Through this post I have tried to come up with some effective vocabulary learning tactics. Read the following words with the strategy associated to lock them in your memory permanently.

Break a word into meaningful sentences

Abridge (verb)

Abridge means shorten; if you have read this word for first time then I think there would be no problem in learning the meaning of this word. But, tough part is how you will retain the meaning of this word. Well, try to learn this word with following tactics:

Abridge can be break as     a and bridge

Now construct a statement, bridges are made to shorten the distances. I think now you will not forget the word abridge and its corresponding meaning.

Affluent ( adj )

Affluent means wealth

Affluent can be broken as   I flew went

Well, now construct a sentence, only rich people can afford to fly by airplane.

Attach some body movement with word

Believe it or not, this is very effective. When you attach a body movement with the word then you learn that word faster and retain that word longer. Let me tell you how this works. When you find some new word then you need to make some physical gesture or facial expression or any physical movement. But make sure that gesture or facial expression should compliment the new word. Like if you are learning a new word baleful which means harmful.

Harmful is kind of negative word so when you are learning the word baleful associate it with a facial expression which conveys a nasty feeling. (What type of facial expression you make when you see something dirty). So next time when you hear the word baleful then the associated gesture automatically pops in your mind. And, you can recognize the meaning with that gesture. This works very much like a picture dictionary.

We are eager to hear from you on this post. Kindly leave your valuable suggestions beneath this blog.

Shipra Srivastava

Team Learnwordlist.com

Powerful Techniques that help you remember all the 3500 words of GRE:

These are some proven Vocabulary learning techniques. Research says that many students have benefited from them. We have mentioned these techniques many a time in our blogs. We now feel the need for discussing them here, exclusively! For convenience let us call Vocabulary Technique as VT.

VT 1: Work with the Word

A word is not just something that has to be seen from an examination perspective. You need to work with the word. The word has to become a tool in your hand. You need to apply it at the right time and right situation. You need to get into a relationship with it. Spend some considerable time with it. Only then will it be retained in your memory. Owing to a commitment like this you need to plan your GRE preparation well in advance.

Fact 1: You can never memorize the high frequency GRE words in 1 month’s time. You need a ‘minimum’ 6 month’s time frame.

VT 2: Expand its meaning into a suitable context

A word exists only in context. The beauty of the word is realized in context alone. So whenever you learn/memorize a new word use it in context immediately. Not a single context. Use it in all possible contexts and situations. Paint your imagination deeper and darker. Think where all the word can be applicable. Believe me when you use a word in multiple contexts like these you will never forget it.

Fact 2: ‘Mugging up’ GRE High Frequency words vaguely is a very bad thing to do!

VT 3: Relate it to the person or situation you know

Adjectives are best learned this way. Adjectives generally suggest a person’s trait. When you look at a word like ‘loquacious’, which means ‘talkative’ you can immediately think of a relative/friend/colleague/neighbor who is loquacious. Relate the word to that person and you will never forget it. And whenever you see that person you will instantly remember the word too. Isn’t that great?!

Fact 3: The actual GRE Verbal test has ‘only’ adjectives/nouns/verbs!

VT 4: Share the word with your friends, colleagues

Sharing doubles the knowledge! When you know a word, its context the next best thing is sharing it with your buddies. I strongly suggest until the day of your GRE test organize weekly ‘Vocabulary Review Meets’. During these meets share all the new words that you learned and let your friends share their words with you. This way you will be unendingly adding to your long list of Vocabulary. Great once again! Isn’t it?

Fact 4: Never prepare for GRE in isolation. You will never know where you stand in competition!

VT 5: Try to pronounce the word aloud at least five times

A word’s pronunciation is as important as its meaning. Some words are not pronounced the way they are written. For example consider the word ‘ennui’ which means ‘boredom’. Ennui is pronounced as ‘Onwee’. Now is that not interesting? Keep handy a good dictionary that also suggests pronunciation. When you learn a new word, look at the pronunciation aspect immediately. Jot that down in your notebook in the way you can easily understand it. Talk about pronunciation too during your weekly ‘Vocabulary Review Meets’. This will keep the meets interesting and happening.

Fact 5: Knowing the word Pronunciation is as important as knowing its meaning!

Learning Vocabulary is fun. Do not make it a stressful process. Do not get intimidated looking at the exhaustive word list that is quintessential for your GRE preparation. Practicing the above mentioned techniques will certainly help you memorize many words. A few diligent students have already shared with us some powerful techniques to memorize GRE Vocabulary. You can share your techniques too. Share them here with us. And do leave your valuable comment when you complete reading this blog on Vocabulary Learning.

Wishing you Success!!

Regards,

Anu Veluri

Manager- learnwordlist.com

Well, I guess you all belong to the group 1. Underneath are enumerated some proven high-voltage techniques that will help you escalate your performance in GRE drastically.

Technique no 1: Hey do you all know the in and out of GRE exam? The sections, the type of questions, the scoring pattern and all. Ahem! I guess you are rather depending on some second hand information. Do some work, pull up your socks, go out there and know the exam you are taking. Knowing alone is not important, knowing it thoroughly is.

Technique no 2: Do you have great career goals and ambitions? Are you passionate about becoming highly successful as a professional? Do you want to study in one of the best Universities of the world? A University that will give you an edge over others? A name that shimmers in your Resume?? Then what are you waiting for? Become passionate about GRE! In simpler words fall deeply in love with it!!

Technique no 3: You have now gotten into the right gear. It’s now the right time for you to know the pros and cons of the exam. It is simple. Just shut yourself from the world for a while. Consider a few GRE Model Papers. Scan, skim one paper thoroughly.

Analyze your strengths and weaknesses. After jotting down your strengths and weaknesses, concentrate more on your negatives. I will now whisper a secret mantra: ‘Convert all your weaknesses into strengths’. Success will be yours.

Technique no 4: Practice, practice and practice! This alone will see you navigate through the ocean of tasks effortlessly. Please do not wait for miracles to happen. They will not! Unless you practice a lot many papers and get a hang of GRE, you will never be able to get a decent score.

Technique no 5: We all know GRE is a Computer Adaptive Test. Although there are a few paper based tests conducted around the world in some centers, majority of the student community go for the Computer based GRE.

Get used to working on the keyboard. Practicing this is equally important. See for yourself how a Computer Adaptive Test works. If you do not do this and appear for the exam for the first time, you will have to blame yourself for many things and for nothing!

Technique no 6: Have faith in yourself only then can you crack GRE. If you constantly fall a prey to apprehensions and worries you will gain nothing. Positive thinking gives you the necessary impetus to pass through the examination both mellifluously and successfully.

Technique no 7: Don’t become an island. This is very very important. Isolated preparation will never make you realize where you stand in the competition. It is very important to form study groups and discuss all the matters pertaining to the exam. In fact brainstorm! This way you might sometimes stop by information that is immensely useful to you. Make some study groups and make it a point to interact with them at least once a week!

Technique no 8: Don’t feel shy. Not knowing something is not a sin. Get your doubts clarified by experts in the subject. Holding a doubt could be disastrous for your GRE preparation. Have it clarified then and there.

Technique no 9: Give yourself some effective auto-suggestions. Well…like: I am confident, I take GRE in my stride, I get a wonderful score in GRE and so on. Give yourself these suggestions at least until the day you take GRE. Become both confident and optimistic by all means. You can see the results for yourself!

Technique no 10: Do some intelligent guessing. Yes, sometimes despite all the diligent effort and enterprise, you may not get an answer to a specific question. In a Computer Adaptive Test you cannot skip a specific question and go to the next one. You cannot go back too.

So if you find yourself stuck, do some intelligent guess work. In a catch-22 like this, you can in the verbal segment think perhaps about similar sounding words, roots, prefixes and suffixes in order to guess the meaning of a particular word.

I am sure practicing these techniques and bearing them in mind all the time until you appear for GRE will give you rich results. If you know some more techniques please do share with us. In fact you can put them all here. You can also post some effective learning techniques you follow in our GRE Discussion Forum.

It is an interactive, learning forum exclusively designed for diligent students like you. Register now and start posting all your doubts, experiences there. I am sure we all will get to gain some rich knowledge.

Wishing you success!!

Anu Veluri

Manager- learnwordlist.com

An Antonym is the ‘opposite’ of the given word. In the GRE exam you are expected to read the word aloud in your mind and once you comprehend its meaning, look for a word from the five given answer options that is ‘nearly’ the opposite of the given word. For example if the given word is ‘Beautiful’, the option that is ‘nearly’ the opposite of the word will be ‘Ugly’. Hope this elucidates the above mentioned point.

LearnWordlist.com has GRE antonym and synonyms.

Tests of Antonym-Synonyms
GRE Synonym Vocabulary

You will find 13 questions on Antonyms Section in the GRE Computer Based Test. This is how the question appears in the actual GRE:

Directions: Each sample question in this section consists of a word printed in capital letters followed by five lettered words or phrases. Choose the lettered word or phrase that is most nearly opposite in meaning to the word in capital letters. Since some of the questions require you to distinguish fine shades of meaning, be sure to consider all the choices before deciding which one is best. (There are 13 questions in this section.)

Let us now work on a sample GRE Antonyms question. This will explain the question type and the ways to answer it better.

1. Loquacious ( That is the Question)

Now let us look at the answer choices

1. whimsical
2. gloomy
3. taciturn
4. gregarious
5. vociferous

If you had gone through all the word lists at Learnwordlist.com you would instantly know the opposite of the word. Now that’s an ideal situation isn’t it? So let us imagine a situation where in you (the student) are unaware of the meaning of the word. This is the time to pool up all your learning tools and strategies for gaining points for that question. Look at the word closely. Can you relate this word to any other word that has the part of the given word ‘loq’? And ‘acious’ suggests that it is a person’s character. The word is an adjective, describing a person or the quality of a person. Now technically speaking that is the ‘root’ of the word. The words that most of us remember at this juncture are: eloquent, grandiloquent, magniloquent etc…so obviously the meanings of these words relate to speech, talk etc, don’t they? Apparently a person who talks (more at that) is loquacious. How intelligently you guessed the meaning of the word! Congratulations! Now you need to identify the ‘opposite’ of the word. Let us now consider the options: Option A: Whimsical…whimsical, an adjective suggests a person full of whimsy (peculiarity, fancy). Can that be opposite of the word ‘Loquacious’? Obviously NO! Option B: gloomy…the word gloomy means sad, dull…. well again it is the wrong option. Let us go to the Option C: taciturn. Taciturn means reserved, recluse, silent…can that be the answer choice for the given word? Is it nearly the opposite of the word? Well do not jump to conclusions, it could prove risky. The word could possibly be the opposite of the given word. Let us hold it for a while. We have two more options to consider, haven’t we? Option D: the word gregarious means highly sociable and outgoing. This cannot be the opposite of the given word. So we can strike it off coolly. The last option choice has some thing to do with voice, talk, speech…Vociferous; ( think of other words like vocal etc that mean sound) the meaning of this word is close to vocalization a vehement vocalization that too… so it is something close to the given word but not the opposite. So what’s the right answer choice? C…and no doubt in that!

Dear Students, you are supposed to intelligently guess the opposites of the words that you are not familiar with. The Process of eliminating (POE) close options, synonyms and irrelevant options will help you reach the right answer choice that is nearly the opposite of the given word. Underneath are mentioned a few strategies as stated by the ETS. Please do run through, and register them in your mind!

**(Here are some approaches that may be helpful in answering antonym questions:

• Remember that you are looking for the word that is the most nearly opposite to the given word; you are not looking for a synonym (meaning). Many words do not have a precise opposite, so you must look for the answer choice that expresses a concept most nearly opposite to that of the given word.
• In some cases, more than one of the answer choices may appear at first to be opposite to the given word. When this happens, try to define more precisely or in greater detail the meaning of the given word.
• In weighing answer choices, it is often useful to make up a sentence using the given word or words. Substitute the answer choices in the phrase or sentence and see which best fits. The best answer will be the one that reverses the meaning or tone of the sentence or phrase.
• Remember that a particular word may have more than one meaning.
• Use your knowledge of root, prefix, and suffix meanings to help you determine the meanings of unfamiliar words.))**

It doesn’t mean you spend a chunk of time guessing. You should be smart and brisk at that. Do you realize you have only half-a-minute to answer one question in GRE? Can you keep guessing then? What do you understand from this?

1. Start preparing for your GRE well in advance.
2. Familiarize yourself with most of the roots, prefixes and suffixes
3. Please do not mug up. Instead spend some time with the word.
4. Dissect a word to understand the word root, prefix and suffix
5. Relate the word you ‘kind of know’ or ‘don’t know’ to words having similar roots, sounds, prefixes, suffixes etc

You can now use these strategies and take the Antonyms’ Tests displayed on the website. Get back to me in case you could not determine the opposite of the word using the above mentioned techniques.

Wishing you great success!!

Anu Veluri

Learnwordlist.com

(** these lines are taken from the site www.ets.org)

Hi everybody!! First and foremost let me thank you all for the very good support you have been offering. Your participation in the earlier tests was amazing! I stand motivated. Owing to that I come up with another small exercise for you. The exercise is similar to the earlier one that you had taken and performed convincingly. You will now find a set of 25 words. You need to suggest the ‘opposite’ of the word beginning with ‘G’ The only difference is, you have to now begin your word (opposite) with ‘G’. Earlier it was a synonym or meaning beginning with ‘P’. All you need to do is ‘think’ for a while and I am sure you will find the right answer. Besides thinking, I also suggest you having a scribbling pad, a dictionary (Oxford Advanced Learner’s preferably), and an Oxford Thesaurus (A thesaurus helps you find out the synonyms and antonyms of a given word!!).

Vocabulary learning tips

Many students keep asking me whether it is better to learn words by heart or to write, scribble and then put it in contextual usage and memorize it. I always suggest them the latter method. Words are like relatives, a mere Hi! Hello! will not bring them closer to you. When you spend substantial time with them, remember they will never betray you. A mere ‘mug up’ business will land you nowhere. On the contrary you will find yourself exactly at the point you started your journey of vocabulary learning. Is that not a sheer waste of time and resources?! So please bear in mind that there is no shortcut to success. You need to slog and put in all your mental and physical energy to see yourself reaching the coveted goal!!

The test

Dear aspirants, here goes the list. I want you to give me the opposites of these words beginning with the letter ‘G’. I display the answers of the first two words to make you understand how it works. I wish you all the best!

Important: Every answer (opposite) must start with the letter G.

1. lose ( answer: gain, get, garner, grab, grasp)
2. midget ( answer: giant)
3. special
4. lady
5. take
6. moron
7. sad
8. boy
9. happy
10. plain
11. hello
12. here
13. bad
14. ugly
15. stingy
16. awkward
17. little
18. rough
19. bride
20. ripe
21. generous
22. unprotected
23. experienced
24. scarcity
25. unappreciative

Please do not rush to answer. As I suggested ‘think’ and work on a particular word, savor its beauty and treasure it in your memory forever. I am sure you will come up with ‘all right answers’ this time around.

Remember- you can increase your vocabulary faster and more easily than you may realize.

Wishing you success!

Regards,

Anu Veluri

Learnwordlist.com

Answer Keys of the Test

A. When things go right

If something or things…

1. works like a dream this means a plan succeeded absolutely perfectly
2. went according to plan this means they occurred exactly as intended
3. went/ran like clockwork this means they went smoothly with no difficulty
4. is/are up and running this means it has/ they have begun to work as planned
5. is/are falling into place this means it is/ they are on the point of starting to work well
6. is/are looking up this means they are looking very positive

B. When things go wrong

1. Oh no! That’s all we needed! ( in response to news that makes current problems even worse)
2. That’s the last thing we wanted to hear! ( in response to news that fulfills your worst fears)
3. This is like a bad dream! ( when one bad thing after other happens in quick succession)
4. It’s a real nightmare. ( used very generally for traffic jams )
5. What a pain! (very general…for something that causes difficulty)
6. It’s the calm before the storm. ( when things are quiet, but you fear they are about to change)

C. Confusing situations or situations you don’t understand

1. When she said her name was Bloor it threw me completely. ( I did not know how to respond)
2. The event he organized was complete shambles. ( a totally disorganized event)
3. It’s a mystery to me, how people know my private life. ( something that I cannot understand )
4. I am sorry we must have got our wires crossed. ( a miscommunication/ a misunderstanding)
5. We can’t see the wood for the trees.( too much detail prevents us to see the overall situation)

D. Resolving difficulty (or failing to do so)

1. It’s nothing it’s just a storm in the teacup. ( a lot of fuss)
2. That was a close call/thing. ( It was almost a disaster)
3. We solved the problem at the eleventh hour. ( at the very last minute)
4. It was all just brushed under the carpet. ( never resolved, never mentioned again)

Read and share with us a few Idioms you know! It’s going to be very interesting. We are awaiting your response.

Regards,

Team- Learnwordlist.com

How many of us really exercise our brains?

Fortunately or unfortunately physical workout any day has edge over mental workout. Most of us hardly ever consider the fact that the brain which functions perennially (just like the heart) has to be exercised too…for better performance. Isn’t it pathetic? Research studies prove that mental exercises will make an average performer an extraordinary achiever. Brain teasers, crossword puzzles, sudoku and many other mind-chiseling equipment certainly refine your thinking and comprehension abilities.

As a deviation from norm, I would like you all to participate in a simple yet interesting game which will sharpen your reasoning skills. I present for you all a simple aerobic exercise for your brain!! All you need is a pen/pencil and a scribbling pad. Just note down these 25 words that follow and give me the equivalent (synonym) of the word starting with P. Exciting isn’t it!!…I now look forward to your responses…

I will give the equivalents of the first three words starting with P.I guess this will make your understanding better.

1. bucket…Ans) pail

2. faultless…Ans) perfect

3. maybe….Ans) perhaps

4. forgive

5. mollycoddle

6. steal

7. annoy

8. good-looking

9. picture

10. choose

11. ugly

12. go

13. revolt

14. treachery

15. stone

16. inactive

17. fussy

18. suffering

19. light-colored

20. gasp

21. fear

22. eulogize

23. artist

24. sheet

25. collection

26. chastise

27. skin

28. tap

You can now start working.

Thinking is a quintessential skill. We all are born with congenital thinking ability. But only a few of us develop that ability into a skill. These gifted people are the successful lot.

I am sure with a little amount of thinking you can find the equivalents beginning with P for all these words. I don’t say you should know the answers intuitively. You can pretty well depend on your Vocabulary learning resources- dictionaries, word lists, thesauri etc. But work!! I mean both mentally and physically.

Dear students please do not wait for ready made answers. Such answers just cheat you. They stay in your short-term memory for a while and evaporate forever. In other words they fool you. But if you really put in a diligent effort to know the equivalents of these words, all these words, their meanings and synonyms will be with you for a lifetime boosting your confidence whenever you feel a paucity of it.

So pull up your socks for a great mental (a little physical too) exercise. I promise this is going to be a great learning experience.

And remember: There is no shortcut to success!!

Team

Learnwordlist.com

Learning vocabulary is not a mechanical process but mastery through a process of association. The associations and vibrations that a word sets up depend on our own past and present experiences. Vocabulary building can be termed as a social process. We expand our comprehension of words by interchanging and sharing them with others. An effort is made here to introduce some innovative methods of imbibing new words and in the process enable the student to handle competitive tests with confidence.

1. Predicting Meanings:

In this method, the learners are given a text with blanks. On recognition of the tone of the passage, they are asked to predict ten key words that are likely to be found in that passage. This exercise focuses learners’ attention on either new or known vocabulary and at the same time stimulates the desire to find out what is actually in the text. The purpose of communication – that is what and why about the passage, can also aid in predicting the appropriate words in the given context. (Start predicting the meaning of the word depending on the context)

2. A Memory game:

Learners on reading a passage can try to recollect the number of adjectives and verbs they come across. Further the related antonyms and synonyms can also be discussed.

Passages from newspapers or magazines with some important verbs deleted can be taken as task sheets with wider scope for the learner to contribute words in the contextual sense.

For example: Much awaited monsoons — disappointed —— farmers….. water scarcity — government — alternatives —

With this practice task, prediction of words can be learnt in a particular context with the purpose of communication in mind — one can utilize it in terms of cause and effect; compare and contrast; addition of details, etc.

3. Brain storming around a given word:

Shopping

selection special occasions

sales friends’ choice

selected pullets in thing

colors

Through this task the various aspects of a given topic can be explored.

discounts branded things local made fashions expensive budget

outdated readymade tailored

Make a list of words from this picture which talks about science, progress and man’s role in it.

4. Variation : Pictures depicting activities can be taken for practice to contribute suitable adjectives and verbs.

Words related to Feelings: elated, sulk, determined, etc.

This word set on ‘association’ can be taken as an example for further practice:

trust non-aggression friendship co-operation

federation partnership alliance companionship

collaboration love sympathy harmony

Variation: antonyms can also be listed out.

5. Role assignments:

Qualities of a good politician

Journalist

film maker etc Adjectives describing their roles can be listed down.

6. Sentence Completion:

English is——-

English as an International Language——–

It is difficult————

At least seven different completions are required.

7. From word to word:

Taking one base word, additions are made to continue the passage logically.

For example, ‘country’ as a base word.

Country - government – party – elections – manifesto – promises – welfare schemes – vote – term.

Variation:

In this manner, learners can pick out words in a logical order from reading passages. The synonyms and antonyms can also be listed for the chosen words.

It is not with the intention to label language, but brainstorm words under the following headings:-

Verb (past form)

Verb (infinitive form)

Verb (past participle form)

Noun (countable)

Noun (uncountable)

Adjective

Adverb

Preposition

Pronoun

Article………etc.

8. Variations on the above

Choose all the possible answers

He ate lunch in the_____.

cafeteria / restaurant / snack / snack bar / salad bar / diner

9. Team Vocabulary – Race

Establish a vocabulary, category and number of words, e.g. ’20 words connected to sport.’

Keep a running tally on the board.

Other categories include:-

25 irregular verbs

10 prepositions

15 animals

20 phrasal verbs

15 ways to travel. etc.

10. Word domains

e.g., general category: break, damage, injure, mar, spoil etc. He dented the … car’s bumper / tree branch / glass of water. She splintered the … can / board / mirror. He shattered the … mirror / water / curtains. She shredded the … can / tree branch /curtains.

11. Which word in each pair is stronger, more forceful, or more intense?

to surprise to astound

to boil to simmer

to toss to throw

to hurl to throw

12. Different meanings of familiar vocabulary e.g. toll

(Driving on a highway) There’s a toll bridge ahead. Do you have any quarters? The highway death toll has declined sharply since police began to enforce the ‘drunk driving laws’ more aggressively.

The bell in the old church tower tolled four o’clock.

13. The Narrative Chain

With the help of the main idea in the sentence, associated words listed out, serve to create a meaningful paragraph.

For example – Management study opens the vistas to a world of opportunities and challenges.

( An Oxford University Press Publication)

Anu Veluri

Manager- Learnwordlist.com

]]> http://learnwordlist.com/blog/vocabulary-learning/2009/05/gre-word-list-test-blog-barrons-vocabulary/feed 84 http://learnwordlist.com/blog/how-to-work-for-best-results/2009/05/gre-word-list-test-blog-barrons-vocabulary http://learnwordlist.com/blog/how-to-work-for-best-results/2009/05/gre-word-list-test-blog-barrons-vocabulary#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 13:56:34 +0000 Admin http://learnwordlist.com/blog/?p=17 If you really want to benefit from these blogs, if you want a great score in the GRE, if you want to remember thousands of words and that too unforgettably, then there are a few things that you need to train yourself on. Without a proper, systematic training on Vocabulary Improvement Strategies nothing can be achieved.

I would like to state here some principles of learning:

1. Space your learning- Know Thyself: It is essential for you to understand the pace of your learning. Are you a fast learner? Or do you require some moderate time for learning? An analysis of this kind is very important. Once you understand this you will certainly learn at an effective pace. Apportion yourself a few words everyday and try to understand the word from the meaning perspective and the contextual usage perspective. Have your own note book and personalized dictionary. Have your own paraphernalia for language learning.
2. Haste is waste: Do not rush. Do not commit to learning 500 words a day. That’s absolutely quixotic and meaningless!! Instead commit yourself to just five words a day and imbibe their meanings thoroughly.
3. Review: You have to keep going back to the words you learned every now and then. Words are like relatives, you don’t keep visiting them; they feel offended and would leave the room of your memory…J
4. See where you stand: After all this effort, won’t you feel like testing your knowledge. Keep taking tests frequently. This will help you identify your faults. You can then come up with suitable remedies.

But most important of all ‘Have a plan of action’ and ‘follow it religiously’!!

Anu Veluri

Manager- Learnwordlist.com

Types of meaning

A. Basic meaning: when you look up a word, the main thing that you want to know is its basic meaning. For ex, in ‘She has fair hair, the word fair= light, opposite of dark or in It’s time to wind up the discussion now, the words wind up= end’.

However, there are lot of other aspects of meaning that it is important to be aware of, particularly when you are studying in more advanced level of English.

B. Polysemy or multiple meanings: A great many words in English have more than one meaning. Look at fair and wind up and their different meanings in these examples:

1. That wasn’t a very fair thing to say (adjective: just)

2. The handsome knight fell in love with the fair maiden (adjective: beautiful)

3. His knowledge of French is fair (adjective: neither very bad nor very good)

4. She has a fair chance of winning the prize (adjective: reasonable)

5. Fair weather is forecast for tomorrow (adjective: dry and pleasant)

6. There is a fair on at the park this week (noun: public event with games and rides)

1. Don’t forget to wind up your watch (turn a knob on a clock work watch so it keeps going).
2. She seems to enjoy winding him up. ( tell someone something in order to deliberately annoy)
3. If he carries on like this he’s going to wind up in prison. ( end up in an unpleasant situation)

C. Synonymy: English has a lot of different words with similar and slightly different meanings. Look these words that are synonymous with fair and wind up (with the meanings illustrated in A):

Fair- light, blonde, colorless, pale, bleached

Wind up- end, finish, complete, close, close, conclude, terminate, discontinue, and abort

D. Collocation: words are used with each other in fairly fixed ways in English. You cannot, for example use all of the synonyms in C as replacements in the example sentences in A. Hair ca be fair, light, blonde or bleached (though each of these has a slightly different meaning) but it is not usually described as pale or colorless. Skin can be fair, light and pale but it is not usually described as blonde, colorless or bleached. Colorless collocates with, for example gas or liquid.

E. Connotation: Words do not only have meanings, they also have associations. At an advanced level of English, it is important to develop an impression of what connotations certain words have. The sentence ‘who is fairest of them all’, for example, immediately makes English speakers think of the wicked step mother in the children’s fairy tale Snow White and the fairer sex refers to women. Fair meaning beautiful or attractive is an old-fashioned word and it has associations with fairy tales and stories about the past.

F. Register: It is important also to note whether any words you are learning have a particular register. For example, apparel is a formal or literary word and to wind up someone is both British and informal.

I want you all to come up with similar words like fair/wind up and their usage.

I shall wait for your response.

Kind Regards,

Anu Veluri

Manager, Learnwordlist.com

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