The Screwtape Letters

This section presents terms and phrases that are central to understanding the text and may present a challenge to the reader. Use this list to create a vocabulary quiz or worksheet, to prepare flashcards for a standardized test, or to inspire classroom word games and other group activities.

1. sojourn (noun):

a temporary stay

“There is no need to despair; hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a brief sojourn in the Enemy’s camp and are now with us.” (Chapter 2)

2. inveterate (adjective):

deeply rooted, longstanding, persistent in a habit, tendency or feeling

“‘[S]ons’ is the word He uses, with His inveterate love of degrading the whole spiritual world by unnatural liaisons with the two-legged animals.” (Chapter 2)

3. expurgated (past participle adjective):

scrubbed of offensive or harmful material; censored

“He thinks his conversion is something inside him and his attention is therefore chiefly turned at present to the states of his own mind—or rather to that very expurgated version of them which is all you should allow him to see.” (Chapter 3)

4. innocuous (adjective):

harmless; rare: weak

“It is, no doubt, impossible to prevent his praying for his mother, but we have means of rendering the prayers innocuous.” (Chapter 3)

5. luminosity (noun):

brightness, radiancy

“[Humans] have never known that ghastly luminosity, that stabbing and searing glare which makes the background of permanent pain to our lives.