Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Chapters 9–12

by Lewis Carroll
Alice falls asleep in a meadow and wakes in a surreal world inhabited by characters such as the White Rabbit, the Red Queen, and the Cheshire Cat. Learn these words from Lewis Carroll's delightful and witty novel.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–8, Chapters 9–12

Here is a link to our lists for Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll.
15 words 897 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. moral
    the significance of a story or event
    She had quite forgotten the Duchess by this time, and was a little startled when she heard her voice close to her ear. ‘You’re thinking about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk. I can’t tell you just now what the moral of that is, but I shall remember it in a bit.’
  2. custody
    holding by the police
    Those whom she sentenced were taken into custody by the soldiers, who of course had to leave off being arches to do this, so that by the end of half an hour or so there were no arches left, and all the players, except the King, the Queen, and Alice, were in custody and under sentence of execution.
  3. simpleton
    a person lacking intelligence or common sense
    ‘Well, then,’ the Gryphon went on, ‘if you don’t know what to uglify is, you are a simpleton.’
  4. caper
    jump about playfully
    ‘Turn a somersault in the sea!’ cried the Mock Turtle, capering wildly about.
  5. askance
    directed to one side with doubt or suspicion or envy
    But the snail replied “Too far, too far!” and gave a look askance—
    Said he thanked the whiting kindly, but he would not join the dance.
  6. sluggard
    an idle slothful person
    ‘Stand up and repeat “‘Tis the voice of the sluggard,”’ said the Gryphon.
  7. tremulous
    quivering as from weakness or fear
    When the sands are all dry, he is gay as a lark,
    And will talk in contemptuous tones of the Shark,
    But, when the tide rises and sharks are around,
    His voice has a timid and tremulous sound.
  8. boon
    something that is desirable, favorable, or beneficial
    When the pie was all finished, the Owl, as a boon,
    Was kindly permitted to pocket the spoon.
  9. tureen
    a large deep serving dish with a cover
    Beautiful Soup, so rich and green,
    Waiting in a hot tureen!
  10. dainty
    something considered choice to eat
    Who for such dainties would not stoop?
    Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
  11. becoming
    displaying or setting off to best advantage
    The judge, by the way, was the King; and as he wore his crown over the wig, (look at the frontispiece if you want to see how he did it,) he did not look at all comfortable, and it was certainly not becoming.
  12. memorandum
    a written proposal or reminder
    ‘Stolen!’ the King exclaimed, turning to the jury, who instantly made a memorandum of the fact.
  13. suppress
    put down by force or authority
    Here one of the guinea-pigs cheered, and was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court.
  14. dismay
    the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles
    ‘Oh, I beg your pardon!’ she exclaimed in a tone of great dismay, and began picking them up again as quickly as she could, for the accident of the goldfish kept running in her head, and she had a vague sort of idea that they must be collected at once and put back into the jury-box, or they would die.
  15. diligently
    in a hard-working manner
    As soon as the jury had a little recovered from the shock of being upset, and their slates and pencils had been found and handed back to them, they set to work very diligently to write out a history of the accident, all except the Lizard, who seemed too much overcome to do anything but sit with its mouth open, gazing up into the roof of the court.
Created on Fri Jun 22 16:55:32 EDT 2018 (updated Thu Jul 24 17:27:53 EDT 2025)

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