Improving Your Vocabulary
See also: Oracy SkillsA good vocabulary—all the words that you know and use—is an important element of both written and spoken communication skills, otherwise known as literacy and oracy skills. It allows you to read and understand complex texts and to communicate with people from a wide range of different backgrounds. It also allows you to feel more comfortable in new social situations, because you are better able to communicate.
Acquiring a wide vocabulary is an important element of developing language skills. Children start to acquire words within a few months of birth, imitating their parents’ use of language. However, it is never too late to start to expand and improve your vocabulary. This page provides some ideas to help you to do so.
Defining Vocabulary
There are several possible definitions of vocabulary. However, for the purposes of this page, it means the words used by an individual (see box).
vocabulary, n. the list of words known to and used by … a particular person
Chambers English Dictionary, 1989 edition
vocabulary, a sum or stock of words employed by a language, group, individual, or work, or in a field of knowledge.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition.
Having a wide vocabulary makes it easier to express ideas and feelings. It also makes it easier to understand what others mean. Improving your vocabulary can therefore be a short cut to improving how you communicate with others both in writing and orally.
This is important for anyone learning a second language, but it is also important for native speakers. Nobody should ever consider their vocabulary ‘complete’: there are always more words that you could learn and use. Indeed, anyone who has ever started a new job will appreciate that one of the first things that you have to do is learn a whole new language related to the job or organisation. Some of this will be technical terms—sometimes called ‘jargon’—but some is simply how the organisation expresses common ideas.
Improving Your Vocabulary
What can you do to improve your vocabulary? Here are some ideas and tips that may help.
1. Read widely, using a wide range of resources
One of the best ways to increase your vocabulary is to expose yourself to a wider range of language.
Reading is one of the best ways to do this—but you also need to read from a wide range of sources. If you only ever read one newspaper or website, you are unlikely to expand your vocabulary significantly. Instead, you need to read different books and styles of books, newspapers or magazines, websites, blogs and other resources. This includes resources from different eras and times (for example, classic books as well as contemporary journalism).
Don’t confine yourself to one subject or source. Instead, read eclectically and try out new sources.
Top Tip! Reading can be done aurally too
One reason why many people shy away from reading to expand their vocabulary is that they find ‘reading’ (the act of picking up a text and deciphering it) difficult. People with dyslexia, for example, may find it extremely difficult to read a classic book because it is hard for them to process the often dense text, and archaic language.
However, you can also use podcasts and audiobooks to ‘read’ for you.
This will have the same effect of exposing you to a wider range of language, with the added bonus that you will hear how words are pronounced (although you might then not know how they are spelled).
It is also a good idea to read specialist texts to expand your vocabulary in your chosen field. These may include journals, trade publications and textbooks.
2. Use a dictionary and/or thesaurus to explore new words
Both a dictionary and a thesaurus can help you to expand your vocabulary by allowing you to check the meaning of a word, or find a possible synonym.
This may be particularly helpful if you are expanding your reading and coming across unfamiliar words. However, it can also be an interesting way to spend a few minutes: just open a dictionary or thesaurus at random and read about one or two words.
Dictionaries and thesauruses have different functions, and both may be useful:
A dictionary lists the words in a language, usually in alphabetical order, and provides either their meaning or their translation into another language. It also often gives the root of the word, and lists of connected words.
A thesaurus provides a list of synonyms to a particular word, giving you alternatives that may be used under particular circumstances.
WARNING! Synonyms may not always be equivalent
It is worth being aware that not all synonyms necessarily have exactly the same meaning. They may be substitutes, but not always under all circumstances.
For example:
- Weather can be both damp and humid. The meaning is similar, although ‘damp’ is often used for cold damp, and ‘humid’ means damp and hot.
- A towel can only be damp, and never humid, even if it is still warm from the water that made it wet.
Before you use a synonym found in a thesaurus, it is therefore always worth reading the usage advice.
You can either use books, or online resources for both dictionaries and thesauruses. Many publishers offer both dictionary and thesaurus resources free online, or for a small fee.
3. Play word games
Playing word games online or via apps on a smartphone can help you to expand your knowledge of words.
From Wordle to Scrabble, there are a vast number of possible games that you can play, with or without other people. Be warned, though: just knowing that a word exists is not enough to consider your vocabulary expanded. You also need to look up the word, understand its meaning, and appreciate when to use it—which may need both a dictionary and a thesaurus.
An alternative to games like Scrabble, which only require knowledge of the existence of words, is crosswords. Cryptic crosswords can be a particularly good way to expand your vocabulary, because they often use plays on words in the clues. You need to both know and understand the words in the clue, and the answer, to solve the clue.
WARNING! Not necessarily current?
Just because a word exists does not mean that it is widely used or even current.
Many word games use archaic or unusual words as a way to catch out their users. It’s always good to know and understand new words. However, you don’t necessarily have to use them regularly.
4. Keep a list
When you are learning a second language, you are often advised to have a vocabulary book, where you write down new words with their meaning.
It is not necessarily a bad idea to do the same in your native language.
When you come across a new word, just jot it down. Look it up later if you don’t have time to do so immediately. Ask other people if they have come across it, and whether they use it. This will also help you to learn how new words are pronounced, which is always helpful.
It is also worth finding out whether it is perhaps an old term, or used under very specific circumstances. If possible, write down the word in the context in which you came across it, as part of a sentence, because context can change meaning.
Get used to exploring your native language as well as any new language that you are learning.
5. Build new words into your spoken language
Once you have identified new words, you need to start using them.
This is the only way to appreciate whether you have fully understood the word, and you are capable of using it in the right context.
This is what children do as they learn language—so why would you not do it as an adult too? If you’re not sure about the pronunciation or the context, ask those around you. If they’re not sure either, you can look it up, and you will all have learned something new.
Written or spoken?
Note that some words and phrases are more likely to be used in either written or spoken language. For example, some phrases are simply too informal to be used in written communication.
When you come across new words, it is therefore worth noting the context, so that you know when it is appropriate to use those words.
6. Subscribe to online word-related newsletters and resources
Plenty of dictionary websites provide ‘word of the day’ or ‘word of the week’ emails or newsletters. These provide a word, plus a definition and some notes about usage.
Some style guides also publish blogs about language use, which can be helpful in showing you how words should be used.
An easy way to expand your vocabulary is to subscribe to a few of these (and then make sure you read the emails when they arrive).
A Final Thought
In an article in The Guardian newspaper, memory coach Ed Cooke described a vocabulary as being like a garden. Each word in your vocabulary, he said, started its time there as a seed. Some died through lack of use. Others grew and flourished, and you start to use them regularly.
This seems like a lovely metaphor or analogy for a vocabulary, and also a gentle warning that you need to nurture your words or they might fade and die!