Meet it properly
Every entry has an original illustration with the sentence it brings to life, a plain-English definition, British pronunciation, a note on how the word behaves, and verbatim lines from the classics.
lex·e·um
/ˈlek.si.əm/ · noun
A place of words. From lexis, meaning word, and -eum, a place; as in museum, athenaeum.
The vocabulary app for readers. Lexeum is a curated library of the words that Brontë, Dickens and Woolf assumed you knew. Each one is illustrated, taught in British English and revisited through varied exercises until it is yours for good.
Coming soon to iOS and Android · Your first 25 words are free
Early access is by email — write to support@lexeum.app and we'll send you an invite before launch.
reverie
Definition
State of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts, as if daydreaming
Example
A faint smile crossed her lips as she gazed out of the window, lost in a reverie of summer days.
About
A reverie is a dreamy, half-conscious state where your mind drifts away from what is happening around you. The word suggests wandering thoughts rather than focused thinking, and it carries a gentle, pleasant quality, though in older use a reverie can also be gloomy or melancholy. You might see a person fall into a reverie while gazing out of a window or sitting quietly by a fire, and someone 'lost in reverie' is so deep in thought that the world around them goes unnoticed. The word comes from the French rêver, meaning to dream.
Examples
Mr. Pickwick was roused from the agreeable reverie into which he had been led by the objects before him, by a deep sigh, and a touch on his shoulder.
— Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers
He had fallen into a reverie, with the moss-rose between his fingers. It had lasted some minutes before the young lady broke in upon it.
— Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
From the Lexeum library
gloaming garrulous gossamer languor sepulchral wistful vestibule soporific garret dappled pallid gaunt knell
at sixes and sevens cut to the quick
You have met these words before — and read past them. Lexeum is where you stop reading past them.
How it works
Meet. Practise. Keep.
A session is about ten quick exercises — a mix of new words and reviews. Five minutes over coffee, and your vocabulary compounds.
Practise it eight ways
Thirteen exercises per word, drawn from eight types and sequenced across your sessions — from recognising the word in context to spelling it unaided, and never the same sentence twice.
Keep it for good
Spaced repetition brings each word back just before you would forget it. Prove it again on schedule, and it graduates to Mastered.
3→
7→
14→
28
days
Learning
Reviewing
Mastered
Try them
Practise reverie, eight ways.
You met the word above. These are its real exercises from the library, one of each type. Every exercise sentence is written to teach the word, not merely to contain it.
Picture clue
Which word best fills the blank?
Shown with the entry's illustration: a woman gazing dreamily out of a window.
A faint smile crossed her lips as she gazed out of the window, lost in a of summer days.
Options: anguish · reverie · slumber · vigour
Answer: reverie. The sentence describes someone gazing out of a window with a faint smile, lost in pleasant thoughts of summer. 'Reverie' fits because it means a gentle, dreamy state where the mind wanders away from the present. The faint smile hints at the pleasantness that is characteristic of the word.
Fill the blank
Which word best fills the blank?
The old man stared at the photograph on the mantelpiece, slipping into a gentle that carried him back to his childhood.
Options: quarrel · sermon · reverie · ritual
Answer: reverie. The sentence describes someone gazing at a photograph and drifting mentally back to the past. 'Reverie' fits because it means a pleasant, dreamy state of thought. Here it is triggered by a nostalgic object that carries the mind away from the present.
Pick the word
Which word fits this definition?
State of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts, as if daydreaming
Options: melancholy · vigilance · reverie · delirium
Answer: reverie.
Used naturally?
Is the highlighted word used naturally?
The students entered a reverie of frantic calculation as the mathematics examination began.
Options: Yes · No
Answer: No. Reverie is a dreamy, relaxed state of wandering thought. Frantic calculation during an exam is the opposite: it involves intense, focused mental effort under pressure.
Pick the definition
Which definition fits this word?
reverie
- Sudden flash of understanding or insight about something
- State of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts, as if daydreaming
- Strong feeling of regret or sorrow about the past
- State of intense concentration on a single task or problem
Answer: State of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts, as if daydreaming.
In context
What does the highlighted word mean?
He sat by the fire for half an hour, deep in reverie, until the clock struck and brought him back to the present.
- State of extreme tiredness caused by physical effort
- Feeling of sudden fear or alarm about something unexpected
- State of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts, as if daydreaming
- Period of restless sleep filled with unpleasant dreams
Answer: State of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts, as if daydreaming. The sentence shows him sitting quietly and drifting away from the present moment, then being startled back by a sound. This is a classic use of 'reverie', a pleasant, absorbing state of thought that makes someone lose track of time and surroundings.
Closest in meaning
Which is the closest match?
reverie
Options: melancholy · daydream · slumber · whimsy
Answer: daydream.
Spell it
Spell the missing word
The music filled the room and she drifted into a , barely aware of the rain against the glass.
Answer: reverie. Here, soft music causes her to slip into a pleasant, dreamy state. This is a typical trigger for reverie: gentle sounds or quiet settings that allow the mind to wander freely away from the immediate surroundings.
The stars seemed, to the boy’s eyes, farther from the earth than he had ever seen them before; there was no wind; and the sombre shadows thrown by the trees upon the ground, looked sepulchral and death-like, from being so still.
When I got there, the business of welcome was over long ago; the company was already at supper; and by an oversight that cut me to the quick, my place had been forgotten.
Inside every word
Built like a lesson, not a flashcard.
Every entry in the library, word or phrase, is made to the same standard — the depth is the product.
Original illustration
A scene made for the word, so the meaning arrives as a picture, not a paraphrase.
British English throughout
Every headword spoken aloud, every spelling the British way — sombre, draught, smoulder and all.
Plain-English definition
The core meaning in one clear line, in the style of a good learner's dictionary.
A word-lover's note
How the word behaves: its shades, its settings, the phrases it keeps company with.
Literary examples
Verbatim lines from Dickens, the Brontës and Conan Doyle show the word at work where it lives.
Thirteen exercises per word
Drawn from eight types that climb from recognition to judgement to production — the hardest, spelling, comes last.
Free & Pro
Start free. Stay for the library.
Your first 25 words are free, and they get everything a Pro word gets. No credit card, no trial clock, no account, nothing to cancel. When you have learned them, Lexeum Pro opens the rest of the library.
Free
- Your first 25 words
- Every exercise type and review
- Streaks, mastery and progress, backed up if you sign in
Lexeum Pro
- Everything in Free
- Every word beyond your first 25
- New words added regularly
Monthly or annual subscription. Price shown in your app store. Cancel at any time.
Get early access
Join the early-access list and we’ll send you an invite before launch.