Tips to Improve Vocabulary

A good vocabulary is an asset for SSC and BANK entrance exams. Even if the exam does not have questions on synonyms or antonyms, there can still be questions on word-pair relationships, fill in the blanks, cloze test etc. where good vocabulary is a must for the student to do well.

A good vocabulary will also immensely help the student in the Reading Comprehension section because it will aid them to follow the ideas expressed by the author very well. This directly contributes to reading speed. Further, a good vocabulary will always be an asset in one’s professional life and also in ones’ day to day life and make a great influence whenever facing an interview.

Tips to improve vocabulary–

1. Root words– A root word is the most basic form of a word. Root words can help you to break down large, new words into smaller units to discover their meanings. Learning just one root word can help you understand several words in English. So, by learning just 20 or 30 root words, you can expand your English vocabulary to include hundreds of new words. A root can be any part of a word that carries meaning: the beginning, middle or end. Prefixes, bases, and suffixes are types of roots. The prefix appears at the beginning of a word, the base in the middle and the suffix at the end. One useful method for building vocabulary through root words is to first look at a base word and then look for familiar prefixes and suffixes that go with that base.

For Example the word “Chronic” noun that is made from a root word “Chronos”.

Root word Chronos means “Time”

Adding some prefix and suffix make a new word-

Eg. Chronology– means a correct time order. It comes from Chronos and Logos which means science i.e logical order of time event.

Chronological– means in correct time order.

Chronometer– this comes from Chronos and metron. Chronos means time and metron means measurement so chronometer is a measurement of time.

Now add syn(means together) and a verb suffix ize to Chronos- now a new word is formed i.e Synchronize(means time together).

We made noun by adding a suffix (ion, tion, ize )a noun form Synchronization.

prefix “A” gives negative meaning in English. adding “A” to synchronous gives Asynchronous,

 same like Anachronism.

So, you see by knowing just one root word – “Chronos-” – you can get a better idea of the meaning of at least 5-6 words in English.

Some are the famous root words- anthropology(humankind), bene(good), malus(bad), cide(killing).


2. Mnemonics- learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in human memory. Make mnemonics by images, rhyming, acronyms according to your convenience.

3. Part of Speech– we can guess the meaning of words according to their belonging with the part of speech. This can help the aspirants in the examination to choose the option.

4. Read a lot- Start reading newspapers editorials, magazines, online articles and magically the words you remember will start appearing in these texts. Reading newspaper, magazine, not only help to improve vocabulary but also to improve your reading habit which definitely helps in reading comprehension, cloze test, parjumbles.

At SA and BA both, We provide daily word list based on the Hindu newspaper. You can read these words to start with, but the best way of improving vocabulary is to refer to a good dictionary regularly.

Last but not the least Revise them frequently so that they remain in mind forever.

4. Keep revising– for revision make a vocabulary notebook revise words and use them frequently to make retention easy. Only mugging up the meanings won’t help. Try to learn at least 5 or 10 words daily (according to one’s suitability) and use them in your day to day life. Make sentences by using those words and use them daily. This can help you memorize those words more easily.

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