Words, Words, Words: How do I know what they mean?

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Each year you learn new vocabulary words or terms. But sometimes you forget the definition or find new words that you can't figure out what they mean. This blog has been created to help students improve their vocabulary. These are some strategies that we can use to find out the correct meaning of the new word, and some technological devices that can help expand vocabulary. There are also interactive games that help students practice and develop their prior word knowledge. We will present some strategies and tips to improve vocabulary. We will also suggest a few words that you should know for good communication with others.

Tips For Collecting New Words

Keep a vocabulary journal
Look up words
Pronounce words
Keep study or note cards
Learn words every day
Use new words
Create concept maps

Skills for Learning New Words

1. Context Clues

Sometimes you find words that you don’t know their meaning, and you don’t have a dictionary or you can’t use it. Well, another way to find out the meaning of unfamiliar words is looking for clues that the author left behind – context clues.

Context clues are words, phrases, and sentences around the unfamiliar word that give you clues to figure out the meaning of the unknown word. Different kinds of context clues are: definitions or synonyms, concrete examples, contrast clues, description clues, words or phrases that modify, conjunctions showing relationship, and unstated or implied meaning.

Example: Sammy was very stingy with the waitress. He didn’t give her a tip.

The word stingy means unwilling to spend or give. We can determine this meaning because the second sentence gives more information about Sammy’s action of not giving the waitress a tip.

A clue for synonyms or definition is that it will be followed by a comma or a dash. It also might include words such as or, is called, that is, and in other words. This kind of clue is mostly found in textbooks, especially science, history and math. The author also gives examples to clarify a concept. It helps you determine the meaning of the new word. Signal words that can alert you that an example will follow are: such as, including, for instance, to illustrate, an example of, and for example. In other occasions the writer gives the opposite meaning, describes the words, show relationships, implied the meaning with prior knowledge, or uses modifiers such as adjectives, adverbs, phrases or clauses to clarify the meaning of the unfamiliar word.

2. Understanding roots, prefixes, and suffixes

Another method to learn the meaning of new words is roots, prefixes, and suffixes. A root word is the basic element of a word that remains after eliminating the affixes, or inflectional changes. The root contains the basic meaning, or definition of a word. A prefix is a letter or a group of letters that appears at the beginning of a word and changes the word’s meaning. A suffix is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word. It changes the words meaning and can change the part of speech or grammatical function of the original word. If you know the meaning of the root word and prefix or suffix you can then determine the meaning of the new word.

Example:

precook – pre is a prefix, and means before. Then the meaning is cook before.

novelist – ist is a suffix, and means a person who did something. Then the meaning is a person who wrote the novel.

3.Multiple Meaning words

In English we have words that can have multiple meanings, this are words that have more than one meaning. The context of the sentences helps you determine which is the correct meaning of the word.

Example: fly

Definition: 1. to sail through the air; 2. an insect that buzzes.

Sentence: The airplanes fly straight toward to Panama.

In this sentence, fly is referring to definition # 1, to sail through the air. The airplane is a thing sailing through the air, and is not an insect.

There are some words that are pronounced the same way, but are spelled differently and have different meanings. We also have words that are spelled and pronounced the same way, but with different meaning. For example, homophones, homographs and homonyms. These types of words are very common in our Standard American English. To determine the correct word and meaning to use in each sentence, you need to understand the context of the sentences or paragraphs appropriately.

Diving into Dictionaries and Thesaurus

Whenever you find a word that you don’t recognize and can’t seem to figure out what it means by using the suggestions above, you can use any online dictionary. The dictionaries and translators provided by Google are good options.

Merriam-Webster maintains a site where you can find a dictionary, thesaurus and Spanish to English translator.

Merriam-Webster page: http://www.merriam-webster.com/

Free Online Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

Google translator: http://translate.google.com/#

Words That I Need to Know

The following are a few words that should become part of your vocabulary in preparation for college entrance exams. You can visit the following page to see many more.

http://www.majortests.com/word-lists/

sidestep- evade slack-loose envelop- surround

acerbity – sourness educe -to draw out abridge - to make shorter in words

blithesome – cheerful bray - a loud harsh sound

complaisant – agreeable resumption - the act of taking back, or taking again