Some people think that vocabulary building happens one word at a time, and that a person needs to sit down with a dictionary and go through it from A to Z, learning the words individually and in order. Others go after words in a random fashion, learning new words as they hear or read them, but still studying words one by one. While this will increase vocabulary, it’s not the most efficient way to go about it. We recommend that when you learn one new word, you group as many other words together as possible, and learn them all at the same time. One way to do this is by using synonyms and antonyms – that is, if you learn a word, look up its synonyms and antonyms and study them as well. It’s easier to remember larger numbers of words when they’re related like this, and you’ll find that in the same amount of time it took to learn one word, you’ve managed to learn two, three, or even more.

Another excellent way to group words is by using the words’ etymology, or word roots and origins. While the words might be very different in modern English, knowing their shared origin will help you remember them because of the associations between the words. For example, say that you need to learn the word hydraulic. This word is an adjective that is used to describe something that uses water (or another liquid) as a source of power. The word comes from the Greek roots hydor (“water”) and aulos (“tube, pipe”). Just as water seeps in everywhere, the root word hydor can be found in many other common words:

Hydroelectricity is produced by forcing water at high pressure through turbines in a dam.

The element hydrogen gets its name because it produces water when combined with oxygen (H₂O).

The blue-purple flowering bush called the hydrangea was given that name by the 18th-century Swedish botanist Linnaeus because of the way the seed pods capture rainwater.

Many vegetables are grown hydroponically, without soil, using only nutrient-filled water.

When you take the water out of something, you dehydrate it; you can rehydrate it by adding water back in.

Water is essential to life, and a good vocabulary will keep your studies and career alive and growing.