The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People: 40 words to know before you read it
The 40 words Oscar Wilde uses again and again in The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People that are outside the 4,000 most common in English. Learn them first and the opening chapters read much more easily. Each comes with its pronunciation and a sentence from the book.
christen/ˈkɹɪsən/18× in the book
Gwendolen, I must get christened at once—I mean we must get married at once.
muffin/ˈməfən/18× in the book
[Begins to eat muffins.]
guardian/ˈɡɑɹdiən/14× in the book
Old Mr. Thomas Cardew, who adopted me when I was a little boy, made me in his will guardian to his grand-daughter, Miss Cecily Cardew.
diary/ˈdaɪɝi/14× in the book
[Cecily begins to write in her diary.]
aunt/ˈænt/14× in the book
She is my aunt.
absurd/əbˈsɝd/11× in the book
it is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn’t.
dine/ˈdaɪn/10× in the book
Bring me that cigarette case Mr. Worthing left in the smoking-room the last time he dined here.
nonsense/ˈnɑnsɛns/10× in the book
Oh, that is nonsense!
till/ˈtɪɫ/10× in the book
I shall probably not be back till Monday.
mamma/ˈmɑmə/9× in the book
Thanks, mamma, I’m quite comfortable where I am.
darling/ˈdɑɹɫɪŋ/9× in the book
Personally, darling, to speak quite candidly, I don’t much care about the name of Ernest .
christening/ˈkɹɪsənɪŋ/8× in the book
I have preached it at harvest celebrations, christenings, confirmations, on days of humiliation and festal days.
cucumber/ˈkjukəmbɝ/8× in the book
And, speaking of the science of Life, have you got the cucumber sandwiches cut for Lady Bracknell?
fond/ˈfɑnd/8× in the book
‘From little Cecily with her fondest love.’
ward/ˈwɔɹd/8× in the book
Have you told Gwendolen yet that you have an excessively pretty ward who is only just eighteen?
unfortunate/ənˈfɔɹtʃənət/8× in the book
And I presume you know what that unfortunate movement led to?
consent/kənˈsɛnt/8× in the book
In the second place, I don’t give my consent.
invalid/ˈɪnvəɫəd/7× in the book
I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose.
wicked/ˈwɪkəd/7× in the book
I have never met any really wicked person before.
nephew/ˈnɛfju/7× in the book
… no matter what her size may be, should call her own nephew her uncle, I can’t quite make out.
cough/ˈkɑf/7× in the book
Oh, don’t cough, Ernest.
peculiarly/pɪkˈjuɫjɝɫi/6× in the book
I myself am peculiarly susceptible to draughts.
heartless/ˈhɑɹtɫəs/6× in the book
You couldn’t be so heartless as to disown him.
pardon/ˈpɑɹdən/6× in the book
I beg your pardon, Algy, I suppose I shouldn’t talk about your own aunt in that way before you.
clever/ˈkɫɛvɝ/6× in the book
Is that clever?
sofa/ˈsoʊfə/6× in the book
[Inspects them, takes two, and sits down on the sofa.]
chill/ˈtʃɪɫ/6× in the book
You had much better say a severe chill.
salver5× in the book
[Hands them on a salver.]
kindly/ˈkaɪndɫi/5× in the book
But I’ll run over the programme I’ve drawn out, if you will kindly come into the next room for a moment.
delightful/dɪˈɫaɪtfəɫ/5× in the book
How perfectly delightful!
cloak/ˈkɫoʊk/5× in the book
In the cloak-room at Victoria Station.
flirt/ˈfɫɝt/5× in the book
My dear fellow, the way you flirt with Gwendolen is perfectly disgraceful.
nowadays/ˈnaʊəˌdeɪz/5× in the book
My dear fellow, it isn’t easy to be anything nowadays.
charm/ˈtʃɑɹm/5× in the book
If I marry a charming girl like Gwendolen, and she is the only girl I ever saw in my life that I would marry, I certainly won’t want to know Bunbury.
sooner/ˈsunɝ/4× in the book
I’d sooner die.
din/ˈdɪn/4× in the book
… I see from your book that on Thursday night, when Lord Shoreman and Mr. Worthing were dining with me, eight bottles of champagne are entered as having been consumed.
vulgar/ˈvəɫɡɝ/4× in the book
It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn’t a dentist.
railway/ˈɹeɪɫˌweɪ/4× in the book
As for the particular locality in which the hand-bag was found, a cloak-room at a railway station might serve to conceal a social indiscretion—has probably, indeed …
specially/ˈspɛʃəɫi/4× in the book
The Divorce Court was specially invented for people whose memories are so curiously constituted.
luggage/ˈɫəɡədʒ/4× in the book
He has brought his luggage with him.
Pronunciation: ipa-dict (MIT), from Wiktionary.
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