They have been at a great feast of languages, and have stolen the scraps – William Shakespeare, “Love’s Labours Lost”

The English language is a veritable banquet of deliciously interesting words that you can learn and use in your daily conversations, your end-of-quarter professional presentations, and your weekly pub quiz competitions. The more words you know, the better prepared you’ll be for any situation. Remember, when you’re learning new vocabulary, you need to learn its definition, its spelling, and how to use it correctly in context, otherwise you won’t be getting full use out of each word. If you don’t have a particular list of words to learn today, here are a few word-related words for you to chew on:

terminology
Morpheme, diphthong, velar, and plosive are all part of the terminology of linguistics, the study of words. If you’re not a linguist, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of at least one of these terms. The word terminology means a set of vocabulary words and phrases that are associated with and used in a specific area of knowledge.

syllable
One of the more common linguistics terms, the word syllable refers to a group of one or more letters that are pronounced as one distinct part of a word. In English, syllables are centered on the vowel sound that is part of each group. The word comes from the Greek word syllabe, meaning “taking together.”

synonym / antonym
An important part of your vocabulary study is learning all of the words that are related to the target word you’re studying at the time. By learning a word’s synonyms (words that mean the same thing) and antonyms (words that mean the opposite), you’ll expand your vocabulary quickly and easily, and also have the flexibility to adjust your speaking or writing style depending on the audience. These two words come from the Greek prefixes syn- (“same”) and anti- (“against”) added to the Greek word onoma (“name”).

dialect
If you’ve done a lot of traveling, even in a country where people generally speak the same language, you’ll notice that there are always some regional differences between the vocabulary used in different areas. For example, in the United States there are distinct areas of the country where people call a carbonated beverage “pop” and others where that same drink is called “soda.” Dialect refers to the vocabulary used by a specific group of people, usually from the same geographic region (the word comes from the Greek dialektos, meaning “conversation”).

bon mot
This French term literally means “good word” – in English, we use it to refer to a witty or clever remark, often when someone comes up with exactly the right thing to say at a given time.

To make sure you have the right words, keep up a daily program of English vocabulary study. If you’re interested in learning more about vocabulary, language, and words in general, check out the many free video presentations made by the speakers through TED, a nonprofit organization “devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.” We’re sure you’ll get some new ideas of your own.