Expand Your Vocabulary - Free.

[trotter09]

Someone recently pointed out to me that many adults have a shockingly limited vocabulary. Which prompted me to start this thread.

You can sign up at Wordsmith.org to get an email Monday to Friday, each containing the definition of an uncommon word. Some words you will know, some will be new to you.

For example, we've recently had: expostulate, miasma, ersatz, dyspeptic, lacuna and apophasis. Maybe you were familiar with all those already...

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[LittleVoice]

Originally Posted by trotter09

I started a thread in Discussion Time about using long words with children and someone pointed out that many adults have a shockingly limited vocabulary. Which prompted me to start this thread.

You can sign up here to get an email Monday to Friday, each containing the definition of an uncommon word. Some words you will know, some will be new to you.

For example, we've recently had: expostulate, miasma, ersatz, dyspeptic, lacuna and apophasis. Maybe you were familiar with all those already...

Listen/watch for this one (lacuna) over the next few months, it's becoming à la mode. Have you noticed how "Unprecedented" is now all over the place too.

[john_howard_fisher]

thanks have signed up. looks like good idea.

[stormtrainer]

Thank you for providing the email sign up link.

[sirmarcus]

Thanks OP.

[trotter09]

Originally Posted by LittleVoice

Listen/watch for this one (lacuna) over the next few months, it's becoming à la mode.

Any idea why lacuna is becoming fashionable? Or is it just one of those things?

[newmee]

Thanks for this. i love learning new words...trouble with me is remembering what they mean. I learn new ones often but never seem to retain them I'm just a doof brain I guess

[trotter09]

Originally Posted by newmee

i love learning new words...trouble with me is remembering what they mean. I learn new ones often but never seem to retain them

I think there is a long word which means someone who learns lots of new things but soon forgets them. Can't remember what it is though.

[*Scarlett]

I love this sort of thing - thanks OP.

[_Roxy_]

Thanks OP!

[moonsugar]

Thanks OP
For those who aren't familiar, freerice.com is also a nice site.

It's a fun little [free] game to help build your vocab and for every answer you get right you donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme

[vpeake]

this is amazing!!!! thank you x

[pyko]

That's very nice. Thanks!

[helenstuff]

Originally Posted by trotter09

Any idea why lacuna is becoming fashionable? Or is it just one of those things?

A book called The Lacuna won the Orange Prize last year: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lacuna-Barba...9676851&sr=8-1#_

[Wordsmith]

If you like this sort of thing, you might be interested in Michael Quinion's web site (www.worldwidewords.org). He also has a weekly email newsletter.

(PS My username is nothing to do with the original poster's link - mere coincidence.)

[Celia]

Another good one is Freerice - but be warned - its addictive! http://www.freerice.com/

[7ten]

Brilliant. Vocab and expression are so dumbed down thesedays.
My brain has since shrunk. Thank you for the link.

[mcculloch29]

Another good site for expanding your vocabulary is Free Rice - this is a GENUINE scheme where rice is donated to the hungry when you give a correct dictionary definition of a word. There are reports that this is a scam, but as far as I can determine, that is not true.
I am a qualified literacy and numeracy tutor and used the original Free Rice game with my learners - they had great fun with it and it promoted a lot of discussion. Since then the site has expanded to include other activities - I had fun myself seeing how much German I remembered, many years after I lived there. freerice.com is the site - I'm not sure if I would be allowed to put a direct link up.

Oops someone else mentioned Free Rice as I was waxing lyrical. I went there ... and spent 20 minutes improving my vocab! It IS addictive!

[Wistful]

Originally Posted by trotter09

You can sign up at Wordsmith.org to get an email Monday to Friday, each containing the definition of an uncommon word. Some words you will know, some will be new to you.

Amazing how rich the English language is. It's nice learning new words, but also nice when you get a word you know.

[helloblueskies]

Another FANASTIC site is (I'm a new user so cant post links but google ''word dynamo''), you need to join but apart from the vocabulary games, there's quizzes on everything, capital cities, foreign languages etc. I'm writing my dissertation just now and the essay vocab has taught me at least 50 relevant words to use