History & Eras
Knowledge · 104 words
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The words
104 words
- abdicate/ˈæb.dɪˌkeɪt/verb · C1To give up a throne.
- abolition/ˌæb.əˈlɪʃ.ən/noun · C1The ending of slavery by law.
- alliance/əˈlaɪ.əns/noun · B2A union of parties who agree to help each other.
- anachronism/əˈnæ.kɹə.nɪ.z(ə)m/noun · C1Something that belongs to the wrong period.
- ancestral/ænˈsɛs.təɹ.əl/adjective · B2+Belonging to the family members who came before.
- antiquated/ˈæntɪˌkweɪtɪd/adjective · C1So old-fashioned that it is no longer practical.
- antiquity/ænˈtɪk.wɪ.ti/noun · C1The distant past of the classical world.
- apprentice/əˈpɹɛntɪs/noun · B2+The years a young worker served to learn a trade.
- archaeologist/ˌɑː.kiˈɒl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/noun · B2+A person who studies the past by digging it up.
- archive/ˈɑːkaɪv/noun · B2+Old documents kept for study.
- armistice daynoun · C1The anniversary of the hour the fighting stopped.
- arms race/ˈɑɹmz.ɹeɪs/noun · B2Two powers building weapons faster than each other.
- artefactnoun · B2+An object made by people long ago.
- blitz/blɪts/noun · C2A sustained bombing campaign against a city.
- bronze agenoun · B2The age when people first mixed copper and tin for tools.
- burial moundnoun · C1A hill raised over an ancient grave.
- bygone/ˈbaɪɡɒn/adjective · C1Belonging to a time now long past.
- census/ˈsɛnsəs/noun · B2+The old count of a population, kept for study.
- century/ˈsɛn.t͡ʃʊɹ.i/noun · B1One hundred years.
- chivalry/ˈʃɪvəlɹi/noun · C1The code of honour a knight was meant to live by.
- chronicle/ˈkɹɒnɪkəl/noun · B2A record of events written down year by year.
- cold war/ˌkəʊld ˈwɔː/noun · B2The long standoff of hostility without open fighting.
- colonial/kəˈləʊ.ni.əl/adjective · C1Belonging to the time when distant lands were ruled from Europe.
- commemorate/kəˈmɛməˌɹeɪt/verb · B2+To do something so that a person or event is remembered.
- conquest/ˈkɒŋkwɛst/noun · B2The taking of a country by force.
- contemporary/kənˈtɛm.p(ə.)ɹə.ɹi/adjective · B2+Belonging to the same time as something else.
- coronation/kɒɹəˈneɪʃn̩/noun · B2+The ceremony where a monarch is crowned.
- crusade/kɹuːˈseɪd/noun · B2A medieval religious war fought far from home.
- decade/ˈdɛkeɪd/noun · B1+Ten years.
- dynasty/ˈdɪnəsti/noun · B2A line of rulers from one family.
- empire/ˈɛm.paɪ̯ə̯/noun · B2A group of countries ruled by one power.
- enlightenment/ɪnˈlaɪtənmənt/noun · C1The age when reason was placed above tradition.
- epoch/ˈiːpɒk/noun · C1A period marked off by a great event.
- era/ˈɪə.ɹə/noun · B2A long period of history with its own character.
- evacuation/ɪˌvækjuˈeɪʃən/noun · B2Moving people, especially children, away from danger.
- excavation/ˌɛkskəˈveɪʃn/noun · B2+The careful digging up of a buried site.
- exile/ˈɛɡˌzaɪl/noun · B2+The years a person spent banished from home.
- famine yearnoun · B2A year when the harvest failed and people starved.
- feudal/ˈfjuːdəl/adjective · C1Describing a system where land was held in return for service.
- genealogy/ˌd͡ʒiniˈɑlədʒi/noun · C1The study of tracing your family tree back through time.
- guild/ɡɪld/noun · B2+A medieval association of craftsmen in one trade.
- heir apparentnoun · C1The person certain to inherit a title.
- heirloom/ˈɛə.luːm/noun · B2+The precious old thing a family hands down for generations.
- heritage/ˈhɛɹ.ɪ.tɪd͡ʒ/noun · C1Everything valuable the past has left to a people.
- hieroglyph/ˈhaɪ.ɹəˌɡlɪf/noun · C1One of the picture signs of ancient Egyptian writing.
- historian/hɪˈstɔːɹɪən/noun · B2+A person who studies and writes about the past.
- independence/ˌɪn.dɪˈpɛn.dəns/noun · B2The winning of self-rule from a foreign power.
- industrial revolutionnoun · B2The shift from hand work to machines and factories.
- inscription/ɪnˈskɹɪpʃən/noun · C1Words cut into stone or metal to last.
- iron agenoun · B2The age when iron replaced softer metals for tools.
- iron curtain/ˌaɪən ˈkɜːtn̩/noun · C1The closed border that divided Europe for decades.
- knighthoodnoun · C1The rank and code of an armed noble horseman.
- legacy/ˈlɛɡəsi/noun · C1What a person or era leaves behind for those who follow.
- liberation/ˌlɪbəˈɹeɪʃən/noun · C1The freeing of a place from occupying forces.
- lineage/ˈlɪn.i.ɪd͡ʒ/noun · C1The line of descent from an ancestor.
- manuscript/ˈmæn.jəˌskɹɪpt/noun · C1The author's original text before it becomes a printed book.
- medieval/ˌmɛd.iˈiː.vəl/adjective · C1Belonging to the middle centuries between ancient and modern.
- memorial/məˈmɔːɹi.əl/noun · B2A monument raised so something is not forgotten.
- merchant/ˈmɜːtʃənt/noun · B2A trader who bought and sold goods, often abroad.
- millennium/mɪˈlɛnɪəm/noun · B2A period of one thousand years.
- monarch/ˈmɒnək/noun · B2A king or queen who rules by inheritance.
- mummy/ˈmʌm.i/noun · B1A body preserved by drying and wrapping.
- neutral/ˈnjuː.tɹəl/adjective · B2Taking neither side in a conflict.
- obsolete/ˈɒbsəliːt/adjective · B2+Pushed out of use by newer things.
- occupation/ˌɒkjʊˈpeɪʃən/noun · B2The control of a country by a foreign army.
- parchment/ˈpɑːtʃmənt/noun · B2+Prepared animal skin, written on before paper.
- peasant/ˈpɛzənt/noun · B2A poor farm worker of the old countryside.
- pillage/ˈpɪl.ɪd͡ʒ/verb · C1To rob and destroy a town after taking it.
- plague/pleɪɡ/noun · B2A deadly disease that swept across whole continents.
- plunder/ˈplʌndə/verb · B2+To rob a place violently during a war.
- posthumous/ˈpɒs.t͡ʃʊ.məs/adjective · C1Happening after the person's death.
- prehistorynoun · B2+The long stretch of time before anything was written down.
- primary sourcenoun · B2Evidence made at the time by someone who was there.
- rationingnoun · B2+Limiting how much of a scarce good each person may buy.
- reformation/ˌɹɛf.əˈmeɪ.ʃən/noun · C1The sixteenth-century split that divided western Christianity.
- regent/ˈɹiːd͡ʒənt/noun · C1Someone ruling for a monarch too young or unable.
- reign/ɹeɪ̯n/noun · B2The period during which one monarch rules.
- relic/ˈɹɛlɪk/noun · B2+An object kept because it survives from the past.
- renaissance/ɹəˈneɪs(ə)ns/noun · B2+The great rebirth of art and learning that ended the Middle Ages.
- republic/ɹɪˈpʌb.lɪk/noun · B1+A period when a country was ruled without a monarch.
- resistance/ɹɪˈzɪstəns/noun · C1How strongly a material fights the flow of electricity.
- revolt/ɹɪˈvoʊlt/noun · B2An armed rising against those in power.
- ruin/ˈɹuː.ɪn/noun · B1The broken remains of an old building.
- sarcophagus/sɑːˈkɒfəɡəs/noun · C1A stone coffin, often carved.
- scroll/skɹəʊl/verb · B1+To slide a page up or down with your finger or wheel.
- secondary sourcenoun · B2An account written later by someone studying it.
- serf/sɜːf/noun · C1A peasant bound by law to the land they worked.
- siege/siːd͡ʒ/noun · B2+Surrounding a place to force it to surrender.
- space racenoun · B2The competition to be first into space.
- stone agenoun · B1The earliest age, when tools were chipped from rock.
- succession/səkˈsɛʃ.ən/noun · C1The order in which a title passes on.
- suffragette/ˌsʌf.ɹəˈd͡ʒɛt/noun · C1A woman who campaigned militantly for the vote.
- surrender/səˈɹɛndə(ɹ)/verb · B1To stop fighting and give yourself up.
- timeline/ˈtaɪmˌlaɪn/noun · B2A line showing events in the order they happened.
- tomb/tuːm/noun · B2The chamber a person of importance was buried in.
- treaty signingnoun · B2The formal act that ends a war or seals an alliance.
- trench/ˈtɹɛnt͡ʃ/noun · B2The long ditch soldiers lived and fought in.
- tribute/ˈtɹɪbjuːt/noun · C1Payment made by a weaker state to a stronger one.
- truce/tɹuːs/noun · B2A short agreed pause in fighting.
- turning pointnoun · B2The moment after which everything went differently.
- tyrant/ˈtaɪɹənt/noun · B2+A ruler who governs cruelly and without limit.
- usurper/juˈsɜɹ.pəɹ/noun · C1Somebody who seizes a throne they had no right to.
- vassal/ˈvæsəl/noun · C1A lord who held land in return for loyalty to a greater lord.
- world warnoun · B1A war fought across most of the globe at once.