Vocabulous You! An Interactive Guide to Building Vocabulary for Standardized Tests, College, On the Job and Everyday Life

Vocabulous You!

An Interactive Guide to Building Vocabulary for

Standardized Tests, On-the Job, College and Everyday Life

By Robin Kavanagh

Copyright 2011 Robin Kavanagh

Smashwords Edition

Cover design by Kara LaFrance

Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Vocabulary, shmocabulary. Who needs it?

How We Learn

How to Use this Book

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H and I

J through L

M and N

O and P

Q and R

S

T and U

V through Z

About the Author

Vocabulary, shmocabulary. Who needs it?

The simple answer is you do. Right or wrong, we are judged (and judge others) by how we speak and the words we use.

Think about it. The last time you saw a commercial that had a man with a British accent, what were your thoughts about that person? Maybe you thought he was classy or dashing. Maybe you thought he was pretentious or snotty. The point is that no matter what ideas you may associate with the words and language he presented to you, you did make a judgment about the speaker in the commercial based on what he said and how he said it.

Whether you’re looking at taking standardized exams to get into college, the military, graduate school, preparing to interview for a new job or even just generally interacting with different types of people, having a diverse vocabulary in your communication arsenal is invaluable. You can raise your scores, make a strong first impression and build relationships that will help you achieve the goals you want most in life – all by being able to deftly communicate your thoughts and ideas to others.

Sounds pretty great, right? Unfortunately, many people associate vocab building with long, boring English classes and SAT cram sessions that leave them dizzy. But it doesn’t have to be that way at all. The key to adding new words to your daily lexicon (dictionary – see, you’re learning already!) is to personalize your approach to fit with how you think and perceive the world around you.

This e-book is designed to be an interactive tool that you can use to build your vocabulary in ways that make sense to you. There are lots of methods out there for incorporating new words in to your vocabulary. But to ensure your efforts make a real impact on your verbal ability, your approach needs to work with your individual learning style and the way you think. The way you learn, recognize and use new words doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else; so long as it makes sense to you, you’re golden.

Take me, for example. My brain tends to learn things through patterns and associations. When I watch TV, read books or listen to audiobooks, I encounter new words all the time. If don’t know what they mean, I look them up and try to remember how they were used when I originally came across them.

For example, one book I recently read described someone’s nose as being aquiline. I’d heard the word used in similar ways before, but didn’t really know what it meant. What I did know was that the character with the aquiline nose was from ancient Rome and was described as having Classical features, such as high cheekbones and a square jaw. He was a very proud and proper type of guy; Old World in every sense. I wasn’t really surprised when I looked up aquiline that it refers to something that curves like an eagle’s beak. An aquiline nose is hooked and referred to as a Roman nose. Now whenever I see aquiline, I think of that character and easily recognize what the word means.

Obviously, this is a very personal association that works for me. It might not work for you. The trick is finding your own path to gaining knowledge and using that to your advantage.

How We Learn

Everyone learns differently, has a different learning style. But these styles come in three distinct flavors:

Visual: You learn by seeing.

Aurally: You learn by hearing (think audio, auditory).

Kinesthetic/Tactile: You learn by doing.

Most people lean toward one of these three learning styles, but there are plenty of people who learn best using a combination of any of the above. If you’re not sure what type of learner you are, you can take a quick and easy test at Penn State University’s website to find out.

Once you know which learning style works best for you, you can tailor your approach to increasing your vocabulary to your particular needs. If your learning style includes more than one of those listed, try using a blending of approaches