Vocabulary from The Great Gatsby

Study Notes

Grotesque: Disturbingly ugly, twisted, or unnatural
Example: The narrator couldn't sleep due to a fog-horn and felt half-sick between grotesque reality and frightening dreams
Indiscernible: Impossible to perceive clearly; imperceptible or indistinct.
Example: Gatsby had always had indiscernible barbed wire between himself and "nice" girls
Redolent: Having a strong smell; invoking thoughts or memories; suggestive or evocative.
Example: The house had ripened mystery, hinting beautiful bedrooms, radiant activities, and romances, evocative of shining motor cars and dances
Pretense: An act or appearance that looks real but is false; a false reason to hide the real purpose.
Example: Gatsby might've despised humself for taking Daisy under false pretenses
Stratum: A level of society made up of people of the same socioeconomic status or one of many layers of a substance.
Example: Gatsby gave Daisy a sense of security by letting her believe that he was from the same stratum as herself
Corroborate: To confirm or support a statement by providing additional information or evidence.
Example: Gatsby looked at the narrator anxiously, hoping the narrator could corroborate that Daisy would call
Interminable: Seeming to have no end; tiresomely long.
Example: The narrator tried to list the quotations on an interminable amount of stock, then fell asleep
Tactful: Behaving considerately or sensitively; showing the ability to avoid offending others.
Example: It had been tactful to leave Daisy’s house, but the act annoyed the narrator
Garrulous: Talkative in a rambling or tedious manner; babbling.
Example: The narrator thought a curious crowd- including some garrulous man, would gather, telling the story of what happened
Fortuitously: Happening by luck; done by fortunate chance.
Example: A new world, where poor ghosts drifted fortuitously about