Rare & Beautiful Words — Set 1: Meanings flashcards
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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.
Learn deck · part of Rare & Beautiful Words · written against: 200 uncommon words with their own Merriam-Webster entries, chosen for sound and precision. Updated 2026-10-10.
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gilded (adj.) · GIL-didthinly coated in gold, or lit to a warm golden glow; (literary) wealthy and luxuriousLight & Color
The museum's oldest mirror hangs in a heavy gilded frame.
Seen from the hilltop, the river was gilded by the setting sun.
She grew up in a gilded world of private jets and summer villas.
Watch out: a gilded cage is a comfortable, wealthy life that still feels like a trap. -
carmine (n.) · KAR-muhna vivid deep red, close to crimson; the natural coloring of this shade, got by crushing cochineal insectsLight & Color
A single streak of carmine ran across the evening sky.
The cardinal's feathers flashed carmine against the snowy fence.
Carmine, made from tiny insects, still colors some yogurts and candies. -
knell (n.) · NELanything that spells doom for something, foretelling its end or failure; the slow tolling a bell gives to announce a death or a funeralSound & Speech
The new mall sounded the death knell for Main Street's little bookshop.
The village bell rang a slow knell as the funeral procession passed.
Each knell from the tower rolled out across the foggy valley. -
lilting (adj.) · LIL-tingmoving along with a light, swaying beat while the pitch lifts and dips, as a tune or voice may; cheerful and buoyantSound & Speech
Siobhan spoke with a lilting accent from the west of Ireland.
A lilting waltz drifted out of the open bakery window.
The film is a lilting comedy about two sisters running a seaside inn. -
knoll (n.) · NOHLa gentle, rounded rise of land, like a little hill; a moundWeather & Nature
We spread our picnic blanket on a grassy knoll above the lake.
The old farmhouse sits on a knoll, safe from spring floods.
Sheep dotted every knoll in the green valley.
Watch out: an archaic verb knoll meant to ring a bell, to knell. -
brown study (n.) · BROWN STUH-deea spell of being blind and deaf to everything nearby because you are lost in deep, serious thoughtMood & Feeling
Lost in a brown study, Felix rode right past his bus stop.
Aunt Nell sat in a brown study by the window, her tea going cold.
Weighing the job offer, Dad stayed in a brown study all through supper.
Watch out: it is neither a room nor a color; study here means deep thought. -
dapper (adj.) · DAP-ursmartly turned out, with tidy, fashionable clothes and a trim look; also spry and quick in the way one movesPeople & Manner
Mr. Haddad always arrives dapper, his tweed jacket pressed and his shoes polished.
The dapper bandleader tipped his straw hat to the crowd.
The dapper old doorman still moved with a quick, springy step. -
salad days (n.) · SAL-uhd DAYZthe green, untested years of your youth; a person's or thing's first golden age, when it was at its bestTime & Change
In his salad days, Grandpa hitchhiked across the country with ten dollars.
Mom laughs at photos from her salad days, all big hair and neon.
In the town's salad days, three railroads met at its station. -
ethereal (adj.) · ih-THEER-ee-uhlfeatherlight and fragile, with a grace too fine to seem earthly; heavenlyForm & Texture
The choir's ethereal voices floated up into the dome.
Morning mist gave the lake an ethereal glow.
Pale and ethereal, the jellyfish drifted past the aquarium glass. -
lollapalooza (n.) · lah-luh-puh-LOO-zuha real stunner; a thing so amazing that nothing else like it comes closePlayful Words
That thunderstorm last night was a real lollapalooza.
Our neighbor baked a lollapalooza of a birthday cake, six layers tall.
The math quiz saved its lollapalooza for the very last question.
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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.
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