A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Chapter 5

by James Joyce
In this modernist classic, Stephen Dedalus develops into an artist and challenges the traditional Irish values with which he grew up. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists from the book: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5

Here are links to our lists for other works by James Joyce: Araby, The Dead
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. wayward
    resistant to guidance or discipline
    ...as he went by Baird's stonecutting works in Talbot Place the spirit of Ibsen would blow through him like a keen wind, a spirit of wayward boyish beauty...:
  2. nominal
    insignificantly small; a matter of form only
    He saw the heads of his classmates meekly bent as they wrote in their notebooks the points they were bidden to note, nominal definitions, essential definitions and examples or dates of birth or death, chief works, a favourable and an unfavourable criticism side by side.
  3. tenuous
    lacking substance or significance
    But the nightshade of his friend's listlessness seemed to be diffusing in the air around him a tenuous and deadly exhalation...and his soul shrivelled up sighing with age as he walked on in a lane among heaps of dead language.
  4. drivel
    a worthless message
    Did anyone ever hear such drivel?
  5. tawdry
    tastelessly showy
    He remembered with bitterness that scene of tawdry tribute.
  6. prodigal
    one who returns after a period of reckless behavior
    His courtesy of manner rang a little false and Stephen looked at the English convert with the same eyes as the elder brother in the parable may have turned on the prodigal.
  7. despondent
    without or almost without hope
    I most certainly should not be despondent.
  8. somnolent
    inclined to or marked by drowsiness
    The droning voice of the professor continued to wind itself slowly round and round the coils it spoke of, doubling, trebling, quadrupling its somnolent energy as the coil multiplied its ohms of resistance.
  9. quagmire
    a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
    The heavy lumpish phrase sank slowly out of hearing like a stone through a quagmire.
  10. arbitration
    the hearing and determination of a dispute by a referee
    MacCann began to speak with fluent energy of the Tsar's rescript, of Stead, of general disarmament arbitration in cases of international disputes...
  11. altruism
    the quality of unselfish concern for the welfare of others
    Dedalus, said MacCann crisply, I believe you're a good fellow but you have yet to learn the dignity of altruism and the responsibility of the human individual.
  12. querulous
    habitually complaining
    In the middle of the hall the prefect of the college sodality was speaking earnestly, in a soft querulous voice, with a boarder.
  13. propagation
    the act of producing offspring
    One is this hypothesis: that every physical quality admired by men in women is in direct connexion with the manifold functions of women for the propagation of the species.
  14. vehemently
    in a forceful manner
    Cranly turned also and said vehemently but without anger: Goggins, you’re the flamingest dirty devil I ever met, do you know.
  15. exultant
    joyful and proud especially because of triumph or success
    And the air is thick with their company as they call to me, their kinsman, making ready to go, shaking the wings of their exultant and terrible youth.
Created on Mon Aug 29 17:43:07 EDT 2016 (updated Fri Jul 18 16:31:00 EDT 2025)

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