Vocabulary ladder
War and Peace
Book One, IX
2,130 words. Everyday vocabulary (band A) covers 63% of the text; the hard 7% is 49 entries — all of them below.
A 63.0% (374 types) B 5.1% (76 types) C 4.1% (68 entries) D 1.6% (24 entries) E 0.2% (5 entries) N 5.5% (20 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.
- seize · seized ×3
- sofa
- notorious ×2
- porch
- fade
- candles
- clutch
- fond
- midst
- gesture
- lad ×2
- continually
- regiment
- spine
- translating
- sober
- cab
- purse · pursing ×2
- infantry
- stir
- sensible
- firmly
- spurs
- collar
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
- afterglow
- waver
- romp
- tipsy
- dishonor
- growling
- impossibility
- ruble
- slop
- anxiously
- commotion
- gambler
- lighted
- giddy
- refill
- awkwardly
- emit
- frown
- nervously
- ascend
- meddle
- passionately
- folly
- wrench
- chatter
- nearer
- rake
- sly
- ledge
- mustache
- stride
- wager
- intimidate
- brag
- neatly
- radiant
- disperse
- footing
- tug
- erect
- finely
- distinctly
- indulge
- sideways
- brow
- cloak
- staircase
- curly
- evidently
- linen
- pavement
- compress
- wedge
- refrain
- rum
- accustomed
- deserted
- drunken
- tilt
- barrack
- backward
- nod
- supper
- merge
- remarkably
- definite
- faint
Band D — advanced (24 entries)
- first-rate
- of the best kind
- light-blue
- light blue
- overshoes
- a shoe worn over another
- twenty-five
- twenty-five
- crossbeam
- a beam set across
- anteroom
- a waiting room
- duelist
- a fighter of duels
- cloudless
- without a cloud
- startle
- jolted with surprise
- insolent
- rudely bold
- dissipation
- idle, wasteful pleasure
- muttered
- to speak low in the throat
- merrily
- with merry cheer
- nullifying
- undoing; canceling
- elapsed
- passed by — of time
- sill ×9
- silly; foolish
- trembled ×2
- to shake finely
- exclaimed
- to cry out
- draught
- at one draught: in one swallow
- pane
- a sheet of window glass
- flurried
- rushed confusion
- resolute
- firmly determined
- stooped ×2
- to bend down
- swaggering
- a proud, boastful air
Band E — rare & archaic (5 entries)
- clearheadedness
- a clear, sober mind
- scapegraces
- a good-for-nothing rascal
- perceptibly
- enough to be noticed
- unfastened
- to undo; open
- hussar
- a light-cavalry soldier
False friends — common words wearing old senses (2)
- sensible
- aware — the old sense here
- touching
- concerning — the old sense here
Names (7)
- dólokhov ×26
- the cold-eyed duelist, gambler, and partisan
- kurágin ×6
- the family name of Prince Vasíli and his children
- pétya
- Pétya Rostóv, the eager youngest son
- semënov
- of the Semënov Guards
- anatole ×21
- Anatole Kurágin, Prince Vasíli's handsome, dissolute son
- bruin ×2
- the bear's nickname
- stevens ×2
- an English naval officer