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Vocabulary

Rare & Beautiful Words flashcards

8 decks · 330 cards · built into Willys · free samples below

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Written against: 200 uncommon words with their own Merriam-Webster entries, chosen for sound and precision. Updated 2026-10-10.

What's in it

Every deck follows the course outline, with tags you can study or suspend topic by topic. Open a deck to study its free sample right here.

Learn · 4 decks · 250 cards

Concepts, mechanisms and the questions a course or exam asks about them.

Set 1: Meanings The 100 most common of the 200 Rare & Beautiful words, from gloaming and zephyr to kerfuffle: pronunciation, a plain definition and three example sentences, the most common use first. 10 free · 100 cards in the app Set 1: In Context Fill the blank: 25 of the Set 1 words, each in a fresh sentence from gardens, trails, kitchens and fairgrounds, whose clues point to one word of the pack (where a second also fits, the back says so). 10 free · 25 cards in the app Set 2: Meanings The rarer 100 of the 200 Rare & Beautiful Words, from petrichor and susurrus to bumbershoot and williwaw: pronunciation, a plain definition and three example sentences, the most common use first. 10 free · 100 cards in the app Set 2: In Context Fill the blank: 25 of the Set 2 words, each in a fresh sentence from gardens, trails, kitchens and fairgrounds, whose clues point to one word of the pack (where a second also fits, the back says so). 10 free · 25 cards in the app

Drills · 2 decks · 50 cards

Short answers and cloze blanks for the facts you simply have to know cold.

Set 1: Quick Drills Meaning to word: 25 of the Set 1 words, from a fresh one-line definition back to the word itself, with one new example of it in use. 10 free · 25 cards in the app Set 2: Quick Drills Meaning to word: 25 of the Set 2 words, from a fresh one-line definition back to the word itself, with one new example of it in use. 10 free · 25 cards in the app

Practice · 2 decks · 30 questions

Multiple-choice practice questions, one best answer each, with the reasoning.

Set 1: Practice Fifteen sentence-completion questions on the Set 1 words: four choices from the pack, one blank, and why the most tempting wrong answer fails. 6 free · 15 questions in the app Set 2: Practice Fifteen sentence-completion questions on the Set 2 words: four choices from the pack, one blank, and why the most tempting wrong answer fails. 6 free · 15 questions in the app

Study guide

Topics covered

The decks follow the order of the course outline. Numbers are cards per topic.

  • Light & Color 41
  • Sound & Speech 40
  • Weather & Nature 44
  • Mood & Feeling 42
  • People & Manner 42
  • Time & Change 45
  • Form & Texture 39
  • Playful Words 37

A study plan

  • 12 new cards a day covers everything in a month, leaving the last weeks for review.
  • 6 new cards a day covers everything in two months, leaving the last weeks for review.
  • 5 new cards a day covers everything in three months, leaving the last weeks for review.

Willys schedules reviews for you (FSRS spaced repetition), so the daily number above is only for new cards; reviews of what you have learned come back on their own. Study a topic's cards right after you meet it in class, suspend topics you have not reached yet, and use the app's quiz mode in the final two weeks.

How to get these decks

  1. Install Willys on your iPhone, iPad or Mac — App Store. 14-day free trial, then $14.99 a year.
  2. 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.
  3. Study. The exam comes in as its own collapsible folder, every card scheduled by FSRS spaced repetition. Nothing you already have is changed.

Every deck is built into Willys

All 8 Rare & Beautiful Words decks (330 cards), with FSRS spaced repetition, quizzes and mock tests, on iPhone, iPad and Mac. 14-day free trial, then $14.99 a year.

Get the app

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.

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.
  • Senses and parts of speech 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.
  • Facts on hoarfrost and starling flocks checked against the NOAA National Weather Service glossary, the National Audubon Society and the RSPB.

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.

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