Words, Words, Words

Improving your vocabulary can help you understand what you read better and express yourself better, assist you in doing better on an SAT or ACT test, and hopefully, help you spell better.


Basics:

• Learn a new word often
• Look up a word you don't know
• Read!! Read a lot!!
• Be sure you understand how to pronounce the new word
• Write it down a few times
• Use the word in a sentence when you speak to someone
• Look up the meaning or origin of the word
• When you write, use the thesaurus to find a different word than you usually use
• Challenge yourself with word games
• Listen to the lyrics of a song: What do they mean to you? Why?
• Learn a word in another language. In Hawaii, 'Shaka' translates to "hang loose," or "take it easy." This is the hand symbol for Shaka:

The first dictionary was published in 1806 after 26 years of compiling words.
Currently, there are 171,476 words in the Oxford English Dictionary. Each year up to 1000 new words are added. This is often due to use in social context or to technology terms that didn't exist before. How is it decided which words make it into the dictionary? https://www.merriam-webster.com/help/faq-words-into-dictionary

Great tips here to really learn words and retain them:
https://wordcounter.net/blog/2014/01/22/1027_25-ways-to-improve-your-writing-vocabulary.html


Here are words for the next 30 days, and thanks to Just Colleges, where you can find lots more http://justcolleges.com/college/sat-the-top-100-vocab-words/:

1. abstinence: (n) the act of refraining from pleasurable activity, e.g., eating or drinking
2. adulation: (n) high praise
3. aesthetic: (adj) pertaining to beauty or the arts

                                                          What do you think of the aesthetic of this picture by Leo Valdez?
4. amicable: (adj) friendly, agreeable
5. anonymous: (adj) nameless, without a disclosed identity
6. asylum: (n) sanctuary, shelter, place of refuge
7. benevolent: (adj) friendly and helpful

8. camaraderie: (n) trust, sociability amongst friends

9. censure: (v) to criticize harshly
10. clairvoyant: (adj) exceptionally insightful, able to foresee the future, having psychic abilities

11. condescending: (adj) possessing an attitude of superiority, patronizing
12. demagogue: (n) leader, rabble-rouser, usually appealing to emotion or prejudic
13. empathy: (n) identification with the feelings of others
14. ephemeral: (adj) momentary, transient, fleeting
15. frugal: (adj) thrifty, cheap

16. hackneyed: (adj) cliched, worn out by overuse
17. haughty: (adj) arrogant and condescending
18. integrity: (n) decency, honesty, wholeness
19. intrepid: (adj) fearless, adventurous
20. lobbyist: (n) person who seeks to influence political events
21. mundane: (adj) ordinary, commonplace
22.nonchalant: (adj) calm, casual, seeming unexcited

           They tried to get Timmy interested in Game of Thrones but he remained nonchalant...he is quite precocious, too. He already plays the kazoo with great skill.


23. precocious: (adj) unusually advanced or talented at an early age
24. pretentious: (adj) pretending to be important, intelligent or cultured
25. procrastinate: (v) to unnecessarily delay, postpone, put off
26. querulous: (adj) complaining, irritable

                                                          Ever had to deal with a querulous instructor?
27. sagacity: (n) wisdom

                                                     No one doubts the sagacity of Yoda

28. spurious: (adj) lacking authenticity, false
29. surreptitious: (adj) secret, stealthy
30. tactful: (adj) considerate, skillful in acting to avoid offense to others


What are some new words you've learned recently?