apt to particularize itself at such moments as these, when she released faculties that had been on”
- asphodelsnounChapter 42 →
Pale, lily-like flowers associated in classical Greek tradition with the underworld and the land of the dead; their appearance here carries a sense of elegy and final farewell.
“hand slowly fell, as if she had seen him let fall from his great height a wreath of violets and asphodels which, fluttering slowly, lay at length upon the earth.”
To the LighthouseNovel by Virginia Woolf