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.