whats the best way to boost your vocabulary?

Answer 1

Some of the ways which have helped me to improve my vocabulary are as follows:
1) The word of the day. Subscribe to the word of the day in Merriam webster online or dictionary.com.
2) Read all sorts of books and make sure you look up the meanings of the words in a dictionary.
3) Study the etymology of the word. It can be very interesting. It can also help you learn more words. For example, if you know that the root 'avi' means 'bird' then you can learn several more words with that root. Such as:
aviary-large enclosure for birds
aviatrix- a female airplane pilot
aviation - the art of designing or operating aircraft
4) I also suggest games like scrabble, crossword puzzles, word racer, text twist, Boggle, scrabble, hangman(online) or Catch-Phrase. You can play these with friends or alone.
5) It is important to try to constantly use words in your daily conversations with people.
6) It is also a good idea to write words on flash cards with their definitions and keep it with you and read them anytime when you are free-on a bus, train, dentist's office...
7) I know this might sound boring, but try to read the newspaper because it has plenty of good words. If you are interested in sports, read the sports page, if you are interested in food or something else, read that page, it can be very useful.
8) Make sure that you are constantly learning, if you see or hear an unfamiliar word, look it up!
9) I also use post-its to post up interesting words in my room or somewhere i go often. If you treadmill, stick it on the treadmill, stick some on the fridge, in fact you can stick it anywhere you like!
10) Many websites specialize in teaching vocabulary. My personal favorite is espindle. In this website, they will give you the definition of the word and the pronunication (audio) and you spell it. You can also use the other option in the website in which they give you the definition and you guess the word. They have personalized quizzes in which you can add your own words and check your performance whenever you want to. In addition, if you guess the word wrong, espindle will keep asking it to you until you properly memorize the word. It is also a great website to improve your spelling. I have relied on it greatly to teach me words for SAT preparation. All you have to do is go to an online wordlist, copy and paste it in espindle and they will test you on all those words. Check out www.espindle.com for more details.
I hope these ideas will help you gain a better and advanced vocabulary. Good luck!

Answer 2

I assume that reading books isn't going to hit the targeted vocabulary from your CD's, interesting how people vote for 'general reading' which won't hit the mark... When I studied to be a Radio Officer, I had to learn a few hundred 'Q-codes' - both questions and answers. The way we handled this (a group of three of us) was to take one third each, and type them out and print them on cards - code on one side, and the question/answer on the other. We printed three sets, and took a set each - and took them everywhere. You'll find you can do a lot of studying in the toilet and standing in queues - then get friends to test you - give them the cards and get them to start reading (slowly) from definitions and stuff. Another thing to remember is that just reading to yourself doesn't process the information. I'd suggest a 'kinaesthetic' approach. Read the words out loud and write them down as you do it. This means you're hitting all areas of your brain - visual, audio, speech, and it's going out through your hand onto paper too - a complete feedback loop. This makes you learn it ten times faster than just reading. Playing flashcard games in the pub with other students is the other side of the deal - using these two methods, our class graduated with the highest scores in the country for that particular test ;)

Answer 3

The best way I have found to boost vocabulary is by playing word games, doing puzzles, and just reading all I can. Playing word games is the funnest wway I have found.

Answer 4

The greatest web site I have found is the Word A Day web site. If you can have them send you the word for the day to your email. Then use that word at least once during that day, in speech, talking to someone, writing, etc.

Also, when you see a word you are not sure about: 1) write it down; 2) sound it out loud; and 3) look it up

good luck to you. Abperson who can't handle a social conversation with ease will have a hard time succeeding in any walk of life.

Answer 5

Don't just read the dictionary at home, but have a little one with you to poke through at odd times. Look up words you don't know and then look at the other words on the page. Look at etymological dictionaries to learn where words came from.

Read literate books more than just "mental popcorn". Read authors whose writing you admire. I find Patricia McKillip's writing to be elegant and luminous. Steven Brust's work is fun.

Ask people you respect to recommend authors. Hang out with articulate people.

Good luck.

Answer 6

Read.
Read all kinds of things,fiction, non fiction, stories, myths, legends, classics, anything you have the slightest interest in and if you don't know what the words mean, look them up.
I used to read encyclopedias because they were what we had at home. My parents weren't big readers, and so when I didn't have easy access to the school library, like during summer and other breaks, the encyclopedias were about it. I am always reading something.

Answer 7

Reading in general, but more specifically by reading challenging books, and looking up the words you don't know in a dictionary. Newspapers, and watch less TV.

Answer 8

Hey Prettylady-
I was lucky enough to have an english teacher for a mother!!
All the previous answers are good. Reading is helpful to expand your vocab, and looking up words and how they are "fen-et-icaly" said out loud also help.
If you have a well spoken articulate friend, plant yourself next to her at your next party!
Good luck.

Answer 9

Learn some Latin! Seriously, I took a vocab-development class and we learned latin prefixes and suffixes. Then when presented with a word you don't know you can kinda figure it out.

Answer 10

Read more. Then look up any words you don't fully understand.