english lit vocabulary

Vocabulary.com is your friend. If you make an account, you gain access to lots of different vocabulary lists, while also being able to make your own. The one I used was called (surprise surprise) 'GCSE English Lit Vocab List' by Whit.L04. I also made my own list using the following words:

plosive, destabilise, marginalise, pentameter, cataclysmic, Machiavellian, consonance, Jacobean, equivocation, fragility, Satanic, iambic, regicide, predestined, juxtapose, paranoia, ordination, invocation, desecrate, malevolent, insatiable, salient, artifice, cessation, fallacy, sorcery, contagion, manic, akin, wanton, complacent, heresy, despot, pagan, ecclesiastical, morality, redeem, allude, notion, manifest, characterisation, narrative, denouement, antithesis, motif, invoke, permeate, colloquial, blasphemous, trajectory, semantic, diction, semblance, intrinsic, autocrat, physiognomy, disingenuous, duplicitous, narrative, mien, parallelism, propriety, zoomorphism, gothic, anthropomorphism, allegory, allusion, amplification, analogy, archetype, assonance, caesura, circumlocution, consonance, euphemism, euphony, hubris, motif, paradox, periphrasis, verisimilitude

I compiled these words from various top-grade essays I had read, and I think being able to use these words was one of the key factors that helped me get my 9s in English. (Along with Mr Salles Teaches English on Youtube)

That's great for you. OP mentioned that their critical feedback was based on their lack of high level vocabulary as opposed to their analysis skills, which is why I included as many relevant words as I could. These words are not only useful for analysing the set texts, but also for creative writing and understanding of any unseen texts in our exams. (It is also important to note that the list of words that I have put here is my own personal list and only includes words that I didn't understand; the list I have recommended on Vocabulary.com includes much more basic terminology).

Vocabulary.com is your friend. If you make an account, you gain access to lots of different vocabulary lists, while also being able to make your own. The one I used was called (surprise surprise) 'GCSE English Lit Vocab List' by Whit.L04. I also made my own list using the following words:

plosive, destabilise, marginalise, pentameter, cataclysmic, Machiavellian, consonance, Jacobean, equivocation, fragility, Satanic, iambic, regicide, predestined, juxtapose, paranoia, ordination, invocation, desecrate, malevolent, insatiable, salient, artifice, cessation, fallacy, sorcery, contagion, manic, akin, wanton, complacent, heresy, despot, pagan, ecclesiastical, morality, redeem, allude, notion, manifest, characterisation, narrative, denouement, antithesis, motif, invoke, permeate, colloquial, blasphemous, trajectory, semantic, diction, semblance, intrinsic, autocrat, physiognomy, disingenuous, duplicitous, narrative, mien, parallelism, propriety, zoomorphism, gothic, anthropomorphism, allegory, allusion, amplification, analogy, archetype, assonance, caesura, circumlocution, consonance, euphemism, euphony, hubris, motif, paradox, periphrasis, verisimilitude

I compiled these words from various top-grade essays I had read, and I think being able to use these words was one of the key factors that helped me get my 9s in English. (Along with Mr Salles Teaches English on Youtube)

As you've said, the most effective practice is consuming as much literature as possible, but this is a long term process; GCSE exams are in 5 months. My personal experience was that I didn't read much between Year 9 and Year 11. As a result, my vocabulary was quite limited and the fastest way I could improve it was my using Vocabulary.com in the weeks before my English exams. The words listed here pertain to the set texts that I studied (Macbeth and Jekyll + Hyde), and so understandably words like 'Jacobean' and 'zoomorphism' will not be particularly useful in creative writing. I'm not sure as to whether you have looked through the 'GCSE English Lit' list that I recommended; I have seen verbs such as foreshadow, evoke and ruminate crop up in multiple scenarios, and I don't think that they are overwhelmingly complex. I do not want my advice to be discouraging for anyone trying to improve their vocabulary, and I know that my method is not necessarily the optimal way to go about improving.

I can imagine that my experience at GCSE was quite to different to yours. I left my revision to the last minute and so efficiency became my main priority. I fiercely disliked both English Literature and Language, and instead focused my attention on Maths and the Sciences. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why our approaches are so different? While I don't know what my marks were for my individual exams, I achieved 9s in all 10 of the GCSE exams that I sat. This was largely a result of my time-maximising methods such as the aforementioned. I hope that anyone reading this knows that they don't have to learn all of the words that I have listed! Most will not be relevant to your text. "Physiognomy" is not going to help you write about Romeo and Juliet, and I haven't seen many of the words from my personal list again. The "GCSE English Lit" list is much more useful.

Vocabulary.com is your friend. If you make an account, you gain access to lots of different vocabulary lists, while also being able to make your own. The one I used was called (surprise surprise) 'GCSE English Lit Vocab List' by Whit.L04. I also made my own list using the following words:

plosive, destabilise, marginalise, pentameter, cataclysmic, Machiavellian, consonance, Jacobean, equivocation, fragility, Satanic, iambic, regicide, predestined, juxtapose, paranoia, ordination, invocation, desecrate, malevolent, insatiable, salient, artifice, cessation, fallacy, sorcery, contagion, manic, akin, wanton, complacent, heresy, despot, pagan, ecclesiastical, morality, redeem, allude, notion, manifest, characterisation, narrative, denouement, antithesis, motif, invoke, permeate, colloquial, blasphemous, trajectory, semantic, diction, semblance, intrinsic, autocrat, physiognomy, disingenuous, duplicitous, narrative, mien, parallelism, propriety, zoomorphism, gothic, anthropomorphism, allegory, allusion, amplification, analogy, archetype, assonance, caesura, circumlocution, consonance, euphemism, euphony, hubris, motif, paradox, periphrasis, verisimilitude

I compiled these words from various top-grade essays I had read, and I think being able to use these words was one of the key factors that helped me get my 9s in English. (Along with Mr Salles Teaches English on Youtube)