What Is Vocabulary?
What Is Vocabulary?
What Is Vocabulary?
What is Vocabulary?
Use a word immediately after you learn it. Try to make a game out of using a new word as
soon as you learn it. Every day, try to slip in a new word into the conversation, a journal
entry, an assignment or an email to a friend. Do this as often as possible, and repeat the
word to yourself.
Once you’re out of school, word drills and assigned reading become things of the past. While
these were tools for building your vocabulary repertoire while you were young, it doesn’t
mean you should abandon reading. Try to read a well-written and edited essay, magazine
article, book or news article every day. Nonfiction and technical books will quickly teach you
new ways to think and speak with words you may be unfamiliar with, but any type of reading
will help you along. The more you read -- especially novels and literary works, but also
magazines and newspapers -- the more words you'll be exposed to. As you read and uncover
new words, use a combination of attempting to derive meaning from the context of the
sentence as well as from looking up the definition in a dictionary.
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Learn Roots
Learn the roots of words. Most words in the English language are built from a common root,
prefix, and suffix, usually with an origin in the Greek or Latin language. Once you learn a
root, you’ll begin to understand more words that use the same root. For example, -duc-
(Latin root word) means to lead or to make, such as in the words produce or deduce.
Holograph: Handwritten book or document (the root ‘holo’ stands for ‘hand’
Let’s explore 30 of the most common Greek and Latin roots used in the English language.
Amble – Stroll
Ambulant – move around
Ambul walk, move Latin
Ambulance – a vehicle that moves a sick or injured
people to and from hospital
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Autonomy: condition of being self ruled
Auto self, same, one Greek
Autobiography: personal life story
Benefit: gain
Bene good, well Latin
Benevolent –big heartedness
Homicide – murder
Insecticide – a chemical used to kill insects
Cide, cise cut, kill Latin Patricide- killing of father
Matricide- killing of mother
Suicide- killing yourself
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Perennial –continuous; long lasting
Enn/i, Anni years Latin
Biennial: happening every 2 years
Heterogeneous –different
Hetero different, other Greek Heteronyms – words with same spelling but
different meanings
Omnipresent: present everywhere
Omni all Latin
Omnivorous eating all foods.
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of doing things that makes people admire you
A prefix
Prefix is a letter or a group of letters that appears at the beginning of a word and changes
the word’s original meaning
A suffix
Suffix is a letter or a group of letters that is usually added at the end of words, to change the
way a word fits into a sentence grammatically.
To understand the meaning of a long word, you can often divide the word into parts.
To better understand its meaning, you can divide the word into three parts:
un = not
able is a suffix. (It comes after the main part of the word; like many suffixes, it changes the
part of speech; e.g., verb Æ adjective.)
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Here is a list of the most common prefixes:
em-, en- cause to, put into embrace, encode, embed, enclose, engulf
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PREFIX MEANING EXAMPLES
Use Mnemonics
Mnemonic techniques are memory tricks you can use to remember new words. You may
remember a word by sounding it out and thinking of a funny sentence that matches the
meaning, such as turning egregious (extremely bad) into “Don’t let that smelly rotten egg
reach us!”
The formations of synonyms changes as per the changing form, let it be either verb,
adjective, adverb, preposition etc. On can understand better with the help of examples.
Given below are a few handful tips which shall be helpful to you to solve synonyms.
1. If one does not know the exact meaning of the word, try understanding it in the context
of the paragraph.
2. In case the meaning of the word is not clear, going through all the available options can
certainly be considered as a good idea. By doing so, one can start getting idea about the
given question & start negating the available options one after the other.
3. Sometimes it so happens that a particular word sounds more like a tongue twister, so try
& break it into meaningful parts. Chances are there that the full word might start making
more sense in this way.
4. One of the effective ways of knowing & scoring well in this section is to keep a regular tab
& enough involvement of reading synonyms & making one’s own list. Revising the list
regularly helps one in remembering the synonyms more often.
5. While replacing a particular word in sentence, using its synonym, please see to it that the
context does not change nor the whole meaning of the sentence.
a) injury
b) misappropriate
c) charity
d) endaemonism
e) cling
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The correct answer is option
c) charity.
Antonyms are the words, which mean opposite to the given word. Example: Antonym of
Benevolent is Malevolent or Unkind.
Given below are a few types of antonyms for better understanding of the students.
Types of Antonyms:
1. Gradable Antonyms: Both the words lie in a continuous spectrum. eg: hard and soft.
2. Complementary Antonyms: Over here, both the words do not lie in a continuous
spectrum. eg: push and pull
3. Relational Antonyms: Few kinds of antonyms are the ones, who make sense only when
they are read together. eg: teacher and pupil
In context of the examination, antonyms are being asked directly & at times based on the
paragraph.
Tips & Tricks to solve antonyms shall remain same as that of synonyms.
The railroad was not the first institution to impose regularity on society, or to draw
attention to the importance of precise timekeeping. For as long as merchants have set out
their wares at day break & communal festivities have been celebrated, people have been in
rough agreement with their neighbours as to the time of day. The value of this tradition is
today more apparent than ever. Were it not for public acceptance of a single yardstick of
time, social life would be unbearably chaotic: the massive daily transfers of goods, services,
information, would proceed in fits & starts the very fabric of modern society would begin to
unravel.
Question: In the above passage find out the antonym for the word stated in bold.
a) lawless
b) untidy
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c) jumbled
d) calm
d) calm.
Exercise 1
In the following the questions choose the word which best expresses the meaning of the
given word.
1. CORPULENT
A. Lean
B. Gaunt
C. Emaciated
D. Obese
Answer: Option D
2.BRIEF
A. Limited
B. Small
C. Little
D. Short
Answer: Option D
3. EMBEZZLE
A. Misappropriate
B. Balance
C. Remunerate
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D. Clear
Answer: Option A
Explanation:
Synonyms: abstract, defalcate, filch, forge, loot, misapply, misappropriate, misuse, peculate,
pilfer, purloin, put hand in cookie jar, put hand in till, skim.
4. ADVERSITY
A. Failure
B. Helplessness
C. Misfortune
D. Crisis
Answer: Option C
Explanation:
5. INDICT
A. Condemn
B. Reprimand
C. Accuse
D. Allege
Answer: Option C
Explanation:
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Meanings: formally accuse of a crime (Law); accuse, charge, criticize
Example:
1. Restive:
A. Patient
B. Rigorous
C. Deceptive
D. Active
E. Cautious
Solution:
The word, restive, is tricky, because it sounds like it has something to do with rest.
Therefore, option (D) active would be the best antonym. However, this is a trick. Restive
actually means restless. So, the correct answer is patient, a good antonym for restless.
2. MELODIOUS
A. Harmonious
B. Tuneless
C. Odious
D. Mellifluous
Ans.(c)
3. FIENDISH
A. Diabolical
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B. Devilish
C. Reimbursement
D. Friendly
Ans.(d)
Reimbursement: a sum paid to cover money that has been spent or lost.
In general, an analogy is a similarity that is drawn between two different, but sufficiently
similar events, situations, or circumstances. A verbal analogy draws a similarity between one
pair of words and another pair of words.
There are many kinds of relationship which the question pair of words displays. If we are
able to decode the relationship between words, we will look to find out the pair of words
among the options where the first word is a tool for the second. Thus, reaching the correct
answer becomes easier.
List of Analogies:
P is a defining characteristic of Q.
X is a type of Y.
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Example: ANGER: EMOTION (ANGER is a type of EMOTION.) ORANGE: FRUIT (An ORANGE is
a type of FRUIT).
X is a part of Y.
Relationship of Degree.
Tools used by professionals- Some analogies are based upon the connection between a
person and the tool that person uses or upon a tool and the result that it achieves.
X is a sign of Y.
Sequence- In this type of connection, one event follows another, either as a matter of logic
or sequence, or as an effect follows its cause. We also include in this category analogies in
which one event prevents or interrupts another.
X is a spurious form of Y. In this type of analogy, one idea is a spurious or defective form of
the other.
Exercise 2
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Verbal Analogies Questions:
Example 1:
A. Manuscripts
B. Metals
C. Speech
D. Charter
Solution: First identify the relation between the given pair. Here, errata is a list of mistakes
attached at the end of a book, after the book is published i.e. mistakes left in the finished
product. Similarly 'flaws' also means 'mistakes' and mistakes can be in manuscripts, speech
and charter also. But we cannot have three correct options. So the question is based on
secondary meaning of the words instead of primary meaning of the given words. 'Flaws' also
means 'impurities' left in the metal after it is purified. Now this is the perfect analogy. Hence
the answer is 'flaws : metals' i.e. option D. Errata is MISTAKES left after the book is published
and 'flaws' are the impurities left in the metal after it is purified.
Example 2:
TRIAL : JURY :: ?
dispute : arbiter
poll : contestant
championship : spectator
conference : speaker
Solution: As 'jury' settles the 'trial' similarly the job of the arbiter is to settle the 'dispute'.
Hence the answer is option A.
Example 3:
IMPLAUSIBLE : ABSURD :: ?
shadowy : illurninated
flamboyant : public
surprising : shocking
superfluous : truncated
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Solution: First try to figure out the relationship between the two words in the question pair.
Now the words 'implausible' and 'absurd' have almost the same meaning but the usage or
polarity is exactly opposite. While 'implausible' is used in positive sense, 'absurd' is used in
negative sense. Both have meaning used in the sense of 'unbelievable'. Similarly the option
C shows the same relationship. The words 'surprising' and 'shocking' means the same but
usage wise both are used in opposite sense(positive and negative respectively).
Example 4:
A. BUSH
B. GRASS
C. FOREST
D. BEAK
Answer: Option D
Explanation:
Cup is used to drink something with the help of lips. Similarly birds collects grass with the
help of beak to make her nest.
Example 5:
A. Rain
B. Stream
C. Pool
D. Canal
Answer: Option C
Explanation:
Example 6:
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Paw : Cat :: Hoof : ?
A. Lamb
B. Elephant
C. Lion
D. Horse
Answer: Option D
Explanation:
Example 7:
A. Islands
B. Mediators
C. Archealogy
D. Aquatic
Answer: Option C
Explanation:
Example 8:
A. Australia
B. America
C. Russia
D. England
Answer: Option C
Explanation:
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As Peacock is the national bird of India, similarly Bear is the national animal of Russia.
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