Top Ten Vocabulary New Year’s Resolutions

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With the start of the new year, many people make resolutions to improve themselves over the coming twelve months. We encourage you to think about adding one (or all ten) of these vocabulary-improvement resolutions to your list – they’re easier to stick to than a diet!

1. Learn at least one new word each day.
If you haven’t been focused on adding new words to your vocabulary, you might feel like your conversation has become dull and stagnant. You can create a renaissance of your communication abilities by resolving to learn new vocabulary words every day. For today’s word, focus on the word renaissance.

2. Make sure you’re spelling words correctly.
It might be tempting to use “text-speak” or abbreviations when you’re e-mailing a friend, but be sure that you know how to spell each word, especially when you’re first learning it. Doubled letters often cause problems; notice in today’s word that the n is not doubled, though the s is (a common mistake is to double both the ‘n’ and the ‘s’).

3. Focus on proper pronunciation.
The way you speak is just as important as the words you use. If you have a smooth and professional voice, and you pronounce your words clearly and correctly, you’ll immediately project an image of someone who is confident and knowledgeable. In the United States, renaissance is pronounced REH-nuh-zahns; in the UK it is often pronounced ruh-NAY-sahns.

4. Learn all definitions of a word.
The word renaissance literally means “rebirth.” When capitalized, the Renaissance refers to the 14th-century European cultural explosion as the continent recovered from wars and plague and rediscovered the arts of ancient Greece and Rome. As a regular noun, it means any new flourishing of something that had fallen out of use or fashion.

5. Know how to use words correctly.
You might have an extensive vocabulary, but it won’t do you much good if you don’t know how to use the words in context. When you’re learning a word, look for examples of how it’s used, and create your own practice sentences.
Example: The last few years have seen a renaissance in the arts of home canning, pickling, and even cheesemaking.

6. Add more to your understanding of a word through etymology.
While you can learn a word’s definition quickly, you’ll find that it has more meaning if you take the time to look up the word’s history and discover its origins. The word renaissance comes from French; as we said, the word means “rebirth” in that language as well as English. Looking back in time, the roots of the word are from the Latin prefix re- (“again”) and nascire (“to be born”).

7. Learn other ways to express a word’s concept.
When you learn a new word, look for its synonyms and learn those at the same time. This way you can double or triple the number of words you learn at once. Synonyms for renaissance are rebirth, revival, and regeneration.

8. Read as much as you can, from many different sources.
If you don’t have a habit of daily reading, now’s the time to start one. You’ll discover many new words by reading – many more than you’d hear from watching television or listening to the radio. Pick up a newspaper with your morning coffee and keep a book by your bed, and a notepad to write down the new words you want to learn.

9. Use the words you learn as often as possible.
In order to get comfortable with a word and to be able to use it easily and naturally, you need to practice using it. Find ways of including each new word in your conversations.

10. Let your enthusiasm be “born again” every day.
The more you study words, the more you’ll be interested by them (at least we hope so!). If you feel like you’re losing energy, just think about all the advantages an excellent vocabulary can bring you, both personally and professionally, and keep moving forward towards your goal of having the ultimate English vocabulary skills you need.

Oxford Dictionaries’ Word(s) of the Year

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In many places around the world, people have been feeling economic stress, and unfortunately most of them are part of the group of low- to middle-income wage earners that don’t have a great deal of independent resources to draw on. When taxes are raised, it’s often these people who see the most impact, and when public services are cut, they’re also the ones who tend to suffer the most. Due to this widespread phenomenon, the Oxford Dictionaries editors in both the US and the UK have agreed that the global Word of the Year should be the term that was invented to describe this group of people: squeezed middle. Note: In a dictionary, a two-word phrase like this is treated as a compound word and considered one entry. While it’s not being added to the Oxford English Dictionary immediately, the editors will keep it on the list of possible official English vocabulary and eventually – if the term continues to be used, or has a significant impact over a period of time – it may become part of the official lexicon.

If you’re feeling like you’re definitely part of the squeezed middle, one of the best things that you can do is focus on improving your grammar, spelling, and vocabulary. Most jobs these days have at least one component that requires an employee to be a literate and capable communicator, and the more you hone your skills with the English language, the more you’ll increase your chances of getting a good job and moving up to higher-paying positions. Make it your New Year’s resolution to spend at least 30 minutes each day in an activity that promotes vocabulary improvement: read as much as you can from a variety of sources; keep an eye out for and practice new vocabulary words you come across; play word-based games and puzzles; and make a point of using your newly-learned words in conversations or professional presentations. Squeeze as much vocabulary practice as you can into your day, and you’ll enjoy the benefits for years to come.

Did you not get all of the holiday gifts you wanted? Treat yourself to the Ultimate Vocabulary software system and open up a present that you’ll enjoy for all of 2012!

Global English Word of the Year: Occupy

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English has gotten many of its words from other countries over the years, and has given many people around the globe a common language for communication, especially in the news, business, and technology industries. The company called Global Language Monitor uses technology to analyze the news and business information on the internet to track various trends for marketing purposes. As a part of this process, they keep a list of words that appear most often in these materials. The word they’ve identified as the most used and most influential for 2011 is occupy.

If you’ve been following the news, you can’t have avoided seeing at least one story about the “Occupy [insert place name here]” movement that has been bringing people together to protest the inequality of wealth in specific communities or countries, and around the world. The 2011 Arab Spring and other revolutions and protests involved large groups of people occupying specific areas of a city, and the problems in the “Occupied Territories” of Palestine create a regional and global issue that is yet to be resolved. It’s no wonder this word made it to the top of the list.

The verb occupy comes from the Latin word occupare (“take over, possess”). There are several common uses for the word, as illustrated by these example sentences:

Example 1: The northern regions of France were occupied by Germany during World War II while parts of the south remained relatively free.

Example 2: The large painting by Monet occupies the whole of the far wall of the entrance to the museum.

Example 3: This new project will occupy all of my time until March.

In the first example, the meaning is “take over and hold by force against opposition.” In the second, the word expresses “to take up all available space” while in the third example, occupy means “to fill up time.”

Occupy yourself with looking for repeated or common words in the newspaper articles you read, and you’ll discover new English words every day.

Another word on GLM’s list is the German word Kummerspeck, or “grief bacon,” referring to the practice of using food to provide comfort that leads to a gain in weight. We just thought that was interesting.

Weird Words, or Why English Vocabulary Never Dies

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The history of the English language is long and convoluted, incorporating words from many languages, adding words as technology and society changes, and dropping words for the same reason. While today we can still read the works of Shakespeare and understand most of the vocabulary he used, some of the words are now archaic (old-fashioned, not commonly used) and modern writers rarely include them in their prose. However, that’s not to say that all older words are ready for the linguistic trash heap. In fact, many of them express concepts or provide descriptions that are delightfully specific – you just need to find the right occasion to use them. You can do your part to put these five words back in circulation and keep the past alive (the dates the words were first recorded under that definition are given):

widdershins (WIH-dur-shins) adverb, c. 1510
Definition: Moving counterclockwise.
Example: Irish legend says that walking widdershins around a small hill is dangerous, because that may open the door to the fairy lands inside.

wuthering (WUH-thur-ing) verb, c. 1470
Definition: (Wind that is) roaring or blowing noisly.
Example: At the top of the moors in Devon, England, the wind was wuthering and the rain driving down in sheets, and we decided to cut our hike short.

wiseacre (WYZE-ay-kur) noun, c. 1600
Definition: A know-it-all, or someone who pretends to always be informed.
Example: Thomas is a very capable employee, but he’s such a wiseacre that he’s unpopular with the other workers, and so Human Resources recommends that he be transferred to another office.

wherewithal (WEAR-wih-thall) noun, c. 1580
Definition: What is needed (money or other resources) to accomplish a task or goal.
Example: She has many good ideas for time-saving inventions but doesn’t have the wherewithal to create prototypes or go through the patent process.

wallflower (WALL-flow-er) noun, c. 1820
Definition: Someone who is shy and stays at the edges of the crowd (idiomatic expression).
Example: Many teenage girls are afraid to go to their school dances alone because they don’t want to be seen as wallflowers and not asked to dance.

wainscoting (WAYNS-coh-ting) noun, c. 1540
Definition: Decorative wooden paneling along the lower half of a wall.
Example: The dining room was a bright and cheerful place, with yellow-painted walls above green-and-yellow bamboo wainscoting.

Naming Names: Vocabulary Building With Eponyms

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As we explained in this post, an eponym is the name of a person which has become synonymous with the thing the person has discovered, invented, or otherwise become famous for. For example, the brain disorder dementia has a common form called Alzheimer’s disease, which was named after the scientist who first identified it, Alois Alzheimer. While Alzheimer’s is spelled with a capital letter, other eponyms in the English language have lost their capitalization and become standard vocabulary words. These include quixotic (after the literary character Don Quixote), herculean (from the mythological character Hercules), and draconian (referring back to the Greek lawgiver Draco).

By studying a word’s etymology, you can find the origins of these words, and knowing who inspired the words will help you remember their definitions. The word titanic is a good example of a case where etymology will help you. In this modern era, most people connect the word to the ship Titanic, which hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in the early 20th century. Because of this recent use of the name, many people incorrectly assume that “titanic” means “doomed, unlucky, catastrophic.” However, the root of the word goes back many thousands of years earlier, to the giant gods of early Greek mythology, the Titans. The real definition of “titanic” is “hugely strong and powerful.”

Here are a few more eponyms you might want to learn to help you develop a strong and powerful English vocabulary:

epicurean (eh-pih-KYUR-ee-uhn) adjective
The Greek philosopher Epicurus believed that the pursuit of individual happiness was the most important thing, and could be achieved by minimizing pain and anxiety, and seeking pleasure in all things – though not overindulging in anything. An epicure is someone who selects only the finest food and drink, and who knows that the environment in which it is eaten is as important as the food itself.

gargantuan (gahr-GAHN-tyu-uhn) adjective
The French author Rabelais wrote a satirical novel about a giant child named Gargantua who was so large his cradle was an ox-cart. The word gargantuan means “huge, enormous.”

sadistic (suh-DISS-tick) adjective
The Marquis de Sade lived in 18th-century France and was famous (or rather infamous) for his lack of morality and specifically his enjoyment of other people’s pain. Someone who is sadistic gets pleasure out of watching other people suffer; this attitude has been classified as a personality disorder in many countries, and the deliberate inflicting of pain often leads – as it did in the Marquis’ case – to arrest and imprisonment.

masochistic (MASS-uh-KISS-tick) adjective
The 19th-century Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch often wrote about people (himself included) who enjoyed being made to feel pain and suffering. Masochism describes this type of wish or personality trait. These days, we sometimes use the word in a more figurative sense to refer to something that people in general usually don’t enjoy. For example, because large groups of very young children are often not someone’s first choice of company for days on end, we might say that a person who chooses a career as a nursery care provider is “masochistic” for deliberately surrounding themselves with (frequently) crying and screaming two-year-olds.

The Visual Elements of Vocabulary Study

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When you’re starting a program for learning new vocabulary words, you might envision sitting down at a desk with a list of words and definitions, black letters on white pages, and a dry and boring routine. In fact, if this is the only way you’re set up to study vocabulary, it might very well be boring to you, which will discourage you from practicing your vocabulary improvement, and even make it more difficult to learn and remember the words you’re looking at.

Humans are visual animals for the most part, and even if your own particular learning method tends to be more auditory (you learn best by listening) or kinesthetic (you learn quickly when you’re doing hands-on work), everyone has an element of visual learning in the way they receive and process information. Because of this, adding images or other interesting and significant visual elements to vocabulary study will do two things: first, it will keep you focused on the words and concepts; and second, it will make those words and concepts easier to learn and remember. Here are a few tips on adding this visual component to your study program:

Incorporate images. Wherever possible, include a picture or other image that illustrates the word you’re trying to learn. For nouns and certain verbs, this is relatively easy; the internet has millions of image files for everything from aardvark to zyzzyva. For some words, however, you’ll do better trying to sketch out a picture for yourself that helps you visualize the concept; for example, you might create an image of a chess board with the two sets of black and white men lined up in rows on either side, plus a few additional pawns to the side, to illustrate the word extraneous.

Weave a web. Word mapping helps you discover the links between words, and strengthens your ability to recall both the primary word you’re learning and the additional related words. The Ultimate Vocabulary system has a feature called “Word Discovery” that helps you map words and explore these connections.

Activate your eyes. By creating your own images, you’ll activate more areas of your brain, and this additional activity will help your brain encode and store the memories of the words and their definitions. This stimulation will be even greater if you’re using a pen or pencil to sketch out the images.

Vocabulary Building Tip: Sorting Words by Difficulty

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If you’re new to vocabulary building, you might be tempted to jump in the deep end of the vast pool of English words out there, and learn the harder ones first. Some people think that by knowing some fancy or obscure words, they’ll impress others with their vocabulary knowledge, so they start out with the most difficult words they can find. However, in order to develop a solid English vocabulary that you know how to use effectively, you need to start with more common words and understand those thoroughly. When you do, you’ll have a firm base to build on, because the simpler words help you learn the more complicated ones. A good vocabulary-building course or vocabulary software like Ultimate Vocabulary will arrange and classify the words for you, and help you track your progress as you learn the words and move to the next level.

Here are ten words that range from easy to difficult that you can use to test your skill at the various levels. By using this list, you should be able to judge the correct level for your own vocabulary building program; this will help you avoid wasting time by looking at word lists you already know, and also avoid the frustration of starting at a level that is higher than you’re comfortable with. How many of these words did you know, and where will you begin your vocabulary-building routine?

icon EYE-kahn noun
An image or representation of a person or an ideal.

intact in-TAKT adjective
Whole, unbroken, complete.

induce in-DOOS verb
To cause to happen, to bring about.

ironic eye-RAHN-ik adjective
Having the opposite effect or meaning than what was expected.

injunction in-JUHNK-shun noun
An order by a judge or other authority that requires someone to, or prevents them from, doing something.

idyllic eye-DILL-ik adjective
Peaceful, perfect.

impervious ihm-PURR-vee-us adjective
Not affected by, immune to.

imbroglio ihm-BROH-lee-o noun
A confusing and often potentially embarrassing situation.

irascible ih-RAHS-ih-bull adjective
Irritable, quick to anger.

ignominy ihg-NAH-mih-nee noun
Shame or disgrace.

Speed Reading and Vocabulary Improvement

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One of the best ways to improve your vocabulary is by reading as much as you can, from as many different categories of materials as possible. By exposing yourself to new texts and new information, you’ll learn many new vocabulary words, and also how to use those words in context. If you had taken the same vocabulary words from a list of words unconnected to text, you would miss the opportunity to see how they’re used, and that would slow down your rate of vocabulary acquisition. Naturally, the faster you’re able to read, the more material you’ll be able to cover. That’s why speed reading also helps with vocabulary improvement.

A good vocabulary, on the other hand, will help improve your reading skills. If you don’t have to stop or slow down to try to figure out the meaning of a word, your reading rate will stay high, and your comprehension of the text will not go down. In order to guarantee that your speed reading ability continues to grow, work on improving your vocabulary as well.

An easy way to add even more words to your vocabulary is to have a “word of the day” feature programmed into your computer. The Ultimate Vocabulary software system provides this, but there are also free phone apps that give you new words each day, and even paper calendars you can keep on your desk. Glance over at the calendar every hour or so, and by the end of the day – and with very little effort – you’ll have memorized the word and its definitions.

Here’s a word for you today: omnivorous. You might be able to guess already what it means, as most people know the word carnivorous (“meat-eating”). The Latin roots omni- (“all, everything”) and vorare (“to devour”) combine to make the word omnivorous, or “devouring everything.” We picked this word because that’s the sort of reader you should be in order to develop the large vocabulary and fast reading speed you want. Don’t stick to the types of books that you always read – pick a new category from the library or book store, and you might be surprised at what you end up enjoying. Not only will you find new things to read, you’ll get new information and new vocabulary words. Be hungry for new words, and you’ll always find something to satisfy you.

Cross-posted at the 7 Speed Reading blog.

Vocabulary Improvement for Children

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When parents try to find the best way to help their children improve vocabulary skills, they might find themselves lost in a jungle of resources, and left with a jumble of unconnected hints from books and websites about how to encourage their children to practice and enjoy vocabulary improvement. Vocabulary building exercises and techniques that work for adults don’t always help children, especially younger ones. In particular, it’s important to incorporate images and games into the exercises, both to make them easier to understand and to make them easier to remember. In addition, the element of play and fun is something that will attract children (and adults!) to the games and exercises, and they may not even realize that they’re learning new vocabulary words.

One good way to get children interested in words is to choose games like “find a word” or “unscramble the word.” The traditional game of “hangman” is a good one as well, because it encourages children to think about the letter patterns in words, which will also improve their spelling skills. Even young children can play this game. In many newspapers in the United States, you can find a daily “word jumble” game that’s simple but challenging for older children. The game usually has a set of four or five words that need to be unscrambled, and then certain letters from the unscrambled words need to also be unscrambled to form the answer to a puzzle question. Parents can help children on this last part.

Newspapers also usually have a “find a word” game included, where a grid filled with letters is printed along with a list of words hidden in the letter grid. For children more into online games, the game Word Jungle will keep them interested with its animated characters and scoring system.

As parents, you can boost the power of these games by talking about the words that the children unscramble or find. Help them learn the definitions, ask them to use the words in a sentence, and start them thinking about related words, synonyms, and antonyms. If you do this regularly, your children will unconsciously develop the habit of vocabulary improvement all on their own.

Word of the Day: Trepidation

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If you’re new to vocabulary building, you might be worried about the amount of work ahead of you. In fact, if you’re learning English as a second language, you might be downright scared about the amount of time it will take you to learn even a fraction of the thousands of words in the English language. That’s one reason we started this blog, and why the Ultimate Vocabulary software was created: to help people who are filled with trepidation at the thought of vocabulary building.

As we’ve mentioned before, vocabulary building is a process that is easier to get through if you take things a step at a time. One of the first steps in learning a word is to look at its etymology. Today, we’ll look at the word trepidation. This word comes from the Latin trepidare (“to be alarmed, to tremble”).

The next step is to look at the word’s definition, and to find words that are similar in meaning. By learning synonyms of a word at the same time you’re learning the original word, you’ll add many new words to your vocabulary instead of just one. Here are some synonyms for trepidation: anxiety, concern, uneasiness, worry, perturbation, nervousness, disquiet, dread.

You can also learn a word’s antonyms, or words that have the opposite meaning. These are antonyms for today’s word: calmness, ease, contentment, peacfulness.

By knowing the roots of a word, you can often figure out the definition of other words. For example, knowing what you do about the word trepidation, what would you guess that the word intrepid means? If you’ve been studying word roots, you’ll undoubtedly recognize the prefix in-, which is one of the common Latin-derived word parts that have the general meaning of “not.” Therefore, you’d think that the word intrepid has the overall definition of “not fearful” – and you’d be right.

By taking things a step at a time, you’ll find you make steady progress towards your goal of an advanced English vocabulary.

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