by G.K. Dickey

Created on: April 17, 2008   Last Updated: September 06, 2009

At 5 or 6 years old with a pencil and pad and a beat-up Funk & Wagnalls dictionary, I would go through the dictionary, one page after another, and pick out one word that appealed to me from each column (two columns per page). I would write the word down and copy the definition. I remember making it all the way through at least once because I recall discovering so few Z words.

There's little doubt in my mind that this early exposure to words was instrumental in developing a well-rounded vocabulary that has served me well through a lifetime that has been dedicated to the use of words in one way or another. To this day, I'll find myself going to the dictionary to look up a specific word and end up spending more time than necessary (if I'm not on some deadline) simply reading other definitions on the page.

The mere study of words, however, is not the only way to exercise your brain and expand your vocabulary. It so happens I spent 30 years in the newspaper business as both a reporter and editor, which translates into writing and editing thousands of stories and headlines. Sheer repetitiveness acts as a catalyst to find new and different words to express basically the same idea.

Finally, I decided I'd had enough of daily deadlines and turned to writing fiction, which is a lot more fun because you can make things up and not wake up in the middle of the night in a self-induced, fear-driven cold sweat worrying about whether you had double-checked a particular fact that is already in print. Still, fiction writing requires a healthy level of research. This task is also another way to grow your vocabulary because researchers will often delve into areas beyond their normal reading and writing comfort zones.

Just as some people devise certain tricks to remember names, the same tactic can be used to remember new words. I've found the easiest technique that works for me is to follow three steps: Read it. Write it. Type it. At both the writing or typing steps, either copy down the primary definition of the word or compose a sentence using the new word in its proper context. This "imprinting" process gives your brain three different chances to firmly embed the word somewhere handy in your gray matter.

A similarly beneficial practice is the explication process. This is a big word that simply means to formally dissect a literary work. It is most often used with poetry to better understand what the poet was trying to say and why he chose the words he did. Understanding a given word and its various meanings and usages invariably leads you down the path of learning new and often slightly nuanced words that serve to broaden your vocabulary.

Of course, any true-to-his-heart word maven is a bingomeister when it comes to Scrabble; a devout practitioner of the daily crossword puzzle; and a regular reader of William Safire and George Will. The word maven also enjoys a hunting trip through the Oxford English Dictionary; has read Simon Winchester's "The Professor and The Madman" at least once; and, of course, is an active contributor to Helium.

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