10 Strategies for Building Your Vocabulary.

 

Having a wide vocabulary gives you more than just the confidence that comes from knowing that  “adscititious” means additional. It’s about finding the right word — the one special word in a sentence — that will transmit an image or feeling directly into the reader’s mind.

Let’s look at ten strategies to use to expand your word knowledge.

1. Keep a Vocabulary Journal

Reading is an obvious vocabulary builder. But what do you do when you encounter an unfamiliar word?

• Rely on context clues to figure out the probable meaning.
• With an eBook, use the built-in dictionary.
• If you are reading a physical book and don’t want to search Google, then write the word on a Post-it Note to look up later or skip over it entirely, if it’s not important for understanding the sentence.

The issue with this approach is that most of the words that you encounter are never encoded into your long-term memory. It is unrealistic to try to memorize every new word you encounter, so try a different tactic:

1. Look up the definitions as you go along, bu only write down the words that you can see yourself using in your own writing.
2. Pick the three most interesting ones from your list, open the document with your vocabulary journal, and take the time to really get to know those three words.

My vocab journal includes the original context, dictionary definition, part of speech and a practice sentence. 

2. Use Flashcards

Flashcards are small note cards used for testing and improving memory through practiced information retrieval. Flashcards are typically two-sided, with the prompt on one side and the information about the prompt on the other. This may include names, vocabulary, concepts, or procedures.

You can always go with the tried and true, old-fashioned paper flashcards, which I still like to use when I want to scribble down mnemonic clues. For example, I learned the word “extemporaneous,” meaning something that’s improvised or made up on the spot, by associating it with a word of similar meaning: spontaneous.

For the electronic approach, try using Quizlet , a great free resource for flashcards that can be used across its website and as a mobile app. You can make your own sets ranging from the most basic levels right up to the most Advanced. Quizlet has a matching and testing feature so you can practice your knowledge.

3. Learn Word Roots

Digging up word elements, such as Latin roots, can help you dissect individual words to understand their meaning.

Take the word “antebellum.” “Ante” means “before,” and “bellum” denotes “war.” So, “antebellum” means “before a war,” although it’s most often used to refer to the plantation-era South before the American Civil War.

4. Start Your Day with a New Word

Many online dictionaries have an email sign-up where they’ll share daily definitions. The WordoftheDay app tells me a new word every morning; it displays a basic definition and example sentence so that I don’t get lost in etymology or start opening new tabs left and right.

5. Delve into Specialized Terminology

Sometimes the writing demands that the character knows how to paint a portrait or that the reader can paint the landscape based on words alone. Every hobby or field of study comes with its own set of vocabulary. Learning that “native language” and applying it to your stories can better convince the audience of your world’s reality.

Reading articles and books on these subjects can acquaint you with the necessary jargon. When you understand a subject's basic vocabulary, it’s easier to determine what search terms you need to use to learn more. 

6. Start a Word Bank and Word Hit List

Even when we build our vocabularies, we don’t use all of the words in our arsenal, leaning more heavily on some and entirely forgetting others. 

This is why it is recommended to keep a word bank: a list of verbs, adjectives, and nouns that I already know the meaning of, but that I don’t use very often.

Verb Bank

• squelched (make a soft sucking sound such as that made by walking heavily through mud)
• weltered (to roll, toss, or heave, as waves or the sea)
• scrabbled (to scratch or scrape, as with the claws or hands)
• careened (to rush forward in an uncontrollable way)

Adjective Bank

• gossamer (something light, delicate, or insubstantial)
• vermilion (a brilliant scarlet red)
• lurid (gruesome; glaringly vivid or sensational)
• blubbery (abounding in or resembling blubber; puffy)

Noun Bank

• promontory (a high point of land or rock projecting into a body of water)
• regalia (rich, fancy, or dressy clothing; finery)
• cultivar (a variety of plant that originated and persisted under cultivation)
• ruffian (a tough, lawless person; bully)

In addition to a word bank, also keep a word hit list. This not only covers annoying filler words like “just,” “that,” and “very” that you can often delete, but also personal habits that need to be replaced — unusual words or phrases you have caught yourself using more than once in the same story. Repetition is the killer of great writing.

When a word is ingrained in our vocabulary, it basically becomes invisible. Even though it sounds normal to the writer, it sticks out to the reader. Words like “argute,” “boffola,” and “surrogates” call attention to themselves, so if a writer uses them twice within a few paragraphs, the reader is going to notice.

It’s easier to see these obviously repetitious words when we’re reading another person’s writing rather than our own, which is yet another reason feedback is so valuable.

Well, I hope that these tips were useful in your endeavors to write successfully, be it an essay for an international exam, an article or even your first book.

Good luck and good learning.