The need for a good vocabulary is obvious. The whole language process is based on our ability to manipulate words. Our ability to speak, to listen, to read and to write are based upon the ability to recognize the meanings of the words which are used in this symbolic process. If we have a poor listening ability and understand relatively few words that we hear we are going to have a poor speaking facility and obviously we are going to have poor results in attempting to read effectively and efficiently. Vocabulary is also very much related to the process of intelligence. It is very difficult to separate our ability to handle words from the whole process called intelligence. Most of the commonly available intelligence tests which make up intelligence is the most pervasive, being included in most of the other variables of intelligence.

How Can One Improve One's Vocabulary?

The first, and probably most important way is to cultivate an interest in and a curiosity about words and language. Why are words as they are? Where do they get their meaning? These are the kinds of questions one should ask about words one does not understand or one does not know. One should be curious in finding out just what they mean. If one is curious about what a word means one will look it up in the dictionary or try to find out the meaning in some other way.

Using Context

A second way is to realize that words, being what they are, have no real meaning except as they are found in the context of a sentence. That is, the other words that surround it give its meaning. Many words may have totally different meanings depending upon the context in which they are used. A family tree, a tree of languages-the 'tree' used in that context has little or no relationship to a tree that grows on the ground. And there is a tree that you hang your clothes on at home. The word tree gains its meaning from the sentence and from the way in which the word is used. The word in itself has no meaning. Therefore, I do not subscribe to teaching vocabulary in lists of words without context; vocabulary cannot be learned out of context, because it is from the total context that the word gains its meaning. A simple illustration will indicate the point.

My watch is fast
The horse runs fast
The horse is tied fast
He did not eat because he was celebrating a religious fast.
Fast by the stream stood a small cottage
She wears colour fast clothes
He leads a fast life

What then does the word 'fast' man? It means whatever each of the previous sentences suggests that it means. Therefore, a study of the context will often tell you the meaning of an unknown word. Practice this skill and you will discover that a large percentage of difficult words can be defined by a study of the full context in which the difficult word is used.

Affixes and Roots

Words may also be recognized by the common elements or parts that are a part of the word These word-parts are prefixes, appearing at the beginning of a word; suffixes, if they appear at the end of a word; and roots, if they make up the main portion of the word. It has been estimated that 21 selected affixes and roots are a part of 1,00,000 English words For example, an illustration of prefixes are:

	Meaning	Example
ante-	in front of	antedate
circum-	around	circumference
equi-	equal	equidistant

Suffixes are illustrated by-
ee, eer, ier as in grantee, engineer, financier
ist as in accompanist.

Roots are illustrated-

	Meaning	Example
dei	God	deity
mort	Death	immortal
scrib	to write	inscribe

No one technique can alone make you to look up the meaning of all unfamiliar words. However, being basically curious about words, attempting to discover the meaning of unfamiliar words through context and looking for recognized affixes or roots will help considerably in building your facility with words.