: Re: Effective ways to enrich your active vocabulary? I come across words like rectitude, like laudatory, like indigent, and being an experienced reader with a strong grasp on my native language, I

@Becky328

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Setting aside debate over the merits of particular words (which no one should be contesting without knowing the context of your writing), making explicit word lists helps work words into my vocabulary.

By a word list I mean actually writing down or otherwise capturing the words in some way. My method is to write down the word, check out the etymology and, most of the time, jot down the context in which I read it. I do this in a paper notebook, but it doesn't really matter what technology is employed.

I'm not particularly on the hunt for synonyms or the like, just words that interest me for whatever reason. Sometimes they are esoteric. Sometimes they are not. The most recent ones that come to mind: descry, cicatrize, schizogenic and penumbra. Because I spent a little bit of effort checking into the words, they come to me significantly more readily than just listing them alone (though I often capture them on the fly and do a bit of quick Googling and OED-ing later.

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