Like any self-improvement regimen, vocabulary study takes effort. Some people find this effort easier when they’re studying alone, and others prefer the support of a group and the direction of a leader. When you exercise, do you go jogging by yourself in the park, or do you like to join an aerobics class? Pick the study method that works best for you – but remember that success will take daily workouts, either way. This week we’re going to look at different exercises you can do to define, learn, and use new vocabulary words.

You won’t always have a dictionary handy when you’re faced with a word you’ve never seen before, but there are ways to figure out what the word means: by looking at the word in the context of the sentence, by identifying a suffix or prefix that gives a clue to the meaning, and by using the root of the word to get a general sense of the definition.

Knowing how to identify word roots will help you quickly classify any new word into a category of meaning. For example, the Latin root ab- or abs- has the general meaning of “away.” Once you know this, you can tell that a word beginning with ab- or abs- will often have the general meaning of “away from _______.” Here are some examples:

abstain = abs (away) + tenere (to hold), “to hold away, keep from holding”
Definition: to keep from doing something, to hold oneself apart from something
Example: During her pregnancy, she abstained from drinking coffee or alcohol.

abrasion = ab (away) + radere (to scrape), “to scrape away”
Definition: a scraping action or friction, or the result of that action
Example: The land underneath glaciers is flattened out due to the abrasion from the rocks caught in the ice.

abscond = abs (away) + condere (to store, conceal), “to hide away”
Definition: to hide or conceal something, or to hide or withdraw oneself, to steal away
Example: As soon as the week’s deposits were made, the bank teller planned to abscond with the contents of the safe.

abdicate = ab (away) + dicare (to dedicate, proclaim), “to proclaim away, to un-dedicate”
Definition: to give up, renounce, or withdraw from high office, or from a responsibility
Example: England’s Edward VII abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry the American Wallis Simpson.

Don’t abstain from daily practice! Come back tomorrow for more word exercises.