100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know - Editors of the American Heritage Di 2016

Exercises to further improve and enrich your vocabulary

Knowing and being able to use the 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know is just one step that you can take to actively expand your vocabulary. Along with a good dictionary, such as The American Heritage College Dictionary or The American Heritage High School Dictionary, you can use these 100 words as a starting point to discover new words. The exercises shown below are among the many ways you can become more familiar with your dictionary and improve your vocabulary.

Building your vocabulary is an ongoing process that you can continue throughout your life. If you feel discouraged because you can’t retain the definitions of all the words that you encounter, approach the task of expanding your vocabulary more slowly. If learning ten words a week is too difficult, aim for three, or five.

What is important is not the quantity of words you’re learning. Rather, what is important is your process behind learning the words and the commitment you make to yourself to strengthen your vocabulary over time.

EXERCISE I

Choose ten words from the list of 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know. Look these ten words up in your dictionary.

On each page that these ten words are listed, choose a new word whose meaning you do not know. Create a document on your computer and type in that word along with its definition, or write the word down on paper with its definition.

For example, the word auspicious appears on page 95 of the fourth edition of The American Heritage College Dictionary and The American Heritage High School Dictionary. Other words on that page that you might choose to learn include austerity, australopithecine, Austronesia, or authenticate.

Keep a record of the new words that you learn. Every so often, go back and refresh your memory by rereading the definitions to these words. Create sentences that use these words so that you can become comfortable using them.

EXERCISE II

Choose a magazine or newspaper that you like to read at least once a week. Create a document on your computer or start a journal in a notebook. Every time you read a word whose meaning you’re unsure of, add that word to your computer file or journal.

Look up the word in your dictionary, and write or type out the definition. Does knowing the precise definition of the word help you better understand the article?

After you have acquired a list of ten words, memorize them until they are part of your active vocabulary.

EXERCISE III

Many of the words in the list of 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know include terms from specific areas of study. For example, parabola and hypotenuse are both from the field of geometry. Hemoglobin and photosynthesis are from biology.

What fields of learning interest you? Create a list of ten words that you think people should know if they were to learn more about that topic. Think about how you would define those words, and compare your definitions with the definitions you find in your dictionary.