How To Improve Your Vocabulary. Power of the Printed Word.

The following pointers can help people learn and remember new words. First, try to guess the meaning of the word from the way it's used. At least part of a word's meaning can be determined from the context of the sentence. To find out exactly what the word means and where it comes from, look it up in a dictionary. To get at the meaning behind the word, it is necessary to determine its roots. Learning roots: (1) helps with remembering words, (2) gives a deeper understanding of them, and (3) allows the learning of whole families of new words at a time. Another important clue to the meaning of a word is the prefix. There aren't many prefixes and they are easy to learn. Once new words have been learned, they should be put to work immediately. But be careful not to sound like a stuffed shirt; use them when they sound natural. (DC)