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Ways to Improve Ones Vocabulary?

endlessnameless

endlessnameless

Bluelighter
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Nov 23, 2010
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While I do happen to be the proud owner of a copy of Rogets Thesaurus, whipping it out and browsing about it isnt exactly what I mean. My inquiry moreso relates to if anyone knows of any websites that would help one improve upon their current lexicon.

One of my absolute favourites has always been The Phrontistery - a veritable treasure trove of wordly delights upon which to feast the mind. Do venture a gander if you havent yet been fortunate enough to do so.
 
Read with a dictionary nearby. Whenever you come across a word you don't know, or a word you do know that is being used in an unfamiliar context, look it up. Anytime you are even remotely unsure about a word, look it up. Try and think about the word and use it in a sentence.

Doing it this way requires really minimal effort and expands vocabulary in a very organic manner.
 
A fantastic method. I've installed various firefox add-ons that allow me to simply right click on a word I'm unsure of which will open up a dictionary.com page defining the relevant word.
I think it was (ironically) my Geography teacher who told me to keep a dictionary beside me while I read and to underline any words I dont understand then look them up. One of the best lessons I've ever learned and further intensified my love affair with words and the English language in general.

At times I'll come across a word and even before I look up its definition, I'll automatically associate other words with it and before I know it I have a line or two of a stanza written. I've always been a partcular fan of archaic words.
 
I'm always looking up words. I started doing it more and more as a teenager by visiting merriam webster online, but now google has an easy function where you just type: "define: <word>" and it brings up a definition easy peasy.

For some reason, learning foreign languages improved my English vocabulary a lot. Maybe because it made me understand English in a better context.
 
improving your vocabulary is really really good.
i have a thesaurus too, its really really nice.
 
To what's been said, I'll add that best way I know of to improve vocabulary is to read good but difficult prose (classical literature). That way you're coming across new words in their proper context. This way the work of elaborative remembering is partially done by the prose as you read it. You should try to guess at the meaning of the words you don't know before you look them up as best you can. What's critical is that you are making a mental effort rather than just memorizing from lists or the like. Expanding general knowledge, especially knowledge of the fundamentals of science and language, is the best way to get to a point where you can guess at the meaning of an unknown word from its context because greater general knowledge provides additional reference points from which you can attempt to deduce potential meanings. One of the most efficient ways to do that is to regularly use something like The New York Public Library Desk Reference. Expanding general knowledge is more directly related to improved reading comprehension as a whole than vocabulary, though of course expanded vocabulary is essential for improved reading comprehension. Their mutual relevance to improving each other is clear.

EDIT: Classical expository writing will be better than fictional for improving vocabulary because it is sure to contain arguments and nested arguments whose logic you can use to guess at the meanings of unknown words.
 
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Well, it's consumed my life but I still swear by the read-like-a-fucking-animal method. Typically I'll be balls-deep in a novel with some academic text on the side and sub to a few good sources of blogs/journalism. That never fails to deliver a good mix of common synonyms and application-specific language. The problem, IMHO, in using gimmicks and tricks to learn new words is that the words just won't stick. You won't employ one-off words in typical conversation [without sounding like a twat] so really the only way to keep their definitions in your head is to keep reading until you come across the same words again and again in interesting new contexts. Once your mind builds a complex relationship for how to use the word the definition becomes secondary and the word itself becomes something that you can actually recall and use. I'm sure many people remember onomatapoeia and antidisestablismentarianism and other dumb shit like that because we've come across them so often in actual use but I'll not for the life of me remember hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia because why the fuck would I ever need to use it?
 
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