10 Ways to Increase Your Vocabulary

By Tika gomez on November 18, 2017

I’ve always wanted to sound really smart. As a teen, I’d look up words in the dictionary (pre-Google era) but have very little success; I’d remember it for like a day and then go on feeling dumb.

Not that I’m the greatest wordsmith (a person who knows a lot of words) now but I have learned a few things that have helped me retain (keep in my brain/memory) some spiffy (old fashioned way of saying “cool”) new words.

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Here are some tips that not only English Langauge Learners can use, but everybody!

1. Read a book that is above your reading level. How do you do that? Pick a book in a genre (history, action, romance, sci-fi) that you don’t usually read, and flip through the book. If you are absolutely lost, you’ve found your book (haha). Probably not Cosmo …

2. Read books that you like, especially if you have a hard time with tip number one. Just read more often.

3. Look up unfamiliar words and write them in a notebook that is just for vocabulary. Write it down and see if you can use it in a sentence. If you can’t, I’m sure you could use trusty ole Google to find one.

4. Try to figure out if you know other words that sound similar to that word or have similar roots. For example, you know what bisexual (has sex with two genders) or bicycle ( has two wheels) means — so can you figure out what bidialectal means? I know that bi means two, usually and dialect has something to do with language. Let me know in the comments if you can figure it out without help. :)

5. Read a newspaper. I’ve heard that most newspaper vocab is at a fifth-grade level. So at least you can be smarter than a fifth grader. Ha. Or as smart.

6. Talk to people that are “smarter” than you — at least in the vocabulary sense.

7. Don’t be afraid to ask what a word means. I always figure that it’s better to look like a “dummy” now than later and for the rest of your life.

8. Think of words that you already use and find stronger synonyms for that. Basically, that means a word that is the same but sounds more intellectual (smarter).

9. Try to figure out the word from context. That means, before you go and hit Google, read the rest of the sentence or paragraph. Sometimes, that gives you clues about what the mystery word means.

10. Take words you don’t know and look up synonyms (words that are similar or the same meaning) and antonyms (words that are opposite in meaning).

Ok, I’m not going to overwhelm you with another tip. Try a few of these out and tell me what you think in the comments!

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