Increase your vocabulary by making new words relevant to you

Studies have shown that the more relevant a word is, the easier it is to learn it. If you can attach some kind of relevance to every new word you encounter, you will tremendously increase vocabulary, and at a very fast rate.

In this section, we will show you a few examples of how to add personal relevance to unfamiliar words. If you are creative in making words relevant, then you can increase vocabulary very quickly.

Connect unfamiliar words to more familiar things.

There are many words that are not commonly used in daily conversations. If you want to learn these words, it is very helpful to associate them with things or people you do know. Here are a few examples.

Nocturnal (adj.) means active by night. Since you were a kid, you've already known that owls sleep during the day and are awake at night. This is because the owl is a nocturnal bird.

Or take the word hypochondriac (n.). It may sound technical but when you think of your sister Linda who always thinks she's coming down with something, but is in fact perfectly healthy, that's exactly what hypochondriac means – someone who always thinks he is sick but is not. The next time you see the word hypochondriac, think of Linda and you will remember what it means.

You can associate verbs with things or people that you always see doing the action denoted by the word. For example, ruminate means to reflect upon, or to ponder. The word is easier to remember if you think of Grandpa who likes to sit on his porch at night and ruminate on the events of the day before going to bed.

How can computer software help me make words relevant?

If you are learning a new word, Ultimate Vocabulary can show you several usage examples of that word. You can take your cue from the examples and modify them to make a more personally significant example for you. This will help you learn words more easily and you can then increase your vocabulary faster.