How often do you encounter words that you don’t understand?
When you encounter a difficult word, do you look it up in a dictionary, or do you skip over it and/or try to guess the word’s meaning from its context?
Have you, at any point in your life after school, made an attempt to boost your vocabulary? How successful were you?
Has this message board helped your vocabulary at all?
Do you have any suggestions for improving vocabulary?
Thank you.
Depends on what I’m reading. In normal texts, I can get a very good idea from the context, usually enough that I don’t notice an unfamiliar word. But if I’m reading a math book…well, that doesn’t count, does it?
If I can guess the meaning of the word from context, I do. But if I know a synonym, then I usually look them both up to see any subtle differences in meaning.
Not really, I just read a lot.
Definitely!
Read everything you can get your hands on. It’ll build your vocabulary and expose you to new ideas.
And the internet/email can be death to your vocabulary. Read reputable writers writing in reputable places.
And the internet/email can be death to your vocabulary. Read reputable writers writing in reputable places.
I have a huge vocabulary. This is mostly due to the fact that, starting in eighth grade or so, I started reading the dictionary for entertainment. I read magazines in my school years, and I took up fiction much later. A big vocabulary can be a mixed blessing. You’re more likely to understand what others write and say, but if you get carried away, many people will have no inkling of what your grandiloquent perigrinations might imply. So, in hoping to increase your ablility to communicate, you’ve lost it. You’ll be good at crossword puzzles, and you’ll be able to read William F. Buckley (for what that’s worth,) but you’ll have to remember to be clear. Clarity is always more important than flashing your big words around.
I swear by the Merriam-Webster “word of the day” email. Always amusing and enlightening, and includes the etymology (not to be confused with the entymology, that bugs me) of the word as well as the definition. Go to www.m-w.com and sign up!..Timmy
Word a day toilet paper!
–p.
I like my little electronic Franklin dictionary/thesaurus. The word games are fun during train rides or waiting in line. I think the device can help improve one’s vocab.
1) How often do you encounter words that you don’t understand?
The amount of reading I do varies each day, but at least a couple of times per week I will come across a word that is unfamiliar to me.
**2) When you encounter a difficult word, do you look it up in a dictionary, or do you skip over it and/or try to guess the word’s meaning from its context? **
If I am home on my computer I’ll just consult dictionary.com since it’s quick and easy and I just like to be sure that I am understanding what I am reading correctly. At other times I’ll check my dictionary if I need a more thorough discussion of the word’s usage. A lot of times I can derive a word’s meaning from the context. Foreign words and phrases, usually French or Latin, always throw me and I’m usually annoyed by seeing them used, and at times like these I always end up having to look them up, hoping they will be listed.
**3) Have you, at any point in your life after school, made an attempt to boost your vocabulary? How successful were you? **
I did buy a book one time on improving one’s vocabulary, but it didn’t do much for me.
4) Has this message board helped your vocabulary at all?
I’m sure it has, though I cannot recall right off any words that I learned directly from this board.
**5) Do you have any suggestions for improving vocabulary? **
I have found that simply reading, reading whatever is of interest to a person, is the best way to keep one’s vocabulary sharp. I also do a lot of story writing, so this helps, too. Lastly, being around educated people with good vocabulary skills is a plus.
A few words a year. Most recently I encountered “eponymous” in a paper- when I looked it up I realized the person who had used it didn’t really know what it meant, either, which explains why context didn’t help at all.
If I can spell it, I look it up as soon as I can find a dictionary; written unknowns are easier to deal with than spoken ones unless I have the chance to (and the comfort level to) ask the person what the word means.
I like to look up words in the dictionary that I’m not completely certain what they mean, so I can solidify my knowledge of it. (for example, I more or less knew what “unilateral” meant, but I looked up the exact meaning this week) I read a lot, which seems to help me discover new words. The reader’s Digest vocab quizzes are amusing while waiting in offices, but since I rarely get less than 80-90% of them correct, I don’t think they help much.
In regard to words that have additional regional means, yes. Other than that, not so much.
Read. A lot.
Not very often - probably half a handful per magazine, and that’s mostly jargon. In books, probably one or two for every hundred pages.
I skip and/or guess. I’m nearly always right.
I’m still in school, so this is sort of moot.
Yes, of course.
Uh… read a dictionary?
1) How often do you encounter words that you don’t understand?
In Dutch, very rarely. Maybe once per month or so.
In English, a couple of times per week. Mostly while talking on the phone with my girlfriend. She’s the smart one. 
2) When you encounter a difficult word, do you look it up in a dictionary, or do you skip over it and/or try to guess the word’s meaning from its context?
I’ll venture a guess anyway, but I’ll always look it up to be sure. Or ask, if its in a conversation.
3) Have you, at any point in your life after school, made an attempt to boost your vocabulary? How successful were you?
By asking what words I don’t know mean. Works all the time.
4) Has this message board helped your vocabulary at all?
Immensely, for my English. Hasn’t done a lot for my Dutch, though.
**5) Do you have any suggestions for improving vocabulary? **
Read a lot, and always be inquisitive.
*Originally posted by Jenner *
1) How often do you encounter words that you don’t understand?
Often. I’m not a scientist, but I work on scientific papers.
2) When you encounter a difficult word, do you look it up in a dictionary, or do you skip over it and/or try to guess the word’s meaning from its context?
I usually can guess the meaning of the word from the context, to a degree. It’s not necessary for me to know the specific meaning of a word at work, just the basic concept and how the word behaves in the sentence. But there are times when I’ll be adding a word myself, and I run to the dictionary to make sure I’m spelling the feller right.
3) Have you, at any point in your life after school, made an attempt to boost your vocabulary? How successful were you?
Well, back in grade school I was one of those ‘let’s read the dictionary’ people! Only way I found out what the heck ‘akimbo’ means - and no, I didn’t get much farther than ‘akimbo’.
4) Has this message board helped your vocabulary at all?
A little.
Almost never. Unless I’m reading books from highly educated people. Some history professors seem to delight in finding obscure words to torture masters candidates.
Usually I can get the meaning from context, if not exactly then at least in the ballpark. If I still can’t tell and I really want to know what’s being said I’ll look it up, otherwise I’ll just pass on by.
Never. I was a voracious reading throughout my life. And not just kids stuff but a good variety. So I figure I’m good. I will make attempts to figure out what those new fangled words mean though, such as phat.
Nope, not because it isn’t helpful but because I don’t need it.
As with 8 posters before me, read, read, read.
Rarely - for my job I occasionally run across medical vocabulary I don’t know.
Usually I’ve got a good idea from context, but I also use www.webster.com for confirmation.
Never really made a specific effort - just read a lot. And I remember hating the first vocab tests I had to take, in 5th grade, but that was because they were rote memorization with little context.
Very little - occasionally it’s helped refine my understanding of a word I’ve rarely used, but that’s about it.
Hmmm. I’d suggest taking a foreign language, particularly Latin or French, since so much English vocabulary is borrowed from those two. Never took the former, but I studied French for 11 years starting in 2nd grade - incredibly helpful. (In fact, in the standards-free schooling of the 70s and 80s, taking French was about the only way I learned grammar.)
Oh, and if you really want a vocabulary from hell, go to law school. Not only will you learn lots of new words, but your success will depend on using them properly. Nothing stings quite like the humiliation of misusing a word in front of 120 classmates when you’re on call for that day.
1.) Seldom
2.) Uponing espying a word with which I am unfamiliar, I reference it posthaste
3.) I have made no such attempt. A steady diet of literature has cultivated in me an adequate verbosity.
4.) No, I’ve frequented this site for less than a fortnight.
5.) Books is good word lernin…
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Jenner *
[quote]
Ruling out things like “epidemy” for “epitome” (which I just got seriously confused by over in the BBQ Pit), I’d say about once or twice a month.
Depends on how significant it seems to be to the meaning of what I’m reading, and whether or not I think it is a real word. Chances are about two out of three that I’ll look it up.
No. I see having a large vocabulary as the result of being well-read and well-educated, not an end unto itself.
Of course. Where else could I have learned words like felch, squink, and asshat?
Read things that are “too hard” for you. Then discuss them with people who already understand what they’re about.
Very seldom. Despite the fact that I sometimes have trouble finding the right word while posting or IMing or what-not, I know what most words mean.
I almost always gone with context, or by looking at the parts of the word (greek/latin roots, etc).
Nope.
I’m sure I’ve picked up a few things here and there.
Read a lot.
Depends, but pretty often. I did very well on the GRE vocab part, but my readings get increasingly complicated and jardon laden and are at a point where on-line dictionaries aren’t usually helpful, not the crappy one from the '50s I swiped from a friend. Exception: the dictionary of difficult terms
I usually need to look it up
3/5) Still in school. . . on a bus commute before grad school I would study a GRE book I checked out fromt he public library that had the “10000 most common words on the exam” list and learned the ones I didn’t know. Helped a great deal.
I have certain words I KNOW but can never remember and are always annoying as I need to look them up every now and then. examples (that I happen to remember today but will need to look up in a year): Apotropaic. Maieutic. Heuristic. Hodiecentric. Certain things just don’t gel in my head. Of course whenever I see the color orange I call it yellow.