Learning a word a day can be a good vocabulary builder. In his article called Improve Your Vocabulary, Improve Your Success, author Troy Simpson says:
- Direct techniques [for improving your vocabulary] include looking in a dictionary for unfamiliar words.
Another technique is to use a notebook to record the definitions of new
words and review your notebook whenever you get some spare time — at
lunch, on the train to work, or whenever. You should try to learn at
least one new word a day.
But what words should you look up in a dictionary? What words should you put in your notebook? What kind of words should you try to learn a day?
Here is a list of words to look up and practise. They come from a series of newspaper articles under the caption "Learn a Word Every Day", in which appeared the pronunciation, meaning, and derivation of an English word, with an example of its use in a sentence. How many of these words do you know?
acoustics
acumen
agenda
altruism
ambiguous
antidote
aphorism
aplomb
atrocity
avarice
badinage
bibulous
bizarre
blatant
caliph
celibate
chivalrous
condign
conglomerate
cosmetician
coupon
crepuscular
crises
cull
dais
debilitate
decalogue
dirigible
eccentric
| eczema
esoteric
exotic
facsimile
ferrous
filibuster
flux
futile
garrulity
hale
harangue
hegemony
heterogeneous
hypothesis
impecunious
incalculable
incommunicado
indefatigability
insipid
introspection
ironic
languid
lucubration
malfeasance
mattoid
modicum
moribund
moron
mundane
| mycologist
naive
obeisance
ornithorhynchus
paradox
parvenu
perpetuate
perturb
philander
plausible
precarious
pseudo
puerile
pulchritude
pusillanimity
rapport
rapprochement
recalcitrant
renegade
reprisal
sabotage
sacrosanct
simulacrum
stipend
stultify
succumb
taunt
tentative
turpitude
|
References:
Lillian B Lawler, "Learn a Word Every Day" (1923) 18(5) The Classical Journal 299.