Arts & Culture — Set 2: Meanings flashcards
10 of 75 cards free to study here · 8 topics · the whole deck is built into Willys
The other 75 of the 150 Arts & Culture words, from aria and allegory to chiaroscuro and Kafkaesque: pronunciation, a plain definition and three example sentences, the most common use first.
Learn deck · part of Arts & Culture · written against: 150 words of literature, music, art, architecture, theater and film. Updated 2026-10-10.
Study the free sample
10 cards from the deck as they are. Flip, rate yourself, filter by topic; your progress stays in this browser.
Tap the card or press Space to flip
The 10 sample cards as a list
-
prologue (n.) · PROH-lawgthe scene-setting part that a play, book or poem opens with, ahead of the main story; an event that proves only a beginningLiterature
The novel's prologue is set fifty years before the main story begins.
In the prologue, a lone actor tells the audience where the play takes place.
That sold-out reading was only a prologue to the poet's remarkable year.
Don't confuse with: preface, usually the author's note about the book; a prologue opens the story itself. -
fable (n.) · FAY-buhla short story, often with talking animals, that teaches a lesson; a lie or invention passed off as trueLiterature
In one fable, a thirsty crow raises the water in a jug with pebbles.
The picture book is a modern fable about a fox who learns to share.
His story about meeting the famous author backstage was pure fable.
Root: ultimately Latin fābula, "talk, gossip, account, tale, legend." -
ode (n.) · OHDa serious, often formal poem that praises or addresses a person, thing or idea; any work celebrating somethingPoetry
Shelley wrote his ode to the west wind in 1819.
Pablo Neruda wrote odes to everyday things, from socks to onions.
Her new album is an ode to the clubs where she started.
Root: ultimately Greek ōidē, literally "song," from aeidein, "to sing." -
poet laureate (n.) · POH-it LOR-ee-ita poet given an official honorary post by a nation, state or city; the poet who best voices a subjectPoetry
The state's new poet laureate will visit schools in every county.
Tennyson served as Britain's poet laureate for more than forty years.
Fans call the songwriter the poet laureate of long night drives.
Watch out: the plural is poets laureate or poet laureates. -
aria (n.) · AR-ee-uhin opera above all, an ornate solo for one singer backed by instruments; a dazzling stretch of a play or film where one performer carries the scene aloneMusic
The soprano's final aria earned five minutes of applause.
Puccini's aria "Nessun dorma" ends with the triumphant word "Vincerò!"
The actor's furious closing speech plays like a spoken aria.
Root: Italian, literally "atmospheric air," modification of Latin aer. -
pigment (n.) · PIG-muhntthe fine, undissolved particles that color paint or ink; the natural coloring of skin, hair or plantsVisual Art
Ancient painters ground minerals into pigments for their colors.
Ultramarine, a blue pigment made from lapis lazuli, was once extremely costly.
In autumn, as leaves lose green pigment, hidden yellows and oranges show through.
Root: Latin pigmentum, a substance for coloring, built on pingere, to paint; in Middle English it meant a spice or a dye. -
baroque (adj., n.) · buh-ROHKmarked by the rich ornament and drama that ruled European art, building and music from about 1600 to 1750; that style or periodArchitecture & Style
The orchestra specializes in baroque music by Bach, Handel and Vivaldi.
Gilded statues crowd every corner of the baroque church.
The exhibition traces the baroque from Rome to Mexico City.
Root: Portuguese barroco, a pearl of uneven shape, passed into French through Middle French barroque, used of pearls that were not round. -
playwright (n.) · PLAY-righta writer of playsTheater & Film
The playwright rewrote the second act after the first preview.
Lorraine Hansberry was the first Black woman playwright produced on Broadway.
Local playwrights read new scenes aloud at the café every Tuesday.
Watch out: it ends in -wright, an old word for "maker," not -write. -
seminal (adj.) · SEM-uh-nuhlshaping much of the later work in its field by breaking new groundReviews & Museums
The show includes seminal photographs from the early years of hip-hop.
Rachel Carson's seminal Silent Spring helped launch the modern environmental movement.
Few records are as seminal as the band's raw first album.
Root: Middle English, from Latin seminalis, from semin-, semen, "seed." -
Trojan horse (n.) · TROH-juhn HORSa hidden threat brought inside in an innocent-looking form; a program that hides harmful codeAllusions & Myth
The rival's offer to share the theater was a Trojan horse for a takeover.
In the spy film, a gift painting is a Trojan horse hiding a microphone.
The free photo app was a Trojan horse, quietly loaded with spyware.
Origin: the Greeks' hollow wooden horse, hiding soldiers, which the Trojans were tricked into hauling inside their city walls.
Unlock the whole deck
You are studying a free 10-card sample. All 75 cards of Arts & Culture — Set 2: Meanings, the other 7 Arts & Culture decks, and spaced-repetition scheduling are built into Willys. 14-day free trial, then $14.99 a year.
In Willys, tap Exam Library at the top of your Decks (or Browse Exam Library… under the + button), find the exam on its shelf or by search, tick it and tap Add.
More Arts & Culture decks
← All Arts & Culture decks, with the study guide and topic outline.
About these cards
Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- Senses, parts of speech and pronunciations checked against Merriam-Webster.com, the American Heritage Dictionary and the Oxford Learner's, Longman and Cambridge learner's dictionaries; all definitions, notes and example sentences are original.
- Word selection is our own, from general-reader news, textbooks and frequency data (wordfreq, CC BY-SA 4.0); no publisher's list is reproduced.
These are independent study notes written for Willys. They are not official exam material, may contain mistakes, and are no substitute for your course, your teacher or the exam owner's own publications. Found an error? Tell us — corrections ship as a new version of the deck.
Use of these pages is covered by our Terms of Use.