{"id":3531,"date":"2016-06-28T00:00:14","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T07:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=3531"},"modified":"2016-08-15T16:12:13","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T23:12:13","slug":"toefl-tuesday-dark-vocabulary-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-tuesday-dark-vocabulary-words\/","title":{"rendered":"TOEFL Tuesday: \u201cDark\u201d Vocabulary Words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week I\u2019m looking at four more <a href=\"https:\/\/toefl.magoosh.com\/flashcards\/vocabulary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">words from our free TOEFL vocabulary flashcards<\/a>, all used to describe dark things. \u201cDark\u201d is a simple, common word, so learning this more advanced vocabulary will help add variety to your English, instead of repeating that low-level word all the time. Words like the four below will help you show your deeper knowledge of English in the speaking and writing tasks, and could easily appear in any reading or listening task\u2014especially one about art, which is a common topic.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"TOEFL Tuesday: Dark Vocabulary Words\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/guxXgy9k8T0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>(to be) Dreary<\/h2>\n<p>If you want to say not only that something is visually dark, but also that it is emotionally dark, \u201cdreary\u201d is a great word. It describes not only how something looks, but also how that makes you feel. It\u2019s a sad word, used for boring and gray things. A dreary painting, for example, has little color.<\/p>\n<h2>(to be) Bleak<\/h2>\n<p>The line between \u201cdreary\u201d and \u201cbleak\u201d is very thin. The have almost the exact same meaning, but \u201cbleak\u201d is a bit darker. Whereas \u201cdreary\u201d sounds sad and negative, \u201cbleak\u201d sounds depressing. In both cases, the emotion is included with the visual image, but the emotions behind \u201cbleak\u201d are even stronger.<\/p>\n<p>You can also talk about \u201ca bleak future\u201d or \u201ca bleak outlook\u201d (\u201coutlook\u201d = how you see the world); in that case, it is similar in meaning to \u201chopeless.\u201d There is nothing good in a bleak future, only destruction and sadness. If you have a \u201cbleak outlook,\u201d you don\u2019t see any positivity in the world around you.<\/p>\n<h2>Dusk<\/h2>\n<p>Alright, let\u2019s look a word that is used more often for actual darkness. There is little metaphorical or emotional meaning to \u201cdusk\u201d\u2014it is only used for a specific time of evening when the light disappears from the sky. After all, the sunset isn\u2019t the complete end of daylight, is it? After the sun is gone, there is still a bit of light in the sky. Dusk is when that light is disappearing completely, after sunset, when night truly starts. It\u2019s extremely similar to another word&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>Twilight<\/h2>\n<p>You can use \u201ctwilight\u201d to mean the same thing as \u201cdusk,\u201d and nobody will ever correct you. It does have a slightly more general meaning, though\u2014wheares \u201cdusk\u201d is when the light is almost gone, \u201ctwilight\u201d is the whole time that the sun isn\u2019t in the sky, but there is a small amount of sunlight. In other words, twilight comes before dusk in the evening. It can also be used to describe the time in the morning before sunrise (dusk is only evening), but that is uncommon.<\/p>\n<p>The other difference is that \u201ctwilight\u201d is sometimes used metaphorically, especially when talking about a person in old age, using the phrase \u201ctwilight years.\u201d It\u2019s a nicer way to say the final years of a life, without talking directly about death.<\/p>\n<p>Well, that was all a bit bleak, wasn\u2019t it? Next time, we\u2019ll move on to some cheerier vocabulary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week I\u2019m looking at four more words from our free TOEFL vocabulary flashcards, all used to describe dark things. \u201cDark\u201d is a simple, common word, so learning this more advanced vocabulary will help add variety to your English, instead of repeating that low-level word all the time. Words like the four below will help [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13604],"tags":[13621],"ppma_author":[13628],"class_list":["post-3531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vocab","tag-video"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TOEFL Tuesday: \u201cDark\u201d Vocabulary Words - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-tuesday-dark-vocabulary-words\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TOEFL Tuesday: \u201cDark\u201d Vocabulary Words\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This week I\u2019m looking at four more words from our free TOEFL vocabulary flashcards, all used to describe dark things. \u201cDark\u201d is a simple, common word, so learning this more advanced vocabulary will help add variety to your English, instead of repeating that low-level word all the time. 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He\u2019s been teaching TOEFL preparation and more general English since 2009, and the SAT since 2008. Between his time at Bard College and teaching abroad, he has studied Japanese, Czech, and Korean. 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