Strategies for Improving Your Vocabulary

Having a flexible vocabulary is still an important quality, even in the era of micro-blogging, instant messaging, and rampant texting. But expanding it isn’t as simple as looking up new words in the dictionary. Below are strategies to acquire and integrate new language into your vocabulary, providing more ways with which to express yourself, and the impression of greater intelligence and erudition.

Discovering New Words:

Before starting to use words, one first has to find them. The best way to do this is simply to read. Fiction, non-fiction, magazine articles, the morning newspaper, even the blogs in your RSS reader. When you come across an unfamiliar word, highlight it or jot it down for later. Typically one’s reading vocabulary is much greater than their writing or speaking vocabularies. As words are repeatedly read, they will eventually start to seep into written work and everyday conversations.

If there isn’t enough time or patience to read, you can actively seek out new words on the internet. The following are useful websites for this endeavor:

http://lovelyvocab.com/ - Features a new word every weekday, and on Friday compiles the week’s entries into a brief story for contextual meaning.

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/ - Word of the day provides a new word each day, complete with a definition and context from an actual work.

http://www.zdaily.com/word.shtml - A daily quiz on definitions of vocabulary words.

Understanding the Words:

It is not difficult to find hundreds of unknown words, but to make them a part of your vocabulary you need to understand what they mean. The obvious answer is to look them up in a dictionary, but there are better ways of getting a grasp on unfamiliar words.

Find synonyms/antonyms - While you may not know what a particular word means, it could have the same or opposite definition of ones you do know. A thesaurus, or online equivalent, is useful here. It’s pretty much using it in reverse; starting with more complicated words to find the simpler ones associated with it. This is important for a varied vocabulary, as you aren’t stuck using the same words over and over again.

Break it down - Make long or difficult words less intimidating by breaking them into smaller pieces and looking for words inside of them. For example, what do you see when looking at the word aesthete? Aesthetic! And indeed, the definition of aesthete is someone who is sensitive to beauty and art. This is especially useful for people studying medicine or biology, as most terminology uses common greek or latin roots.

Using the Words:

After finding the words and what they mean, the trick is to hold onto them and make them a part of everyday speaking and writing. The best way to do this is to try and use a new word within a day of finding it. By establishing it in proper context, it isn’t likely to slip from the memory.

If you’re a blogger or writer, try and integrate new vocabulary into your next article. Otherwise, use it in a conversation with somebody else. But keep in mind one of Orwell’s ‘rules for effective writing,’ and don’t use an overly complex word where a simple one will suffice. You’ll end up making a fool of yourself going around and sporadically spewing out long words.