- mogul: a great personage
- socialite: a socially prominent person
- recluse: marked by withdrawal from society
- housebound: confined to the house
- mat: to form into a tangled mass
- remnant: a usually small part, member, or trace remaining
- reputedly: according to general belief
- quibble: to evade the point of an argument by caviling about words
- brash: heedless of the consequences
- memoir: a narrative composed from personal experience
- erratic: characterized by lack of consistency
- mortal: subject to death
