Improving my vocabulary has been a goal of mine over the summer – especially since vocabulary is a very important skill that can be useful in all areas of communication. For example, knowing a broader width of vocabulary can help you express your thoughts in a clearer and more succinct manner. So, because of all the benefits of improving your vocabulary, in this blog post, I will be highlighting four tips to improve your vocabulary.
1. Use a dictionary or thesaurus.
This is self-explanatory. If you encounter a word that you do not know, use a dictionary to find out its meaning, and make sure to remember it. If you are writing, try to use a thesaurus to find synonyms that make your writing more vivid. However, another tip is to try to read one page of the dictionary or thesaurus a day to see if you can add more words to your vocabulary list.
2. Read.
Obviously, reading helps you learn new words. But, reading also allows you to see words used in a context, which also helps see how new words are used appropriately. One key tip is to highlight whenever you see a new word, then find its definition, and finally try to figure out what it means in this context; by this exercise, you will be able to actively recall the word. If you are looking at reading books specifically for the purpose of improving your vocabulary, I would recommend “The Meaning of Everything: the Story of the Oxford English Dictionary” and “Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries.”
3. Play Word Games or “Word of the day” feeds.
Word Games and Word of the Day feeds can help you learn new words in a fun way. Word Games such as scrabble, crosswords puzzles, and boggle can be great ways to expand your vocabulary. Word of the Day feeds, such as the one offered by dictionary.com, can help you learn a new word a day with minimal effort, and over time, increase your vocabulary. To put this into perspective, there are 365 days in a year, so if you put in the time to do the ‘word of the day’ every day, then you will learn 365 words by the end of the year.
4. Word Books.
Words books are a very convenient way to help build your vocabulary skills. Books like “The Vocabulary Builder Workbook”, “Word Power Made Easy”, or “504 Absolutely Essential Words” are very resourceful books that contain activities and exercises to help you learn new words as well as thoroughly understand the meaning of these words.
All in all, having a good vocabulary has a plethora of benefits, and these four tips are good excellent ways to expand your vocabulary. In the end, since the English language is really voluminous (there are more than a million total English words, and an estimated 171,146 English words are currently in use), you will probably never run out of words to explore. So, I hope you enjoy your journey in expanding your English vocabulary (or any other language for that matter)!