The Story of Doctor Dolittle: 40 words to know before you read it
The 40 words Hugh Lofting uses again and again in The Story of Doctor Dolittle 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.
monkey/ˈməŋki/58× in the book
And when that red-faced booby started to monkey with me, I just couldn’t bear it any more.”
parrot/ˈpɛɹət/35× in the book
But his favorite pets were Dab-Dab the duck, Jip the dog, Gub-Gub the baby pig, Polynesia the parrot, and the owl Too-Too.
sail/ˈseɪɫ/27× in the book
And I sail the ocean Blue.
till/ˈtɪɫ/20× in the book
… like the dormice and the water-voles and the bats, they will have to go back and live in the fields where they were born till we come home again.
sailor/ˈseɪɫɝ/17× in the book
The parrot, Polynesia, was sitting in the window looking out at the rain and singing a sailor-song to herself.
jungle/ˈdʒəŋɡəɫ/17× in the book
I hear footsteps in the jungle!”
snuff/ˈsnəf/16× in the book
“Snuff, by Jingo!—Black Rappee snuff.
downstairs/ˈdaʊnˈstɛɹz/14× in the book
So Polynesia took him downstairs into the inside of the ship and showed him the beds, set all on top of one another like book-shelves against a wall.
crocodile/ˈkɹɑkəˌdaɪɫ/13× in the book
And another time, when the circus came to Puddleby, the crocodile who had a bad toothache escaped at night and came into the Doctor’s garden.
pirate/ˈpaɪɹət/12× in the book
When they reached the shore they saw the pirate-ship, with the three red sails …
anchor/ˈæŋkɝ/12× in the book
And you must have beef in cans—and an anchor.”
shark/ˈʃɑɹk/12× in the book
“The sharks!
palace/ˈpæɫəs/11× in the book
WHEN they had gone a little way through the thick forest, they came to a wide, clear space; and they saw the King’s palace which was made of mud.
lion/ˈɫaɪən/11× in the book
So he sent messages to the other animals, like the lions and the leopards and the antelopes, to come and help with the nursing.
mil/ˈmɪɫ/10× in the book
… but drove every Saturday all the way to Oxenthorpe, another town ten miles off, to see a different doctor.
terribly/ˈtɛɹəbɫi/10× in the book
One day a plow-horse was brought to him; and the poor thing was terribly glad to find a man who could talk in horse-language.
clever/ˈkɫɛvɝ/9× in the book
And whenever he walked down the street in his high hat everyone would say, “There goes the Doctor!—He’s a clever man.”
drown/ˈdɹaʊn/9× in the book
And then, just at that moment, the old man’s hat came floating by; and I got into it because I did not want to be drowned.”
dreadfully/ˈdɹɛdfəɫi/8× in the book
Oh, sometimes people annoy me dreadfully—such airs they put on—talking about ‘the dumb animals.’
presently/ˈpɹɛzəntɫi/8× in the book
They all listened; and presently they heard the sound of some one running.
canary/kəˈnɛɹi/7× in the book
“Don’t you hear the canaries singing?”
seashore/ˈsiˌʃɔɹ/6× in the book
And when they had seen that there was plenty of hay in the loft to last the horse through the Winter, they carried all their luggage down to the seashore and got on to the boat.
leopard/ˈɫɛpɝd/6× in the book
Then the leopards got proud too and said they wouldn’t help.
circus/ˈsɝkəs/6× in the book
When the circus-men came to take him back he got so wild and savage that he frightened them away.
prince/ˈpɹɪns/6× in the book
“If I were only a white prince!”
upstairs/əpˈstɛɹz/6× in the book
I want to go upstairs again and see them start.”
fisherman/ˈfɪʃɝˌmæn/6× in the book
But he said he didn’t want to be a pirate, because killing people and stealing was no work for a good fisherman to do.
dungeon/ˈdəndʒən/5× in the book
So six of the black men led the Doctor and all his pets away and shut them up in a stone dungeon.
din/ˈdɪn/5× in the book
They looked under the mat; they looked under all the carpets; they looked in all the cupboards and drawers and lockers—in the big chests in the ship’s dining-room; they looked everywhere.
roast/ˈɹoʊst/5× in the book
“I smell roast beef cooking,” he mumbled—“underdone roast beef—with brown gravy over it.”
swift/ˈswɪft/5× in the book
“They are bad sailors,” said Jip; “and their ship is very swift.
sniff/ˈsnɪf/5× in the book
She found Gub-Gub poking his nose through the bars of the window, trying to sniff the cooking-smells that came from the palace-kitchen.
frighten/ˈfɹaɪtən/5× in the book
When she flew down to get it, she found one of the white mice, very frightened, sitting inside it.
unhappy/ənˈhæpi/5× in the book
The Doctor saw at once that the monkey’s collar was too tight and that he was dirty and unhappy.
cliff/ˈkɫɪf/5× in the book
Then they all took shelter in a nice dry cave they found, high up in the cliffs, till the storm was over.
drawer/ˈdɹɔɹ/5× in the book
Then he sold his piano, and let the mice live in a bureau-drawer.
morrow/ˈmɑɹoʊ/4× in the book
Just think—it’ll be a hundred and sixty-nine years to-morrow since I was here!
conceited/kənˈsitəd/4× in the book
“They’re just conceited.
stairs/ˈstɛɹz/4× in the book
And she went back up the stairs of the ship, humming this song to herself,
grinder/ˈɡɹaɪndɝ/4× in the book
Once when he was sitting on his garden wall, smoking a pipe in the evening, an Italian organ-grinder came round with a monkey on a string.
Pronunciation: ipa-dict (MIT), from Wiktionary.
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