Vocab

How do you expand your vocabulary as a writer? Are you the type to sit in front of dictionary.com looking up synonyms for synonyms of words for hours on end? Do you like to sit down with a physical dictionary and go letter by letter? Or do you have a more reasonable approach to expanding your word base?

Well, I first figure out what I want to say in the sentence. Then I go usually with Synonyms to avoid repetition of words. Though I also look up random words that come in my head for their def. and see if they would fit. I'm thinking of having a record for a word vocabulary, since remembering every word out there is difficult. So in a way I extend my vernacular of the Enlgish Patois, in order to prevent extraneous and inessential words and phrases.

No offense if this is anyone's method of expanding their vocabulary, but please, please, please nobody go to a thesaurus/dictionary because you don't think you know enough words. A thesaurus is fine for verifying that two words mean close to the same thing, but the key to using new vocabulary effectively in writing is to have a good feel for the connotation and tone of a word, which a thesaurus will not help you with. You'll end up using, say... (I'm going to put this in spoiler tags because it's kind of off-color, but it's a good example of how dangerous using a thesaurus can be. This is from Merriam-Webster.)

Instead of going to a thesaurus/dictionary, I would suggest simply reading more books, whether fiction or non-fiction. Heck, this is one case where I'd say watching TV and movies or listening to the radio can help (depending on the sophistication of the material), especially if you're not a native English speaker. Go ahead and make a note of new words you encounter and look them up if you don't know the definition, but it's just as important to pay attention to how the word is used in context. Is it colloquial, sophisticated, crude, hip, archaic, or something else entirely?

tl;dr: Just broaden your general exposure to the language and your vocabulary will take care of itself over time.

I remember long ago when I was a kid my dad suggested I recorded tv shows/news and listen to how people speak and what vocab they used, and it worked for me for the most part. So kinda similar to what icomeanon6 said earlier.

I do use the thesaurus on occasion but it's more so if there's a certain tone I want to use, so I tend to fact check the word and the dictionary before deciding if I want to use that particular word or not. Otherwise, I just go with the first word that comes to mind and then fine tune the word choice later.

I am guilty of wasting away hours at a time sitting on dictionary.com and falling into rabbit holes of synonyms of synonyms. It might not be the best way to do things, but I slowly and surely learn just how many words mean the same thing. Also music is a big help, especially rap. Aesop rock taught me a number of new words when I first listened to him.

icomeanon6 said:

Spoiler:

"ej*c*late" as a synonym for "exclaim." Yes, English can be a bit silly.

Click to expand...

Used to be a completely valid synonym a century ago :p

I don't go out of my way to learn new words. My trick is just to read a lot. It's the difference between visiting a zoo and seeing the animal in the wild. That caged 'verisimilitude' looks nice but to really use it well I need to see some usage. I try to just absorb new vocab through osmosis. I do confess to visiting pages dedicated to synonyms to refresh my memory. I sometimes just forget words exist, so while I don't try to find the most deliciously obscure word to replace 'jump' with in my story, it does help me with remembering the word leaps exists.