Here is a list of practical vocabulary words that will enable you to read with better understanding and write with greater accuracy. Unlike lists that emphasize strange and impressive words that few people actually use, this list emphasizes words that are useful for your functional vocabulary. For your convenience, each word has been linked to definitions at Dictionary.com. At the end of the list are some tips for building your vocabulary.

How did I choose these words? During the course of getting my degrees in English, I read a lot of books and articles as the necessary part of writing research papers and my dissertation. I paid attention to the words the writers used. Then during many years of teaching undergraduates how to research, think, and write, I helped my students find effectiveness through word choice. In addition to these life-experience sources, I consulted numerous SAT, LSAT, MCAT, GRE, and other test prep books to see what words they recommended. And, finally, I looked at a few "build your vocabulary" books. This last source encouraged me to produce this list, because those books were lacking practicality, in my view.

Why Build Your Vocabulary?

Shades and Degrees of Meaning. It has been said that no two words mean exactly the same thing--that synonyms are words that mean only approximately the same thing. At the heart of this claim is the truth that words of similar meaning allow the user to express shades of meaning. Think, for example, how many words express shades of brown: tan, sand, beige, champagne, ecru, taupe. Or suppose someone buys you an iPod or some other mp3 player. You might describe yourself as happy, pleased, joyful, or thrilled. But now suppose someone buys you a new car, such as a sporty red convertible. Now you might describe yourself as ecstatic or enraptured or exhilirated.  You need to have words that all mean happiness to some degree, but that allow shades or degrees of meaning. Otherwise, you would be stuck with "a little happy," "very happy," "extremely happy."

Exactness of Meaning. Having just the right word that closely expresses your meaning enables you to communicate more clearly. Was the smell an odor, an aroma, a stink? Just saying, "There was a smell in the room," doesn't provide an indication of how you reacted to it. Was it a good or bad smell? Check a synonym dictionary: smell ranges from fragrance to stench, including scent, odor, redolence, bouquet, malodorousness, fetid, and so on. Each word provides a more exact descriptor than merely the word smell.

A few years ago, I conducted some computer analyses of literary works to learn more about the vocabulary of various writers. The table below shows the number of words in each work, the vocabulary of the work (that is, the total number of different words used), and the number of words used only once in the work.