Chapter 5 of A Woman of No Importance is here in full — 317 sentences across 64 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter V
Chapter 5 of A Woman of No Importance is here in full — 317 sentences across 64 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
MRS. ALLONBY. The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming. LADY STUTFIELD. The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.
Chapter 5 of A Woman of No Importance is here in full — 317 sentences across 64 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/63 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
recognize with gratitude; be grateful for
From this reading “The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.”
past form of “deceive” — be false to; be dishonest with
From this reading “The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.”
any strong feeling
From this reading “The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.”
a polite name for any woman
From this reading “LADY STUTFIELD.”
a fundamental feeling that is hard to define but that people desire to experience
From this reading “The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.”
Something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others.
From this reading “The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.”
used as intensifiers
From this reading “The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.”
not in keeping with accepted standards of what is right or proper in polite society
From this reading “The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading ALLONBY.
the form of “a” used before a word that begins with a vowel sound
From this reading The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
recognize with gratitude; be grateful for
From this reading The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.
the -ing form of “be”
From this reading The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.
past form of “deceive” — be false to; be dishonest with
From this reading The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.
any strong feeling
From this reading The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
a polite name for any woman
From this reading LADY STUTFIELD.
a characteristic state or mode of living
From this reading The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
a form of address for a married woman
From this reading MRS.
not ever; at no time in the past or future
From this reading The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
a fundamental feeling that is hard to define but that people desire to experience
From this reading The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.
Something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others.
From this reading The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading LADY STUTFIELD.
used as intensifiers
From this reading The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
not in keeping with accepted standards of what is right or proper in polite society
From this reading The secret of life is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
Chapter 5 of A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde holds 317 sentences, grouped into 64 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the public-domain source, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 5 holds 317 sentences of A Woman of No Importance, unabridged, divided into 64 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 5 of A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde exactly as it stands in the public-domain source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 317 sentences, grouped into 64 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 64 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 64 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 5 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 1566 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #854 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #854, a public-domain edition. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 130 minutes of reading across 314 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through A Woman of No Importance section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 5 chapters of A Woman of No Importance to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in A Woman of No Importance, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
