Vocabulary ladder
War and Peace
Book One, XVI
1,879 words. Everyday vocabulary (band A) covers 61% of the text; the hard 7% is 56 entries — all of them below.
A 60.7% (324 types) B 4.9% (76 types) C 4.2% (68 entries) D 1.0% (17 entries) E 0.3% (5 entries) N 6.2% (34 entries)
Band B — common reading vocabulary
A sample of 24 of 76 — you will meet these often; they are explained only at the fullest help level.
- disturbed · disturbing ×2
- flushing
- sofa
- nieces
- outright
- elbow
- carriage
- interrupted ×2
- lively
- upstairs
- fourteen
- gossip ×2
- sincerely
- gestures
- wool
- offended
- piercing
- relieved
- canvas
- mistaken ×2
- bent
- expedition ×4
- behave
- pause · paused ×4
Band C — recognition checklist
All 68 upper-intermediate words in this chapter. Tick the ones you know; the rest are explained at the fullest help level.
- footman
- unaccountable
- joyfully
- outlive
- savagely
- mingled
- indistinct
- affectionately
- foresee
- menacing
- favorably
- doesn
- embroidery
- tenderness
- warmly
- awkwardly
- evoke
- impulsive
- horrid
- rosy
- didn
- shrug
- olga
- annoyance
- scarcely
- glare
- hearty
- chiefly
- clumsy
- inadvertently
- disposition
- acquaint
- aloud
- foe
- distinctly
- acquaintance
- dispose
- summon
- blush
- silently
- cheerful
- evidently
- sarcastic
- mosquito
- remembrance
- spectacle
- unseen
- refrain
- dreadful
- pronounce
- mole
- ringing
- eld
- traitor
- expel
- misunderstanding
- disadvantage
- feasible
- greet
- frightened
- policeman
- splendid
- amusing
- corpse
- queer
- reckon
- embarrassment
- imaginary
Band D — advanced (17 entries)
- well-built
- strongly built
- dryly
- coldly and shortly
- riotous
- wild and unruly
- scowling
- to frown darkly
- escapade
- a wild prank
- extricated
- to work free from
- unabashed
- not ashamed or put off
- bonne
- explained by the text itself
- leper
- an outcast no one will touch
- onerous
- heavy and burdensome
- disconcerting
- thrown off balance; unsettled
- muttering
- to speak low in the throat
- tearful
- full of tears
- exclaimed ×2
- to cry out
- resolute
- firmly determined
- stooped
- to bend down
- handkerchief
- a cloth for the nose or eyes
Band E — rare & archaic (5 entries)
- good-natured
- kindly by nature
- vexation
- annoyance; distress
- ironical
- mocking by saying the opposite
- gesticulating
- to wave the hands while speaking
- embroidering
- decorated with needlework
False friends — common words wearing old senses (3)
- deliberately
- slowly and carefully — the old sense here
- state
- ceremony; pomp — the old sense here
- use
- habit; custom — the old sense here
Names (16)
- borís ×22
- Borís Drubetskóy, the ambitious young officer
- drubetskáya
- Princess Anna Mikháylovna Drubetskáya, Borís' scheming mother
- ilyá ×2
- Count Ilyá Rostóv, the open-handed old count
- mikháylovna ×2
- a patronymic — daughter of Michael
- rostóv ×4
- the family name of Nicholas, Natásha, and Pétya
- rostóvs
- the warm-hearted Moscow family at the novel's center
- vasíli ×3
- Prince Vasíli Kurágin, the smooth court intriguer
- jacquot ×2
- a Frenchman's name
- villeneuve ×2
- the French admiral of Trafalgar
- boulogne ×3
- the French port where Napoleon massed against England
- sparrow
- from the Sparrow Hills overlooking Moscow
- napoleon ×3
- Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French
- pitt ×2
- England's war minister against Napoleon
- madame ×2
- my lady — French
- nicholas
- Nicholas Rostóv, the eldest Rostóv son
- anna ×2
- a woman's name — Anna Pávlovna Schérer and others