Vocabulary Building Discussion

Make Friends with the Dictionary: Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus

 Use It or Lose It

Learn One New Word a Day

Understand the True Meaning of Words:  First, you can look at the word's etymology, or the history of its origins.  We can add a group or letters in front of (prefix) or after (suffix) the basic part of a word (root) to create new words. About half of English words come from Greek and Latin, so great benefits come from being familiar with these roots, prefixes, and suffixes. There's one more way to make learning and remembering new words much easier. This is when you understand the logic behind the word. Let's look at some examples of how you can see this logic. Notice the two parts of the word "breakfast" to easily see its meaning "interrupt the night's fast" (break+fast).

 Maintain a Personal Lexicon: A good option is a computer spreadsheet. This has useful features such as searching, sorting, and filtering.

Follow a Process Vocabulary improvement should be a permanent habit in your everyday life.

 Play and Have Fun Merriam Webster's Word Games & Quizzes, Merriam Webster's Daily Crossword.

Leverage Every Resource You Can Leverage means taking full advantage of something. Let curiosity be your guide.

Diversify Add something different to your daily routine. This can be anything that is not already part of your normal life. For example, you can try hunting, fishing, or blogging. These new activities can become a great way to learn new words. Every different job, hobby, or activity has its own vocabulary and unique ways of communicating. So, read different books and magazines on different topics than you usually do. Start new hobbies or spend time with different people. Doing something out of the ordinary has two benefits. It improves your vocabulary and makes your life more interesting.