The Color Purple: List 4

by Alice Walker
In letters to God and each other, two sisters, Celie and Nettie, share the details of their trouble-filled lives in the American South and Africa.

This list covers pages 174–240 in the 1982 edition published by Harcourt.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
15 words 107 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. in earnest
    in a serious manner
    She began to cry in earnest.
  2. innate
    inborn or existing naturally
    Such is the innate politeness of the Olinka that they rushed about preparing food for them, though precious little is left, since many of the gardens that flourish at this time of the year have been destroyed.
  3. cumbersome
    difficult to handle or use, especially because of size or weight
    They used to wear very little, but the ladies of England introduced the Mother Hubbard, a long, cumbersome, ill-fitting dress, completely shapeless, that inevitably gets dragged in the fire, causing burns aplenty.
  4. blasphemy
    profane language
    She talk and she talk, trying to budge me way from blasphemy.
  5. manifest
    reveal its presence or make an appearance
    You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don’t know what you looking for.
  6. pallbearer
    one of the mourners carrying the coffin at a funeral
    Harpo say, Whoever heard of women pallbearers.
  7. corrugated
    shaped into alternating parallel grooves and ridges
    It was loaded with sheets of corrugated tin.
  8. meager
    deficient in amount or quality or extent
    Celie, we had to pay for the tin. Which exhausted what meager savings the Olinka had, and nearly wiped out the money Samuel and I had managed to put by for the education of the children once we return home.
  9. ululation
    a long, loud, emotional howl or cry
    And as they struggled to put up roofs of this cold, hard, glittery, ugly metal the women raised a deafening ululation of sorrow that echoed off the cavern walls for miles around.
  10. jaunty
    having a cheerful, lively, and self-confident air
    She is a jaunty, stringy, blue-eyed woman, with hair the color of silver and dry grass.
  11. verbosity
    an expressive style that uses excessive or empty words
    He seemed fond of his grandmother and used to her, but her verbosity produced in him a kind of soberly observant speechlessness.
  12. grievance
    a complaint about a wrong that causes resentment
    When we reached England, Samuel and I presented the Olinka’s grievances to the bishop of the English branch of our church, a youngish man wearing spectacles who sat thumbing through a stack of Samuel’s yearly reports.
  13. sedate
    dignified and somber in manner or character
    The children began to accept this as natural, and began going out to view the sights that interested them, alone. Leaving their father and me to our quieter, more sedate pleasures, one of which was simple conversation.
  14. staid
    characterized by dignity and propriety
    They were so staid looking. So proper. You really couldn’t imagine them actually building—with their own hands—a school in the bush. Or battling reptiles.
  15. exemplary
    worthy of imitation
    As Aunt Theodosia got closer to the part about her surprise and joy over receiving this medal—which validated her service as an exemplary missionary in the King’s colony—DuBoyce’s foot began to pat the floor rapidly and uncontrollably.
Created on Mon Dec 12 11:26:51 EST 2016 (updated Tue Jul 29 12:25:45 EDT 2025)

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