Have you ever stumbled through a sentence wondering why you weren’t able to express yourself the way you wanted to? Have you ever read something written by an author who seemed to capture a sentiment perfectly? Have you ever thought that you simply didn’t have what it takes to be an excellent communicator? I’ve answered yes to each of these questions more times than I’d like to admit. I still answer yes at this very moment and I’m not sure my answer will ever change. What’s the problem? Sure, putting thoughts together intellectually has long been an issue for most of us and having the grammatical ability to coherently structure our sentences on the fly can certainly be a challenge. The thing is, while both of what I just mentioned above do play a part in our frustration, not having the proper and necessary words in our lexicon plays a much larger part. Do you see what I did there? Lexicon – the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge. There’s a new word for you.
In order to think, you need words. In order to communicate, you need words. In order to rationalize, you need words. You may be able to convey your message with a grunt and a nod at times, but those things aren’t going to help you very much when you need to be fully understood. Or when you’d like to communicate elegantly or beautifully. Or with purpose or persuasion. In cases like these, you’ll need a vocabulary. Words. Powerful ones that mean what you say and say what you mean.
In this post, I’ll do my best at explaining why you might want to grow your vocabulary. I’ll also offer some easy tips for doing so. Remember, thinking and learning are fun and lifelong endeavors. Let’s take advantage of our brains and try to get the most out of them.
Why Expand Your Vocabulary?
Personally, I’d like to expand my vocabulary for purely aesthetic reasons. I love language and I’d love to have the ability to think in a more comprehensive and in-depth way. I also enjoy writing and oftentimes when I write, I’m forced to stop and hunt for the best way to express what I’m feeling. I’d like to develop a pool of thousands of words to choose from as opposed to hundreds. I often wonder what the average number of unique words a person speaks is on a daily basis. I think I once read that it’s around 300. That’s fine, but I wonder if the words we speak are basic, regular, common words. Can they be better? More interesting? Can the words we share be captivating conversation starters? “Like, I went to the mall yesterday with some friends. It was crazy…” just doesn’t cut it with me. With the vast capacity for thought nearly every one of us holds, perhaps we should stretch our minds to learn more about the language we speak. That’s the way I think of it, anyway.
Getting back to the questions I asked in the first paragraph, imagine having control over a vocabulary that gives you the ability to write and speak concisely and clearly. Imagine having the ability to find the perfect word, every single time. Really. Imagine that. At least a dozen times a day, I’m forced to stop talking or writing, just to think about the word I’d like to plug into whatever it is I’m trying to say. It’d be a dream for me to flow like a river while I’m speaking. I can’t even. I really can’t.
I’ve often asked myself if those of us with limited vocabularies express ourselves in an inefficient manner. For instance, think about a sentence like this:
I watched a man walk along at a slow, relaxed pace.
Now let’s take things up a notch.
I watched a man amble along.
Amble – walk or move at a slow, relaxed pace.
Think about this one:
The man’s actions were anticipated and made unnecessary.
What if we simplified the statement?
The man’s actions were obviated.
Obviate – to anticipate and prevent (something, such as a situation) or make (an action) unnecessary.
Again, I think the greatest thrill for me would be to have an Olympic sized pool of words from which to choose. I’ve spent too many years using the same old words I’ve spoken my entire life. New words are cool. They’re exciting and, in my humble opinion, uncovering new ones is well worth the effort.
Benefits of a Large Vocabulary
What are the benefits of learning what words mean and then integrating them into your life? I’ll list a few of those benefits below. I’m sure there are more, but these are top of mind.
Standardized Tests
The powers that be made me take the GMAT to get into graduate business school. I studied hard for the test and when I took it, I did well. I’m glad I experienced the process because studying for that test taught me the most about grammar and vocabulary that I’d learned in life up to that point. It was incredible and I’ve taken many of the lessons I learned during my studying and I continue to use them today.
Developing a comprehensive vocabulary was essential for success with the GMAT. Whether a person knows it or not, standardized tests both directly and indirectly challenge a person’s knowledge of words and their usage. Every single section of the GMAT tests a person’s vocabulary. There are four sections: Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, Integrated Reasoning, and the Analytical Writing Assessment. For the first three sections, you simply need to know what words mean. For the final section, you put your vocabulary to the test. It’s your time to shine and the better you write, the better you score. It’s that simple.
School
I wish I knew the few “tricks” I learned along the way regarding my success in school, before I began school. This is true for all my schooling, not just high school through college. The first trick was to earn the respect of my teachers, instructors, and professors. This respect greases the gears for a better grade. The second was to complete every assignment and complete each of them well. Obviously, this can only help. The third was to write the papers that teachers wanted to read. Teachers and professors grade a lot of papers. Do you know how many of those papers are atrocious? Most of them. Even at the graduate level. Trust me, I know. I’ve read them. If there’s one thing most people don’t know how to do, it’s formulate the structure of a paper and then fill in the blanks so things make sense. On top of that, most everyone uses basic vocabulary, unless, of course, the paper is scientific in nature and calls for something specialized. If you hand a teacher a paper that he or she might actually enjoy reading, you know you’re grade is going to be better than average.
An advanced vocabulary impacts each of the tricks I listed above. From earning respect to completing assignments to writing papers – each one requires words and without those words, a student can fall flat. While a strong vocabulary is essential for nearly every subject, let’s think of creative writing for a moment. Let’s compare two sentences that mean essentially the same thing.
We were all a little drunk with spring, like the fat bees reeling from flower to flower, and a strange insurrectionary current ran among us. – Tobias Wolff
Versus
Spring was good. It made us feel good.
Get the idea?
Conversation
A conversation can quickly turn painful when enduring it with someone who can’t speak well. Or think well for that matter. And thinking and speaking are directly related.
Like you, I’ve had my share of conversations. We all have. I seem to remember most of them as pretty much ho-hum. Nothing special. I’ve also, however, had a few conversations that have turned my entire conversationary (that’s not a word) world upside down. It didn’t take many conversations with folks who knew and used words I’ve never even heard of to demonstrate how little I understood and how much I needed to learn. I remember speaking to these people well. Our talks were educational. They were fun. I sought opportunities to converse with these people more and more. I enjoyed being around them. For me, the experiences were life changing.
Writing
When we possess a limited vocabulary, we’re bound by that vocabulary. When we write, we can’t write to our fullest potential. If we’re especially clever, we’re still able to craft our sentences for impact, but just imagine how a larger vocabulary could aid the especially clever. Talk about taking things to another level. I won’t beat a dead horse here. Just know that having more words in your arsenal is better than having fewer.
Tips for Expanding Your Vocabulary
I’ve got some great tips below for learning new vocab words. Not one of these tips is above anyone’s comprehension or ability. They’re easy to understand and follow, so please enjoy.
Look It Up
There are two things I truly remember from third grade. “When in China, eating with great gusto is a sign of a good meal.” And, “Ah, what a sumptuous repast.” Strange that I remember them.
Gusto – enjoyment or vigor in doing something; zest.
Sumptuous – splendid and expensive-looking.
Repast – a meal.
Our assignment was to read a paragraph and if there were any words we didn’t know the meaning of, look them up. Then list them on a piece of paper and practice them regularly. The 14th time I told my mother that I was truly enjoying the sumptuous repast she provided for me at the dinner table, while eating with great gusto, she said, “Okay, Jay, I think we’ve had enough of that.” Do you have any idea how difficult it is to forget a word that you’ve actually looked up to find the meaning of? If done properly and if the word is integrated into everyday use, it’s nearly impossible to forget.
Here’s the first rule: if you’re reading something and don’t know the meaning of a word, look it up right then and there. You’ll be surprised how frequently the word pops up into your everyday life. It’ll be almost as if you’ve been glossing over the word your entire life and now you’re best friends.
Read
Read this sentence well and then read it again: You’ll never learn about the English language unless you read it, a lot. If you’re an avid reader who enjoys your reading, you’ll pick up on many things with little to no effort. If you look up unfamiliar words while reading, you’ll be engaging in about 95% of what it takes to grow your vocabulary.
Here’s the second rule: read, read, read.
PS – What should you read? The answer to this question is two-fold. First, read things you enjoy reading and second, read slightly above your reading level. If you can do those two things, you should be in good shape for learning.
Say It Out Loud
When you learn a new word, learn how to pronounce it and then say it out loud. Practice using it in conversation. See what people think. Run it by them. Give it a chance. If you incorporate the new word into your every day vocabulary, you’ll surely bond with the word. Again, there’s no way to forget the meaning of a word that’s learned, pronounced, and used in conversation. Even if you try to forget it, you won’t be able to. And if you’re wondering how to say a word, look it up online. I just searched “sumptuous meaning” in Google and listen to a pleasant sounding gentleman (or robot) pronounce the word for me. How wonderful.
Here’s the third rule: learn a new word and look up it’s pronunciation. Say the word out loud. Use it in conversation.
Keep a List
Do you know what I’ve been doing since making an effort to expand my repertoire? I’ve been recording a list of my new words in a file on my desktop and I’ve been referring to the list every few days, just to make sure I’m keeping what’s appropriate in rotation. By the way:
Repertoire – the whole body of items that are regularly performed, a stock of skills or types of behavior that a person habitually uses.
I’ve found that if I don’t use my vocabulary regularly, it’ll fall by the wayside. Sure, I may remember each word’s meaning, but what good is that if the word is never used?
Here’s the fourth rule: record and list your new words so you can easily keep them top of mind.
Create Mental Images
I had a friend in middle school who told me his family would soon be moving to another state. The moment I heard that bit of news, I began to decathect. It honestly wasn’t up to me. My emotions seemed completely natural.
Decathect – to withdraw one’s feelings of attachment from (a person, idea, or object), as in anticipation of a future loss.
As it ended up, my friend’s family never moved. He was just messing with me. Boy did he pay the price. Our friendship was badly damaged.
I’ll remember that story forever. When I first learned the meaning of the word decathect, I instantly attached it to the experience I had with my friend. I had inadvertently created a mnemonic device. Just like I did with the story of me sitting at the kitchen table with my family, telling my mother about our sumptuous repast. What’s a mnemonic device?
Mnemonic device – any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval in the human memory for better understanding (rhymes, songs, experiences, people).
Here’s the fifth rule: when learning new words, think about them and try to visualize them. The brain has an uncanny ability to efficiently recall words when they’re associated with people, experiences, and things.
Search for the Root
I read an entire book on this. It’s called, “How to build a Better Vocabulary” and it was written by Maxwell Nurnberg and Morris Rosenblum. I’ll admit the book was excruciatingly boring at times, but it did offer a lot of excellent information. An entire section was dedicated to using root words to assist in learning word meanings. Once the root is discovered, the word can be associated with so many others and in doing that, the meanings of these words can be retained and used much more fluidly.
Let’s take a look at an example. Check this word out:
Astro – relating to the stars, celestial objects, or outer space..
Now let’s take a look at three words that use the root astro:
Astronaut – a person who is trained to travel in a spacecraft.
Astronomy – the branch of science that deals with celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole.
Astrophysics – a branch of space science that applies the laws of physics and chemistry to seek to understand the universe and our place in it.
Do you see the similarities between those three words? They all pertain to space. If you already knew what astro meant and then discovered the word astrophysics, you’ll probably be able to infer the meaning of the unfamiliar word, simply based on its construction and context. Basically, you’d be able to figure out what it means by piecing together its parts.
In Conclusion…
I shared a lot above. Did it help at all? There are many of us who love words and would like nothing more than to learn what more of them mean. First we need to find them and then we need to learn them. Finally, we need to learn how to retain them and use them in everyday life. Personally, I enjoy the entire process and think it’s just a whole lot of fun. Learning vocab surely isn’t for everyone, but for those of us who do enjoy it, please post a comment below and let me know your thoughts on the world of words. Do you have any additional tips to offer? What’s your favorite word? How do you go about learning and retaining? Oh, there’s so much more to discuss. Thanks!
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