Interpreter of Maladies: "Sexy"

by Jhumpa Lahiri
The title story of Jhumpa Lahiri's collection explores the way people try, and fail, to communicate with one another.

Here are links to our lists for other stories in the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection:
A Temporary Matter
When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine
Interpreter of Maladies
A Real Durwan
Mrs. Sen's
This Blessed House
The Treatment of Bibi Haldar
The Third and Final Continent

Here is a link to The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. cosmetic
    a toiletry designed to beautify the body
    Afterward she took the escalator to the main part of the store, to the cosmetics department, where soaps and creams were displayed like jewels, and eye shadows and powders shimmered like butterflies pinned behind protective glass.
  2. negotiate
    succeed in passing through, around, or over
    She liked negotiating her way past the women planted at every turn, who sprayed cards with perfume and waved them in the air...
  3. torso
    the body excluding the head and neck and limbs
    In less serious moments Dev said he liked that her legs were longer than her torso.
  4. acoustics
    the qualities that determine how sound is heard in a space
    When a group of tourists walked onto the bridge, she could hear them clearing their throats, as if through microphones. Dev explained that it was because of the acoustics.
  5. intertwine
    spin, wind, or twist together
    She watched the clock on her bedside table, or pressed her face against Dev’s fingers, intertwined with hers, each with its half-dozen hairs at the knuckle.
  6. transcribe
    rewrite in a different script
    Once she went so far as to try to transcribe the Indian part of her name, “Mira,” into her Filofax, her hand moving in unfamiliar directions, stopping and turning and picking up her pen when she least expected to.
  7. status
    the condition or someone or something at a particular time
    Work kept her busy, and she and Laxmi had begun having lunch together at a new Indian restaurant around the corner, during which Laxmi reported the latest status of her cousin’s marriage.
  8. samosa
    fried Indian turnover filled with vegetables or meat
    Below the glass counter at his waist were trays of more plump samosas, and what looked like pale, diamond-shaped pieces of fudge covered with foil, and some bright orange pastries floating in syrup.
  9. recuperate
    restore to good health or strength
    The next day the cousin said she and her son were going to her parents’ house in California, to try to recuperate.
  10. herringbone
    a twilled fabric with a zigzagging-V pattern
    He wore a yellow knapsack strapped across his back, gray herringbone trousers, a red V-necked sweater, and black leather shoes.
Created on Tue May 16 10:04:37 EDT 2017 (updated Wed Jul 23 13:55:30 EDT 2025)

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