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ISBN: Print 978-1-93975-481-3 | eBook 978-1-93975-482-0


To my Dad, for showing me the power of
words.


CONTENTS (n.) kənˈtents
Introduction
How to Use This Book
For Parents and Teachers
Pronunciation Guide

200 LESSONS
1

Prefix: Pre- (Part 1)

2


Prefix: Pre- (Part 2)

3

Eponymous Parts of Speech from Antiquity (Part
1)

4

Eponymous Parts of Speech from Antiquity (Part
2)

5

Words from French (Part 1)

6

Words from French (Part 2)

7

Words from French (Part 3)

8

Compound Words and Phrases from French

9


Words from German


10

Words with an Italian Origin (Part 1)

11

Words with an Italian Origin (Part 2)

12

Words from India

13

Traveling Words

14

Misleading Words (Part 1)

15

Misleading Words (Part 2)

16


Quiet to Noisy

17

Only Fools Rush In

18

Speaking Words

19

Just How Much? (Part 1)

20

Just How Much? (Part 2)

21

In My Opinion

22

How Big Is Your Appetite?

23

A Question of Trust


24

Is That a Compliment? (Part 1)

25

Is That a Compliment? (Part 2)

26

From Lazy to Lively

27

Hard at Work?

28

Words About Words (Part 1)


29

Words About Words (Part 2)

30

Where Did You Go to School?

31


Mind Your Manners

32

Is It Clear?

33

Words Describing Character

34

Musical Words

35

Animal Words

36

Words Describing Animals

37

Religious Words (Part 1)

38

Religious Words (Part 2)


39

Prefix Ex-

40

Commonly Confused Pairs (Part 1)

41

Commonly Confused Pairs (Part 2)

42

Commonly Confused Pairs (Part 3)

43

Annoying Words

44

What Did You Call Me?

45

Courtroom Words

46


Give Peace a Chance

47

Frightening Words


48

Group Dynamics

49

Governmental Words

50

Words of Scale

51

How’s It Going?

52

Attention to Detail

53


The Facts of Life

54

It’s Debatable

55

It’s a Party!

56

Describing the Landscape

57

It’s About Time (Part 1)

58

It’s About Time (Part 2)

59

The Times They Are A-Changing

60

Secondary Meanings (Part 1)


61

Secondary Meanings (Part 2)

62

Secondary Meanings (Part 3)

63

Secondary Meanings (Part 4)

64

How Are You Feeling?

65

Time Periods

66

Flavor


67

Fun

68


False Friends (Part 1)

69

False Friends (Part 2)

70

Color Words

71

Colorful Words

72

Spending Words

73

Let’s Party

74

Words from the Body

75

Words from Myth


76

Heavenly Words

77

Two-Faced Words

78

A Matter of Trust

79

How Much Do You Know?

80

Money, Money, Money

81

Political Words (Part 1)

82

Political Words (Part 2)

83


It’s a Rebellion!

84

Biblical Words

85

What’s the Big Joke?


86

It’s No Laughing Matter

87

Recognition

88

Make Up Your Mind

89

Something Wicked This Way Comes

90


Are You the Boss or the Bossed?

91

Commonly Confused Words

92

Words from Yiddish

93

Words from Other Languages

94

Order and Leveling

95

Words from Science

96

Is It Everywhere or Anywhere?

97

Thou Doth Complain Too Much


98

Nothing Is Going to Stop Us Now . . . or Is It?

99

Spoils of War

100 Are You Likeable?
101 Hurtful Words
102 How Pure?
103 How Do I Express Myself?
104 Getting Better or Getting Worse?


105 It’s All About the Self
106 Three-Letter Words
107 Four-Letter Words
108 Very Long Words
109 Can You Feel It?
110 What’s All the Fuss?
111 What’s the Bright Idea? (Part 1)
112 What’s the Bright Idea? (Part 2)
113 Get Off the Couch!
114 Is This Confusing?
115 Anyone’s Guess
116 Harmful or Harmless?
117 The Anger Meter
118 From Cowardly to Courageous
119 I Have an Official Announcement to Make

120 Hold On to Your Wits! From Dull to Sharp
121 Prefix: Ben122 Prefix: Mal123 Prefix: Phon-


124 Prefix: Eu125 Prefix: Anthro126 Prefix: Circum127 Suffix: -Cracy
128 Prefix: Di129 Prefix: Dia130 Prefix: Epi131 Prefix: Ex- (Part 1)
132 Prefix: Ex- (Part 2)
133 Prefix: Ex- (Part 3)
134 Prefix: Im- (Part 1)
135 Prefix: Im- (Part 2)
136 Prefix: In- (Part 1)
137 Prefix: In- (Part 2)
138 Prefix: In- (Part 3)
139 Prefix: In- (Part 4)
140 Prefix: In- (Part 5)
141 Prefix: Inter- (Part 1)
142 Prefix: Inter- (Part 2)


143 Prefix: Sub144 Root: -Pathy
145 Root: Fract-, Frag146 Prefix: Bell147 Prefix: Carn148 Prefix: Cogn149 Root: Min150 Prefix: Apo151 Root: -Mit
152 Prefix: Pan153 Prefix: Para154 Prefix: Peri155 Root: -Scribe, -Script
156 Prefix: Trans157 Prefix: Pro158 Root: Punct159 Root: Put160 Root: Quisit161 Root: Rog-


162 Root: Sequ163 Root: Ec164 Prefix: A- (Part 1)
165 Prefix: A- (Part 2)
166 Root: Cit167 Prefix: Con- (Part 1)
168 Prefix: Con- (Part 2)
169 Prefix: De170 Prefix: En- (Part 1)

171 Prefix En- (Part 2)
172 Root: E173 Root: Fact174 Root: Fic175 Root: Gen176 Suffix: -Gress
177 Root: -Graph
178 Root: Ig179 Root: Pend180 Root: Reg-


181 Words Beginning with A
182 Words Beginning with B
183 Words Beginning with C
184 Words Beginning with D
185 Words Beginning with E
186 Words Beginning with F
187 Words Beginning with G
188 Words Beginning with H
189 Words Beginning with I
190 Words Beginning with L
191 Words Beginning with M
192 Words Beginning with N
193 Words Beginning with O
194 Words Beginning with P
195 Words Beginning with Q
196 Words Beginning with R
197 Words Beginning with S
198 Words Beginning with T
199 Words Beginning with U


200 Words Beginning with V
Further Resources
Answer Key




INTRODUCTION
People tend to assume I’ve always excelled at words. I’m
a decent Scrabble player, include SAT words in
conversation without realizing it, and do anagrams in my
head for fun. Now that I’m a “vocabulary expert” at
Magoosh, my innate verbal ability seems like a foregone
conclusion.
But it wasn’t always this way. When I was in middle
school, I remember having to study for vocabulary quizzes
and dreading the experience. To make matters worse, my
father would get excited every time he saw me with the
vocabulary book open. “Ask me any word,” he’d exclaim.
No matter how many syllables the word contained, he’d
toss off definitions with aplomb, pressing me for another,
the way a small child might ask for candy. I assumed he’d
always known such words, and that this knowledge came
easily to him. Meanwhile, I would be condemned to
uttering no more than three-syllable words—and to poor
grades on vocabulary quizzes.
I redoubled my efforts at studying, and while my quiz
scores did inch up slightly, I felt that my father existed on
some vocabulary plane that I’d never attain. What I didn’t
realize then was that my father’s level of knowledge was
very much within my grasp, but not from trying to


memorize lists of words in a vocabulary book. For that’s all

our school gave us: books containing lists of words, with
no exercises or examples providing context, just dry
definitions to be parroted back for a passing grade.
As I grew older, I became an avid reader. First I tried to
figure out words in context and then always (and I mean
always) consulted the dictionary. Now the previously dry,
boring definition contained a special resonance: It unlocked
the meaning of a word I had encountered “in the wild.”
And learning words begot more words. Soon, I was
actively seeking to grow my vocabulary, picking up books
that would offer vivid example sentences, colorful
descriptions of a word’s history, and synonyms galore.
While providing riveting reading material (at least for a
word lover), these books typically did not contain exercises
to reinforce what I learned. It was only through sheer time
and effort that I was able to build a strong vocabulary.
What I hope to give to you, the reader, is a book that
extends beyond mere examples of words in sentences and
word history—however colorful—and allows you to
engage in activities that reinforce the words you’ve studied.
Using this book, you will learn not merely to parrot a
definition but to understand how a word functions in
context. That way, you won’t only recognize words—
you’ll be able to use them yourself. By the time you’ve
completed the lessons and activities in this book, you’ll be
a testament to what took me many years to realize: A large


vocabulary is not built from memorizing word lists or from
some innate verbal capacity that very few possess, but

rather is formed through targeted practice and context
recognition.


HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
This book is divided into 200 lessons, each featuring six to
eight words that fit into the lesson’s category. To test your
knowledge of many of the words just introduced, you’ll
find a short activity at the end of each lesson asking you to
use the new vocabulary in matching, unscrambling, and
fill-in-the-blanks exercises.
Many lessons have been created by grouping words
according to a theme that presents words along a spectrum.
For instance, Lesson 17’s theme is “Only Fools Rush In,”
which includes words that mean “careful” and
“thoughtful,” in addition to words that mean “careless” and
“reckless.” This means that the words featured in each
lesson are typically not all synonyms, as that would limit
the range of possible activities—as well as make for dull
reading. Additionally, this spectrum allows us to explore
the sometimes-subtle distinctions between words.
There is no single best way to use this book, as each of
us has different needs. For instance, you might want to start
by learning word roots if your vocabulary is not very
strong. I find that learning roots is helpful for beginning
students of vocabulary, because it allows them to group
similar words around a small and thus easier to memorize
segment of that word. At the other end of the spectrum, you



might already have a strong vocabulary and wonder what in
this book will be of value to you. To challenge even the
word mavens among us, I have included some very difficult
(though not too obscure) words. So as not to alienate
beginner and intermediate learners, the words are arranged
within each lesson according to difficulty.
Each lesson begins with three words, arranged in order
from easiest to most difficult. For each I offer the part of
speech, pronunciation, definition, an example of the word
in a sentence, etymology (or word history), and finally an
interesting tidbit to keep in mind. For the remaining four or
five words in the lesson, I provide only the part of speech,
pronunciation, and definition. These words are also
arranged from simplest to most advanced. The last word of
this group is usually a tough one. Indeed, sometimes the
final two words are both pretty recondite (yes, that word is
included in this book!). The words are followed by an
activity to help you gauge your understanding.
So, if you’re a beginner, you might want to focus on
just a few words per lesson and then try the activity at the
end. Intermediate learners might want to attempt the entire
lesson. Finally, those who already have a strong vocabulary
can just skim the hardest words in each lesson.
That said, I do encourage everyone to try the activities,
since their purpose is to reinforce what you’ve learned.
Merely reading a definition and thinking “I’ve got it” isn’t
the same as actually testing yourself.


Finally, don’t assume that by reading this book one

lesson at a time, without ever going back to previous
sections, you’ll retain very much. A vocabulary book, after
all, is not a novel. Make a habit of revisiting previous
lessons and redoing the activities (you might want to jot
your answers on a separate piece of paper). After all, it is
better to obtain a strong sense of a quarter of the words in
this book than a tenuous grasp of half.
One last point: You should use this book in conjunction
with reading. And I don’t mean just any reading. Seek out
newspapers such as the New York Times or magazines such
as the New Yorker or the Atlantic. As you read the articles
in these publications, you’ll recognize many of the words
featured in this book. When we encounter words in their
“natural habitat,” not only do we get a deeper
understanding of how they’re used, but that encounter will
be unexpected, making it more likely that our brains will
retain the information. Ultimately, that is the intention of
this book: to make us better readers, better writers, and
better thinkers.