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Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases by Grenville Kleiser — audiobook cover art

Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases

Grenville Kleiser
GENREself-help
LANGUAGEEnglish
LISTENED8
RATING4.8
RELEASED2026

Details

✍️

Author

Grenville Kleiser

🌐

Language

English

📚

Genre

self-help

About this Audiobook

by Grenville Kleiser

📖 Synopsis & Plot Overview

Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases, an audiobook by Grenville Kleiser, opens with a promise: a toolbox of words that can sharpen your everyday speech.

🔍 Key Themes & Narrative Depth

The book is a playful yet earnest exploration of language, offering similes, idioms, and rhetorical flourishes that feel like secret keys to a richer conversation. It invites listeners to imagine themselves as wordsmiths, crafting sentences that sing and persuade, while gently teasing the limits of everyday expression.

What makes this collection resonate is its blend of humor and humility. Kleiser’s tone is conversational, as if he’s sharing a favorite recipe with a friend, yet he never shies from pointing out how a single phrase can shift a whole narrative. The result is a lively dialogue between author and audience, a mental rehearsal of eloquence that feels both accessible and ambitious.

🎙️ Listening Experience

The narration by a chorus of voices turns the page into a living room. Each narrator brings a distinct cadence—some warm, some brisk, some theatrical—so the phrases never feel flat. The varied tones keep the listener engaged, and the audiobook’s free availability on Unodio invites you to experience this linguistic feast without a price tag.

Chapters

01
Introduction
Grenville Kleiser
12:20self-help
02
How To Use This Book
Grenville Kleiser
4:52self-help
03
Plan of Study
Grenville Kleiser
4:52self-help
04
Useful Phrases: abandoned hope ample culture
Grenville Kleiser
5:13self-help
05
Useful Phrases: amusing artlessness azure sky
Grenville Kleiser
4:11self-help
06
Useful Phrases: babbling gossip bygone period
Grenville Kleiser
3:57self-help
07
Useful Phrases: cabalistic phrase collateral duties
Grenville Kleiser
2:48self-help
08
Useful Phrases: collective wisdom contingent reasons
Grenville Kleiser
2:44self-help
09
Useful Phrases: continuous endeavor cynical disregard
Grenville Kleiser
4:08self-help
10
Useful Phrases: damaging admission diligently propagated
Grenville Kleiser
6:28self-help
11
Useful Phrases: dim comprehension dynastic insolence
Grenville Kleiser
5:51self-help
12
Useful Phrases: eager animosity entrancing sadness
Grenville Kleiser
5:50self-help
13
Useful Phrases: enveloping presence exultant condition
Grenville Kleiser
4:55self-help
14
Useful Phrases: facetious mood flickering conscience
Grenville Kleiser
2:53self-help
15
Useful Phrases: flighty obstinacy futile babble
Grenville Kleiser
3:16self-help
16
Useful Phrases: gabbling reminiscences gymnastic agility
Grenville Kleiser
4:32self-help
17
Useful Phrases: habitual deference hysterical agitation
Grenville Kleiser
4:54self-help
18
Useful Phrases: iconoclastic attitude incipient fancy
Grenville Kleiser
7:06self-help
19
Useful Phrases: incisive critic inquisitional rack
Grenville Kleiser
5:46self-help
20
Useful Phrases: inquisitive observer isolated splendor
Grenville Kleiser
5:46self-help
21
Useful Phrases: jaded sensibility lying equivocations
Grenville Kleiser
5:31self-help
22
Useful Phrases: maddening monotony meteoric splendors
Grenville Kleiser
4:26self-help
23
Useful Phrases: methodical regularity mythical kingdom
Grenville Kleiser
3:52self-help
24
Useful Phrases: naive manner overworked drudge
Grenville Kleiser
6:20self-help
25
Useful Phrases: pacific disposition political malcontent
Grenville Kleiser
7:26self-help
26
Useful Phrases: polluting taints pyrotechnic outburst
Grenville Kleiser
8:56self-help
27
Useful Phrases: quailing culprit remarkable sagacity
Grenville Kleiser
3:20self-help
28
Useful Phrases: remedial measure ruthless commercialism
Grenville Kleiser
2:33self-help
29
Useful Phrases: sacerdotal preeminence shuddering reluctance
Grenville Kleiser
4:50self-help
30
Useful Phrases: shuffling preliminaries starched sterility
Grenville Kleiser
5:02self-help
31
Useful Phrases: starlit eminence systematic interaction
Grenville Kleiser
3:55self-help
32
Useful Phrases: tacit assumption tyrannical disposition
Grenville Kleiser
5:08self-help
33
Useful Phrases: ubiquitous activity undue predilection
Grenville Kleiser
4:04self-help
34
Useful Phrases: undulating hills unpalatable truth
Grenville Kleiser
4:08self-help
35
Useful Phrases: unparalleled atrocities utmost scorn
Grenville Kleiser
4:14self-help
36
Useful Phrases: vacant stupidity vulnerable foe
Grenville Kleiser
3:08self-help
37
Useful Phrases: wabbling enterprise zoologically considered
Grenville Kleiser
3:12self-help
38
Significant Phrases: abashed and ashamed awkwardness and crudity
Grenville Kleiser
4:16self-help
39
Significant Phrases: babel and confusion civilized and cultured
Grenville Kleiser
4:52self-help
40
Significant Phrases: clamorous and wild cynical and contemptuous
Grenville Kleiser
5:07self-help
41
Significant Phrases: dangers and pitfalls digressive and wanton
Grenville Kleiser
3:39self-help
42
Significant Phrases: dilatory and hesitating dwindle and disappear
Grenville Kleiser
4:44self-help
43
Significant Phrases: eagerness and ecstasy exuberant and infectious
Grenville Kleiser
6:17self-help
44
Significant Phrases: fabulous and fabricated futile and untrustworthy
Grenville Kleiser
4:48self-help
45
Significant Phrases: gaiety and grace hypocrisy and impudence
Grenville Kleiser
5:18self-help
46
Significant Phrases: ideas and achievements indomitable and dogged
Grenville Kleiser
3:25self-help
47
Significant Phrases: indorsed and applauded isolated and detached
Grenville Kleiser
3:37self-help
48
Significant Phrases: jabber and chatter luxury and pomp
Grenville Kleiser
4:08self-help
49
Significant Phrases: madness and folly mystic and wonderful
Grenville Kleiser
2:55self-help
50
Significant Phrases: nagging and squabbling overworked and fagged
Grenville Kleiser
4:11self-help
51
Significant Phrases: pains and penalties puzzled and affected
Grenville Kleiser
6:09self-help
52
Significant Phrases: quackery and incompetence rust and disuse
Grenville Kleiser
4:59self-help
53
Significant Phrases: sad and melancholy spacious and lofty
Grenville Kleiser
3:49self-help
54
Significant Phrases: sparkling and spontaneous sympathetic and consoling
Grenville Kleiser
4:07self-help
55
Significant Phrases: taciturn and laconic tyrant and oppressor
Grenville Kleiser
4:48self-help
56
Significant Phrases: unaccountable and grotesque vulgar and artificial
Grenville Kleiser
5:50self-help
57
Significant Phrases: wandering and erratic zigzag and deviating
Grenville Kleiser
2:18self-help
58
Felicitous Phrases: ability, humor, and perspicacity busy, active, and toiling
Grenville Kleiser
5:05self-help
59
Felicitous Phrases: curious, fantastic, and charming calculated, logical, and dispassionate
Grenville Kleiser
4:11self-help
60
Felicitous Phrases: dwarfed, scant, and wretched danger, difficulty, and hardship
Grenville Kleiser
4:32self-help
61
Felicitous Phrases: eagerness, heartiness, and vehemence fustian, padding, and irrelevancy
Grenville Kleiser
4:36self-help
62
Felicitous Phrases: gaunt, desolate, and despoiled humor, fancy, and susceptibility
Grenville Kleiser
3:41self-help
63
Felicitous Phrases: idle, profuse, and profligate luxurious, whimsical, and selfish
Grenville Kleiser
4:21self-help
64
Felicitous Phrases: magnificent, sumptuous, and stately overriding, arrogant, and quarrelsome
Grenville Kleiser
3:51self-help
65
Felicitous Phrases: pain, toil, and privation puzzles, tangles, and questionings
Grenville Kleiser
3:45self-help
66
Felicitous Phrases: quarrels, misunderstandings, and enmities rush, roar, and shriek
Grenville Kleiser
2:38self-help
67
Felicitous Phrases: sacredness, dignity, and loveliness sympathy, service, and compassion
Grenville Kleiser
4:05self-help
68
Felicitous Phrases: talent, scholarship, and refinement wrinkled, careworn, and pale
Grenville Kleiser
5:08self-help
69
Impressive Phrases: able, skilful,... business, profession,...
Grenville Kleiser
4:42self-help
70
Impressive Phrases: candid, sincere,... dull, heavy,...
Grenville Kleiser
6:05self-help
71
Impressive Phrases: earth, air,... gross, academic,..
Grenville Kleiser
6:19self-help
72
Impressive Phrases: habit, custom,... lucidity, impressiveness,...
Grenville Kleiser
5:42self-help
73
Impressive Phrases: malice, anger,... purpose, meaning,...
Grenville Kleiser
5:40self-help
74
Edit: Impressive Phrases: quack, imposture,... symmetry, proportion,..
Grenville Kleiser
4:21self-help
75
Edit: Impressive Phrases: tact, courtesy,... worry, annoyance,...
Grenville Kleiser
4:10self-help
76
Prepositional Phrases of: abandon of spontaneity business of life
Grenville Kleiser
4:36self-help
77
Prepositional Phrases of: cadences of delirium dust of defeat
Grenville Kleiser
3:53self-help
78
Prepositional Phrases of: earnestness of enthusiasm futility of pride
Grenville Kleiser
4:13self-help
79
Prepositional Phrases of: gaiety of spirit irony of life
Grenville Kleiser
4:02self-help
80
Prepositional Phrases of: jangle of sounds overflow of vitality
Grenville Kleiser
4:11self-help
81
Prepositional Phrases of: page of desolation ruts of conventionality
Grenville Kleiser
4:53self-help
82
Prepositional Phrases of: sadness of soul system of aspersion
Grenville Kleiser
3:35self-help
83
Prepositional Phrases by: affected by externals hushed by denial
Grenville Kleiser
3:06self-help
84
Prepositional Phrases by: impelled by duty wrenched by emotions
Grenville Kleiser
3:33self-help
85
Prepositional Phrases in: absorbed in meditation kept in abeyance
Grenville Kleiser
3:16self-help
86
Prepositional Phrases in: landmarks in memory weak in conception
Grenville Kleiser
3:48self-help
87
Prepositional Phrases into: abashed into silence goaded into action
Grenville Kleiser
1:59self-help
88
Prepositional Phrases into: hushed into silence withdraw into solitude
Grenville Kleiser
1:51self-help
89
Prepositional Phrases to: addicted to flattery hostile to progress
Grenville Kleiser
1:51self-help
90
Prepositional Phrases to: impervious to suggestion yield to reason
Grenville Kleiser
2:28self-help
91
Prepositional Phrases with: abounding with plenty intoxicated with joy
Grenville Kleiser
2:23self-help
92
Prepositional Phrases with: kindle with enthusiasm work with zeal
Grenville Kleiser
2:30self-help
93
Business Phrases
Grenville Kleiser
24:37self-help
94
Literary Expressions: A bitterness crept into her face A nimble witted opponent
Grenville Kleiser
6:53self-help
95
Literary Expressions: A painful thought was flooding his mind A wordless farewell
Grenville Kleiser
6:27self-help
96
Literary Expressions: Absolutely vulgarized by too perpetual a parroting Awaiting his summons to the eternal silence
Grenville Kleiser
8:19self-help
97
Literary Expressions: Bandied about from mouth to mouth Dull black eyes under their precipice of brows
Grenville Kleiser
6:48self-help
98
Literary Expressions: Earth danced under a heat haze Guilty of girlish sentimentality
Grenville Kleiser
4:07self-help
99
Literary Expressions: Half choked by a rising paroxysm of rage Humiliating paltriness of revenge
Grenville Kleiser
9:26self-help
100
Literary Expressions: I capitulated by inadvertence Kiss provoking lips
Grenville Kleiser
5:07self-help
101
Literary Expressions: Laden with the poignant scent of the garden honeysuckle Rudely reminded of life's serious issues
Grenville Kleiser
10:45self-help
102
Literary Expressions: Sacrificed to a futile sort of treadmill Swift summer into the autumn flowed
Grenville Kleiser
7:27self-help
103
Literary Expressions: Taking the larger sweeps in the march of mind The hungry curiosity of the mind
Grenville Kleiser
8:09self-help
104
Literary Expressions: The idiosyncratic peculiarities of thought The swing of the pendulum through an arch of centuries
Grenville Kleiser
9:38self-help
105
Literary Expressions: The tempered daylight of an olive garden Twilight creeps upon the darkening mind
Grenville Kleiser
5:34self-help
106
Literary Expressions: Unapproachable grandeur and simplicity Your mind enthroned in the seventh circle of content
Grenville Kleiser
3:39self-help
107
Striking Similes: A blind rage like a fire swept over him And the smile she softly uses fills the silence like a speech
Grenville Kleiser
10:55self-help
108
Striking Similes: As a child in play scatters... Awkward as a cart horse
Grenville Kleiser
6:39self-help
109
Striking Similes: Babbling like a child Dull as champagne
Grenville Kleiser
6:33self-help
110
Striking Similes: Each like a corpse within its grave Great scarlet poppies lay in drifts ...
Grenville Kleiser
4:36self-help
111
Striking Similes: Hair as harsh as tropical grass and gray as ashes Hushed like a breathless lyre
Grenville Kleiser
9:20self-help
112
Striking Similes: I had grown pure as the dawn and the dew Kingdoms melt away like snow
Grenville Kleiser
3:37self-help
113
Striking Similes: Laboring like a giant Like a yellow silken scarf the thick fog hangs
Grenville Kleiser
7:04self-help
114
Striking Similes: Like an alien ghost I stole away Like sweet thoughts in a dream
Grenville Kleiser
6:31self-help
115
Striking Similes: Like the awful shadow of some unseen power Lovely the land unknown...
Grenville Kleiser
6:33self-help
116
Striking Similes: March on my soul nor like the laggard stay Quivering like an eager race horse to start
Grenville Kleiser
6:49self-help
117
Striking Similes: Rage, rage ye tears, that never more should creep... Swifter than the twinkling of an eye
Grenville Kleiser
10:26self-help
118
Striking Similes: Talking and thinking became to him... The music almost died away...
Grenville Kleiser
6:35self-help
119
Striking Similes: The name that cuts into my soul like a knife Then the lover sighing like furnace
Grenville Kleiser
8:28self-help
120
Striking Similes: Theories sprouted in his mind like mushrooms Turning easily and securely as on a perfect axle
Grenville Kleiser
6:22self-help
121
Striking Similes: Unbends like a loosened bow Youth like a summer morn
Grenville Kleiser
8:19self-help
122
Conversational Phrases: A most extraordinary idea! Human nature interests me very much indeed
Grenville Kleiser
6:39self-help
123
Conversational Phrases: I admire your foresight I could never forgive myself for that
Grenville Kleiser
7:29self-help
124
Edit: Conversational Phrases: I dare say your intuition is quite right I seem to have heard that sentiment before
Grenville Kleiser
9:03self-help
125
Conversational Phrases: I shall at once proceed to forget it It has never occurred to me
Grenville Kleiser
6:46self-help
126
Conversational Phrases: It is a curious fact It would take too long to formulate my thought
Grenville Kleiser
6:17self-help
127
Conversational Phrases: Join us, please, when you have time Surely you would not countenance that
Grenville Kleiser
7:01self-help
128
Conversational Phrases: Tell me in what way you want me to help you True, I forgot!
Grenville Kleiser
6:39self-help
129
Conversational Phrases: Undeniably true Would you mind telling me your opinion?
Grenville Kleiser
3:47self-help
130
Conversational Phrases: Yes and no Your statement is somewhat startling
Grenville Kleiser
4:50self-help
131
Public Speaking Phrases: A fact of vast moment And next I would ask
Grenville Kleiser
7:30self-help
132
Public Speaking Phrases: And now allow me to call attention Away then with the notion
Grenville Kleiser
8:02self-help
133
Public Speaking Phrases: Be assured, then But it has been suggested to me
Grenville Kleiser
4:56self-help
134
Public Speaking Phrases: Can it be supposed Granting all this
Grenville Kleiser
4:13self-help
135
Public Speaking Phrases: Had I time for all that might be said However, it is to me a very refreshing thing
Grenville Kleiser
3:16self-help
136
Public Speaking Phrases: I abide by my statement I am willing to know
Grenville Kleiser
6:16self-help
137
Public Speaking Phrases: I anticipate with pleasing expectation I distrust all general theories of
Grenville Kleiser
7:39self-help
138
Public Speaking Phrases: I do again and again urge upon you I hasten to concede
Grenville Kleiser
8:11self-help
139
Public Speaking Phrases: I have a dark suspicion I hope you will not accuse me
Grenville Kleiser
11:50self-help
140
Public Speaking Phrases: I imagine that no one will be disposed I rejoice to think I remark here
Grenville Kleiser
9:24self-help
141
Public Speaking Phrases: I remember a reference made I thank you very sincerely for the honor
Grenville Kleiser
9:42self-help
142
Public Speaking Phrases: I think I am correct in saying I yielded to the earnest solicitations
Grenville Kleiser
10:39self-help
143
Public Speaking Phrases: If any man be so persuaded In widening our view
Grenville Kleiser
10:38self-help
144
Public Speaking Phrases: Indeed, can anyone tell me It is my present purpose
Grenville Kleiser
9:25self-help
145
Public Speaking Phrases: It is natural to ask the question It may still more probably be said
Grenville Kleiser
5:39self-help
146
Public Speaking Phrases: It must be a cause of delight Just the reverse is true
Grenville Kleiser
5:22self-help
147
Public Speaking Phrases: Language is inadequate to voice my appreciation My regret is intensified by the thought
Grenville Kleiser
8:23self-help
148
Public Speaking Phrases: Nay, I boldly say Now, you will understand from this
Grenville Kleiser
5:44self-help
149
Public Speaking Phrases: Observe again Surely it is not too much for me to say
Grenville Kleiser
7:43self-help
150
Public Speaking Phrases: Take another instance The whole story of civilization
Grenville Kleiser
6:48self-help
151
Public Speaking Phrases: Then again, in corroboration Think of the cool disregard
Grenville Kleiser
5:50self-help
152
Public Speaking Phrases: This absurdity arises Very strange is this indeed
Grenville Kleiser
5:16self-help
153
Public Speaking Phrases: We all agree as to What strikes the mind so forcibly
Grenville Kleiser
9:03self-help
154
Public Speaking Phrases: What, then, are we to believe Your presence seems to say
Grenville Kleiser
6:57self-help
155
Miscellaneous Phrases: A bewildering labyrinth of facts A pleasant flow of appropriate language
Grenville Kleiser
7:01self-help
156
Miscellaneous Phrases: A bewildering labyrinth of facts A pleasant flow of appropriate language
Grenville Kleiser
7:22self-help
157
Miscellaneous Phrases: An abandoned and exaggerated grief Awaited with feverish anxiety
Grenville Kleiser
6:04self-help
158
Miscellaneous Phrases: Bandied to and fro Dwindled to alarmingly small dimensions
Grenville Kleiser
6:59self-help
159
Miscellaneous Phrases: Easy going to the point of lethargy Hopelessly belated in its appearance
Grenville Kleiser
9:31self-help
160
Miscellaneous Phrases: I adjured him Its dominating and inspiring influence
Grenville Kleiser
11:14self-help
161
Miscellaneous Phrases: Jealous and formidable foes Quixotically generous about money
Grenville Kleiser
10:35self-help
162
Miscellaneous Phrases: Radiantly and transparently happy Swift and vehement outbursts of feeling
Grenville Kleiser
8:02self-help
163
Miscellaneous Phrases: Take root in the heart The sycophants of the rich
Grenville Kleiser
12:01self-help
164
Prepositional Phrases of: taint of megalomania zone of delusion
Grenville Kleiser
4:17self-help
165
Public Speaking Phrases: But it is a fact By this time it will be suspected
Grenville Kleiser
4:20self-help

Listener Reviews 252

Listener Rating
4.8
Based on 252 verified ratings
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Lisa W.
April 16, 2026
Listened twice — both times were worth it

Found this on Unodio and wasn't expecting much. Two hours later I was still going. Grenville Kleiser doesn't waste your time with filler — every chapter earns its place.

KH
Kevin H.
June 8, 2020
Better than I thought it would be

I've been listening during my evening walks and Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases has been the highlight of my week honestly. There's a section in the middle where it all just comes together — gave me chills.

NP
Nisha P.
June 8, 2020
This one stayed with me for days

What I appreciate most is that Grenville Kleiser doesn't talk down to you. The ideas are complex but explained in a way that respects your intelligence. Really rare.

TG
Tom G.
June 8, 2020
Genuinely surprised by how good this is

Listened to this over a long weekend trip. By the time I got home I'd already recommended it to three people. Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases is just one of those books that sticks.

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