Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles about Vocabulary
Under the HoodThe science of vocabulary building
How Many Words Should You Learn in a Day?
The answer's zero, but that's not as depressing as it sounds.
When it comes to word learning, a lot of people will ask, "How many words should you learn in a day?" Setting a daily goal makes any long-term learning or self improvement project less overwhelming. The only problem with this approach? The number of words you can learn in a single day is zero.
Continue reading...
Topics:
Vocabulary
Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Your Head Will Spin: "Naught," "Aught," and "Ought"
We sure have to work hard to say what ends meaning "nothing."
"I ought to know better, but I know naught about the difference between aught and nought" is a sentence sure to make more than one head spin.
Continue reading...
In the latest installment of the Slate podcast Lexicon Valley, I take on a word that every child knows, orange, and reveal its hidden history. It's a remarkably well-traveled word, and its travels tell us a great deal about the cultural history of many of the world's great civilizations.
Continue reading...
Stroll through the hipper districts of any American city in 2014 and you may experience the sense of time being slightly out of joint. On shop signs and menus, words that last flourished a couple of centuries ago—or earlier—have been making a comeback. But no word from the distant past is as antique, or as popular in commerce in so many disparate ways, as apothecary.
Continue reading...
Tasty MorselsGood stuff from Vocabulary.com
A Novelist Breaks Her Own "100-Dollar Word" Rule
National Book Award nominee Karen Joy Fowler on building a character with a larger vocabulary than her own
Karen Joy Fowler's PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (now shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize as well) is narrated by a character with an outsize vocabulary. Here, Fowler speaks with Vocabulary.com about the process of finding the words to create that character and the fun of breaking the rule, "Never use a 100-dollar word when a one-dollar word will do."
Continue reading...
Announcements
Academic Study Proves Vocabulary.com Method Works
Eleventh graders boost engagement and learning in school and at home.
A team of academic literacy researchers put Vocabulary.com to the test in a study of eleventh grade students using Vocabulary.com in classroom and after-school contexts along with other vocabulary-focused digital learning tools. The results, published in the prestigious, peer-reviewed Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, are unequivocal: Vocabulary.com boosts learning by creating a fun, engaging, and competitive experience where students are in control.
Continue reading...
Educators love to talk about how important vocabulary is, but they are often at wits' end trying to figure out how to teach it effectively. Despite the overwhelming evidence that vocabulary knowledge matters to students' reading comprehension and overall achievement in school, it is rare that you will find schools or school districts implementing systematic vocabulary instruction.
Continue reading...
Sign up now (it’s free!)
Whether you’re a teacher or a learner,
Vocabulary.com can put you or your class
on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.