Vocabulary Building

 Vocabulary Building

Vocabulary means a sum or stock of words employed by a language, a group, an individual or a

work or in a field of knowledge. It is the collection of words and terms available for used in

communication. Developing good vocabulary is not only important to writers and speakers. It is

important in everybody’s life both personally as well as professionally. The three main reasons

to improve one’s vocabulary are:

 It sharpens your communication

 It opens your mind

 Vocabulary helps you to become successful

Tips to improve vocabulary

 Read, read, and read! The more you read novels, newspapers and magazines, the better is

your vocabulary, as you are exposed to number of different and new words.

 Keep a thesaurus or pocket dictionary, or a smart phone.

 Maintain a vocabulary journal.

 Learn a word a day, its synonyms and antonyms.

 Learn word roots (Etymology)

 Understand the meanings of as many prefixes and suffixes.

 Remember one-word substitutes, business vocabulary.

 Practice verbal analogy.

 Use idioms and phrases and collocations in your speech.

Synonyms: A synonyms is a word that has the same or similar meaning as another word.

Ex: Deceit – Dishonest

Antonyms: An antonym is a word that is opposite in meaning to the given word.

Ex: Turbulent x Tranquil

Idioms and Phrases: Understanding and remembering idioms and phrases is very important to

improve one’s vocabulary. The word ‘Phrase’ can be defined a small group of words standing

together as a conceptual unit, typically forming a component of a clause.

Ex: I cannot put up with that fellow. The italicized words are a phrase. The contextualized

meaning of the phrase is endured.

An ‘Idiom’ can be defined as a group of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the

literal meaning of the constituent words.

Ex: To smell a rat: to suspect foul dealings.

One-Word Substitutes: Substituting a long sentence by a single word conveying the meaning of

the sentence.

Ex: A person whom one knows but is not particularly a close friend- Acquaintance.

Verbal Analogy: Analogy means similarity between like features of two things, on which a

comparison can be made.

Ex: Play is related to ground as pray is related to – temple

Prefixes and Suffixes: Prefixes are added to the beginning of an existing word in order to create

a new word with a different meaning.

Ex: In the word multicultural- multi is the prefix, and cultural is the word. Thus a new word

multicultural is formed by adding the prefix to the word.

Suffixes are added to the end of the existing word.

Ex: In the word childish, ‘ish’ is the suffix, and child is the word. Thus a new word childish is

formed by adding the suffix ‘ish’ at the end of the word child.

Business Vocabulary: It is defined as set of words used for specific purposes. For example, the

words used by a lawyer are different from the words used by an engineer.

Ex: Cash Cow: It is a business term that is used to talk about a business, investment or product

that gives steady income or profits.

Collocations: A familiar grouping of words, especially words that habitually appear together and

thereby convey meaning by association.

Ex: Richly decorated, fully aware, excruciating pain etc.

Study of word origin or Etymology: the study of the origin of words and the way in which their

meanings have changed throughout history.

Ex: The meaning of the root Audi is ‘hear’. Words like audible and audience can be

remembered by remembering the root word.

Discussion Questions / Exercises

1. Identify any ten difficult words from a newspaper article and write their synonyms and

antonyms.

2. Google to find out the meanings of the following idioms

1. Bag of Bones

2. Play Possum

3. A Hot Potato

4. A Pretty Kettle of Fish

5. To Bring to Book

3. Write one word to substitute the sentence

1. Person lacking in experience and competence in art or science ----------------------------

2. Obvious to the eye or mind ---------------------------------

3. Fear of great heights -----------------------------

4. To divide into branches or parts ----------------------------------

5. The science of colors --------------------------

4. Select any five prefixes and five suffixes. Write their meanings and form as many

meaningful words as possible.

5. Complete each of the sentences by choosing the correct word from the four options

given.

1. Drama is related to stage as tennis is related to----------------------

a. Field b. court c. net d. racket

2. Play is related to director in the same way journal is related to----------------------

a. Reader b. publisher c. producer d. editor

3. Disease is related to epidemic in the same way as skirmish is related to------------------

a. War b. ointment c. quarrel d. campaign

4. Horse is related to hay in the same way cow is related to -------------------------

a. Leaves b. fodder c. milk d. straw

5. Well is related to depth as office is related to---------------------------------

a. Subordinates b. promotion c. efficiency d. authority.