Vocabulary ladder
The Count of Monte Cristo
Volume ONE, 1
3,163 words. Everyday vocabulary (band A) covers 61% of the text; the hard 7% is 104 entries — all of them below.
A 60.7% (432 types) B 6.1% (137 types) C 3.4% (72 entries) D 1.5% (33 entries) E 0.6% (17 entries) N 5.3% (54 entries)
Band B — common reading vocabulary
A sample of 24 of 137 — you will meet these often; they are explained only at the fullest help level.
- disturbed
- providence
- eighteen
- honorable
- pardon ×2
- conveyed
- obeyed ×2
- promptly ×2
- interrupted
- proposition
- instinct
- mistress ×2
- mortal
- rigged
- marshal ×4
- vague
- sadness
- disliked
- farewell
- midst ×2
- voyage ×3
- burial
- stern
- glancing
Band C — recognition checklist
All 72 upper-intermediate words in this chapter. Tick the ones you know; the rest are explained at the fullest help level.
- gangway
- impatiently
- rampart
- comer
- calmness
- hasten
- anchoring
- impatience
- forerunner
- gravely
- hammock
- proverb
- procure
- bespoke
- seaman
- detain
- unload
- quay
- whim
- quarrel
- fling
- glide
- scarcely
- vigilant
- rattle
- inquire
- misfortune
- obnoxious
- plainly
- melancholy
- bearer
- invariably
- swarm
- sew
- subordinate
- converse
- franc
- dine
- eagerly
- cradle
- ashore
- dart
- brow
- comrade
- fulfil
- hesitation
- impatient
- prevail
- blush
- contend
- sparkle
- deserving
- satisfactory
- agony
- strait
- lookout
- onwards
- await
- accustom
- dreadful
- spectator
- garrison
- peculiar
- mourning
- volcanic
- choke
- laden
- attach
- packet
- depart
- sailor
- raven
Band D — advanced (33 entries)
- brain-fever
- a fever of the brain, from shock
- first-rate
- of the best kind
- man-of-war
- a warship
- outhaul
- a rope for hauling out a sail
- self-confident
- sure of oneself
- thirty-six-pound
- firing a shot of thirty six pounds
- three-master
- a ship with three masts
- downhaul
- a rope for hauling down a sail
- twenty-six
- twenty-six
- supercargo ×2
- an officer in charge of a ship's cargo
- twenty-four
- twenty-four
- twenty-five
- twenty-five
- custom-house
- the office where duties on goods are collected
- harbor-master
- the officer in charge of a harbour
- halyards
- halyards: ropes for raising sails
- topsail · topsails ×4
- a sail set above the lowest sail
- shipowner · shipowners ×5
- a man who owns ships
- port-hole
- a round window in a ship's side
- lading
- the loading of a ship, and its cargo
- idlers
- one who does nothing
- skilfully
- with skill
- skiff ×4
- a small light rowing boat
- befallen
- to happen to
- insolent
- rudely bold
- bulwarks
- a defending wall
- jib ×3
- a sail set at the front of a ship
- throng
- a packed crowd
- betrothed
- the one promised in marriage
- countenance
- the face; composure
- confided
- to trust with a secret
- exclaimed
- to cry out
- gleaming
- a soft flash of light
- furnish
- fitted out with furniture
Band E — rare & archaic (17 entries)
- a-cockbill
- hanging ready to drop, said of an anchor
- clewlines
- a rope for hauling up the corner of a sail
- jib-boom
- the spar extending the bowsprit
- manœuvre
- to move carefully and cleverly
- disquietude
- an uneasy mind
- compagno
- companion, in Italian
- buntlines
- a rope for hauling up the foot of a sail
- brail · brails ×2
- a rope for gathering in a sail
- sedately
- calmly and gravely
- spanker ×3
- the sail set at the back of a ship
- peste
- an exclamation in French, meaning the plague
- padrone
- a master or landlord, in Italian
- unprepossessing
- unprepossessing: not pleasing at first sight
- oarsmen
- a man who rows a boat
- wroth
- angry
- obsequious
- cringing and over-eager to please
- imperceptibly
- too gradually to notice
False friends — common words wearing old senses (6)
- condition
- social rank — the old sense here
- interest
- the spectacle that draws a crowd — the old sense here
- mortal
- human — the old sense here
- peculiar
- its own; particular — the old sense here
- touching
- concerning — the old sense here
- use
- habit; custom — the old sense here
Names (40)
- calasareigne
- a small island off Marseilles
- canebière ×3
- the chief street of Marseilles
- half-mast
- with the flag lowered as a sign of mourning
- mercédès ×3
- the Catalan girl Dantès is to marry
- morgiou
- a creek near Marseilles
- morrels
- the family of the shipowner Morrel
- pardieu
- a mild French oath
- phocée
- the old Greek name for Marseilles
- phocéens
- the old Greek founders of Marseilles
- policar
- a French family name
- pomègue
- a small island off Marseilles
- porto-ferrajo ×3
- the chief town of Elba
- saint-jean
- a fort of Marseilles
- dantès ×32
- the young sailor this story follows
- leclere ×10
- the captain of the Pharaon at the start of this story
- notre-dame
- the great cathedral of Paris
- morrel ×22
- the shipowner of Marseilles who employs Dantès
- réserve
- a tavern near Marseilles
- jaros
- a family name
- pharaon ×8
- the name of Morrel's ship
- danglars ×18
- the shipowner's clerk, later a rich banker
- civita
- town, in Italian, used in place names
- vecchia
- old, in Italian, used in place names
- rion
- a French place name
- giglio
- a small island off the Italian coast
- orléans
- a French city and royal house
- quai
- a street along a river, in French
- catalans
- the fishing village of Catalans near Marseilles
- cristo
- part of Monte Cristo, the island the Count takes his title from
- trieste
- an Adriatic port
- château
- castle, in French
- elba ×4
- the island where Napoleon was first sent
- valence
- a French town
- edmond ×13
- the first name of the young sailor this story follows
- bertrand
- a French man's name
- garde
- guard, in French
- chi
- who, in Italian
- Château d'If
- the island fortress prison off Marseilles
- Edmond Dantès
- the young sailor this story begins with
- Monte Cristo
- the small island the Count takes his title from