The best way to expand my vocabulary?

My method, from almost when I started to read, was to look up at least three words a day. Then I tried to use them. I still do it.

Will Rogers said that if you use a word three times, then it is yours.

That means, if nothing else, to try to include them in some suitable writing samples.

Afterthought; the process is a slow one. I have been at it for decades. Don’t try to cram too many words into your memory bank at one time.

Congratulations on your acceptance at your dream university.

Read, a lot, with a dictionary at your side. Not the quickest way but probably the best, IMHO.

The best way for me to expand my vocabulary for me was always to watch good movies that seem to have complex langauges in to with the captions on. I read the capations and try to figure out a word with contents clue to figure it out, it will help you understand other words that are involve with the meaning as well.
Even the words that you know, but rarely use them, go ahead and use them more, it will expand your development to enjoying new words instead of creating a daily learning system

Honestly, my SAT vocab book taught me words that I still remember and use. The book was called Up Your Score and it was a silly SAT prep book written by college students. The examples they give for the vocab words are hilarious and often inappropriate. It was certainly more interesting than the boring books I had been using before!

Also, play Scrabble with advanced players.

Pretty much what @lillycoyote said. Read, next to your computer. Look up any word you don’t know and listen to the pronunciation. Also… Talk with smart folks, watch TEDtalks, listen to lectures.

Surround yourself with words. Be word curious.

I look up any words that I’m unfamiliar with or unsure of the meaning (many I know-ish, but aren’t used often enough for me to feel comfortable using them.) I also have a list of words I like and think are good words, and then I give them my own definition so that I can more easily search the document (it’s in Microsoft OneNote) and find the word I’m looking for. I also have a few books like Totally Weird and Wonderful Words and Depraved and Insulting English for learning new and crazy words. I also used the SAT words for when I’m trying to learn new, but more popular, words. I also make a point to use at least one “big” word that I’m comfortable enough with to use properly, but don’t use commonly, in every paper I write so that I keep expanding my vocab that way.

I enjoy reading, so when I stumble across a word I don’t know I look it up, then use that word as often as I can for about a week until I drill it into my brain.

You can make fun of such word, and mock it like a South Park show.

I’ve added several words to my vocabulary via “word a day” calendars. I buy one every year and use the new words that I like until they become part of my vocabulary.

Also, another good way, if you’re talking about increasing your vocabulary in English, and some other languages derived in part from Greek and Latin, is to try to familiarize yourself with Greek and Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes. There are a lot of lists of them available on the internet. These links are just to just one of them, not necessarily the best, just one of the first I came across in a quick search.

Common Prefixes

Common Roots

Common Sufixes

Becoming familiar with Greek and Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes won’t necessarily help you increase your vocabulary per se, at least not right away, but it will help you with the big picture, I guess; help you figure out what words that you come across and aren’t familiar with might mean and how they all kind of fit together in the grand scheme of the language and that, I think, will help you increase your vocabulary.

Read older books and use the words in everyday speech. Your loquaciousness will no doubt increase.

Just read more books or at least good quality articles from magazines.

This morning, in a gardening question a flutherer used “swale,” a word that I was unfamiliar with. So I happily looked it up and have already used it in a comment here. It is the small pleasure that balances out the emptying of the litter box.

Another pleasurable trick is learning another Romance language. It will explain more analytically the structure of English, and as @lilycoyote suggests, the magic of word formation and roots.

Crossword puzzles. Start with easier ones, and work your way up to the tougher stuff. You can get a small magazine-type book at any newsstand, and bookstores have collections of tougher ones from newspapers like the New York Times.

I personally used to sit and read the actual dictionary. :)

@gm_pansa1: Me, too. And volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica. I still do, only on line.

@gm_pansa1 and @gailcalled LOL. Me too. I love reading the dictionary. And sometimes, I don’t even plan on it. I have a big unabridged and haul it over to the dining room table to look up a word and then, somehow, a half an hour later I’m still reading it and can’t remember what the word was I was looking up in the first place.

@lillycoyote: That behavior sounds very familiar.

@gailcalled

:-)

Yeah, I’m one of those folks who finds reading the dictionary to be fun.
Especially if there are occasional word depictions, I love those.

Be an active thinker, not a passive thinker… don’t just listen or read, no, but stop, back up, read again, look at relationships between words, look at how the word is used (not just the meaning), and if you’re listening then repeat what the other person said in your mind a few times doing the same thing (studying how the word is used). If someone uses a word you don’t know, ask them to spell it out or repeat it, and write it down.
I learn a lot of vocabulary through interacting with my books and friends :)

Crosswords, vocabulary books. Read a lot and try to learn atleast 5–10 new words a day. Engage in discussions with friends. Join a debate club. The key is not to stop learning and look out for any opportunity that can make you learn new words.