Vocabulary
English vocabulary: learn meanings and use words
Do you want to build your English vocabulary? You can learn new words every day.
The word vocabulary means all the words you know. This page helps you choose natural word pairs and avoid common counting mistakes.
Read and practice
Read the examples and try the written questions in this guide. Listening recordings are not available for this lesson yet.
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vocabulary voh-CAB-yuh-lair-ee
Arbitrary: meaning and how to use it
Arbitrary describes a choice that is not based on a fixed rule or a relevant reason. It can also describe power used without fair limits.
Open lessonAustere meaning: strict, plain, and simple
One adjective can describe a teacher who seems severe, a room with almost nothing in it, or a life with very few comforts. That adjective is austere.
Open lessonBenevolent: meaning, word family, and examples
Benevolent describes a person or behavior that is kind, helpful, or generous. It can also describe something that shows goodwill, or an organization set up to do good.
Open lessonBigot meaning: tone, grammar, and respectful use
Bigot is a serious word. Before using it about a person, be able to identify the belief, statement, action, or repeated pattern that supports your description.
Open lessonBona fide meaning: genuine and made in good faith
A ticket may look real, but does it come from the event organizer? Bona fide helps you say that something is genuine rather than false or pretending.
Open lessonBourgeois meaning: social history, tone, and careful use
A review describes a play as bourgeois. It may be referring to a social setting, but it may also be criticising the values or tastes presented in the play. The surrounding words decide the meaning.
Open lessonCapitalism meaning: use the word accurately in context
A news article may discuss capitalism, a capitalist company, or capital investment. The words are related, but they do not all mean the same thing.
Open lessonCapricious meaning: changing suddenly and unpredictably
A manager approves a plan in the morning and cancels it without warning after lunch. Capricious describes that hard-to-predict change.
Open lessonCaveat meaning: a warning or condition to remember
A plan can sound good and still have one detail that changes your decision. Caveat names that detail.
Open lessonCognitive meaning: relating to thinking
When you compare two ideas, remember a route, or solve a puzzle, you use cognitive skills. Cognitive is an adjective for thinking and related mental processes.
Open lessonContraband meaning: use the word carefully in context
A report may say that officers found contraband in a package. The word tells you that the goods were prohibited in that setting; it does not identify the goods or explain the rule by itself.
Open lessonConundrum: meaning, tone, and examples
Your team has enough money for either a faster delivery service or lower prices, but neither choice solves every concern. That kind of difficult situation can be a conundrum.
Open lessonCynical: meaning, tone, and examples
Cynical describes distrust of people's motives and can also describe an action that exploits others.
Open lessonDebauchery meaning: understand register and context
A newspaper review may criticize a character's debauchery, but an everyday conversation usually needs a clearer, less dramatic word.
Open lessonDespicable meaning: strong criticism and careful use
Taking credit for a colleague's work is unfair. Calling it despicable says that you judge the action far more severely than a small mistake.
Open lessonDichotomy meaning: a split between opposite ideas
A discussion can make a subject seem to have only two sides. Dichotomy is the word for that kind of split.
Open lessonDidactic meaning: intended to teach, sometimes too obviously
A guide can explain a skill clearly. A story can teach a lesson as well. Didactic helps you name the teaching purpose, especially when that purpose feels too obvious.
Open lessonDisposition: character, tendency, and other meanings
Disposition can mean usual character or a tendency to act in a certain way. Formal uses include an arrangement, a transfer of property, or the outcome of a case.
Open lessonEccentric: meaning, tone, and respectful use
A neighbor wears a different bright hat every day and keeps a collection of antique radios in the hallway. You might call the hats and collection eccentric. Whether you call the neighbor eccentric depends on your tone and how well you know the person.
Open lessonEclectic meaning: a thoughtful mix from different sources
A café may play jazz, folk, and electronic music in the same afternoon. If the choices feel considered rather than accidental, its playlist is eclectic.
Open lessonEgregious meaning: exceptionally bad or offensive
A mistake may be frustrating. An egregious mistake is so bad that people find it hard to excuse.
Open lessonElusive: meanings and examples
Use elusive when a search or attempt keeps failing, but success may still be possible.
Open lessonEmpathy: meaning and how it differs from sympathy
Empathy is the ability to understand or share another person’s feelings and point of view.
Open lessonEmpirical: meaning and examples in English
A team has an idea about why customers leave a website. Their idea is theoretical until they examine real visits, surveys, and results. Those observations provide empirical evidence.
Open lesson
The short answer
Vocabulary means all the words a person knows or uses. When you count separate items, call them words.
She wants to build her work vocabulary.
Why it works: Here, vocabulary means your entire collection of known words.
3 more examples
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study review
I learned twenty new words from this article.
Use words when you count single language pieces.
Not this:I learned twenty new
vocabulariesfrom this article. What changes: This wrongly counts separate words as whole vocabularies. Say twenty new words. -
work goals
She wants to expand her vocabulary for her new job.
Pair vocabulary with natural action verbs like expand.
Not this:She wants to
make biggerher vocabulary for her new job. What changes: The phrase sounds unnatural because English uses expand your vocabulary instead. -
desk reference
Look up the spelling in your dictionary.
A dictionary is the tool or book you open to check meanings.
Not this:Look up the spelling in your
vocabulary. What changes: Vocabulary means the words you know or use. A dictionary is the book or app where you look up a word.
Quick check
Which sentence is correct after reading a book chapter?
chapter review
Answer: I wrote down five new words in my notebook.
Show the answer
Answer: I wrote down five new words in my notebook.
You count single items as words. Your whole collection of words is your vocabulary.
Read the full guide
You sit at your kitchen table with an open notebook. A cup of tea sits next to your new English book. You want to remember the new expressions you read today.
Count words, not vocabulary
The problem: I learned ten new words today, but I told my teacher I learned ten new vocabularies and they corrected me.
Think about your daily study list. You learn separate words, while your whole store of language is your vocabulary. Use words when you count the items.
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Not this:
I learned ten new vocabularies this morning.Say: I learned ten new words this morning.
Use words for the separate items you counted. Vocabulary can name a whole set of words.
Your turn
You finished a lesson and wrote down three items. What do you say to your teacher?
classroom summary
Answer: I learned three new words today.
Show the answer
Answer: I learned three new words today.
You count single items as words. Vocabulary represents your whole language store.
Make CAB the strong beat
The problem: The word is long, so I lose the beat and make the wrong part strong.
This long word has five sound parts in the careful form. Put the main stress (the strongest beat) on CAB, the second part.
Start with voh, using the vowel sound in go.
voh-CAB-yuh-lair-ee
Finish with lair-ee and pronounce the r.
voh-CAB-yuh-lair-ee
Your turn
Where does the main sound emphasis fall when you say vocabulary?
speaking aloud
Answer: On CAB: voh-CAB-yuh-lair-ee.
Show the answer
Answer: On CAB: voh-CAB-yuh-lair-ee.
The main sound emphasis is on CAB in the second position.
Use common verb pairs
The problem: I put vocabulary with the wrong verbs because I translate directly from my native language.
Some verbs fit together well. In English, you build or expand your vocabulary. These pairs are common in study talk.
| Natural verb | What you say | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| build | I want to build my vocabulary. | Learn more words step by step |
| expand | She wants to expand her vocabulary. | Add a wider range of words |
| improve | She wants to improve her vocabulary. | Use words more accurately |
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Not this:
I want to make bigger my vocabulary this year.Say: I want to expand my vocabulary this year.
English uses expand or build for language growth.
Your turn
Complete the sentence with the best verb.
work vocabulary goal
Answer: She wants to expand her vocabulary for work.
Show the answer
Answer: expand
Build and expand both go well with vocabulary.
Pick dictionary, word, or vocabulary
The problem: I mix up vocabulary with word and dictionary when planning my English study tasks.
A book or app can help you check a word. Your vocabulary is the store of words you know. Keep the tool and the word store apart.
Use dictionary for the reference book or phone app.
I look up hard words in my dictionary.
Use vocabulary for all the words you understand.
My active vocabulary has grown a lot.
Your turn
You do not understand a term in a newspaper. What do you check?
reading a newspaper
Answer: I check the meaning in my dictionary.
Show the answer
Answer: I check the meaning in my dictionary.
A dictionary is the reference tool where you look up meanings.
Before you go
Question 1 of 2
Arrange the words to form a natural study statement.
study planning
Answer: She wants to build her English vocabulary.
Show the answer
Answer: She wants to build her English vocabulary.
Build her vocabulary is the standard word partnership.
Question 2 of 2 · One new sentence
You are planning your study schedule for next week. Which sentence expresses your goal naturally?
schedule planning
Answer: I set aside twenty minutes every morning to learn new words for work.
Show the answer
Answer: I set aside twenty minutes every morning to learn new words for work.
You learn new words one at a time. Do not say new vocabularies or make bigger.
Remember this
Use words when you count each item. Use common verbs such as build and expand for your whole vocabulary.
Practice with the written examples
You can practice with the written questions in the Learn tab. Each answer includes an explanation.
Try the written questionsListening test not available yet
This lesson does not have the recordings needed for a listening test. Use the written questions in the guide to check your understanding.
Try the written questionsQuestions about "English vocabulary: learn meanings and use words"
Should I say five words or five vocabularies?
Say five words when you count separate language items. Vocabulary usually names the whole set of words that someone knows or that belongs to a subject.
I learned five new words today.
My work vocabulary is growing.
Is the plural vocabularies ever correct?
Yes, when you mean different sets of words, such as the vocabularies of two fields or languages. Do not use it to count separate words in one lesson.
Legal and medical vocabularies overlap in some areas.
I wrote down ten new words, not ten vocabularies.
Should I say my vocabulary is or my vocabulary are?
Say my vocabulary is when vocabulary means your whole set of known or used words.
My vocabulary is growing.
Her work vocabulary is useful.
Which verbs naturally go with vocabulary?
Build, expand, and improve are common choices. Build or expand focuses on learning more words; improve can also include using known words more accurately.
I want to build my vocabulary.
She wants to improve her work vocabulary.
How do I pronounce vocabulary?
In American English, say voh-CAB-yuh-lair-ee, with the strongest beat on CAB.
My English vocabulary is growing.
This course teaches travel vocabulary.
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