It has been a looong time since I last posted. Trying to get into blogging again.
One of my favorite vocabulary sites is vocabulary.com.
I also strongly recommend you take a minute to register because then it will help you learn the words you want to learn.
There are several reasons I like it. The best thing about is probably how super fast it is. It has to be seen to be believed.
The definitions are not dry and boring like so many dictionaries. Type in the "college" for example and you can finally learn the difference between "college" and "university". On the right, you will also see several example sentences showing you how this word is used "in the wild". You will learn a lot of useful collocations as you see how native speakers use the word.
What really cool is that you can easily make your own lists and study specific sets of words you import.Up to 100 pages, which will save you lots of time looking up individual words. Super easy.
There are two ways to make a list: From The Dictionary and from the Vocabulary Lists section.
From The Dictionary, start typing in the search box, and the search results list will appear below. Clicking on the “Advanced Search” tab will allow for limiting to specific parameters within the results (such as “typeof:walk”). Click on the “List Builder” button to open the Vocabulary List building options, and selection boxes will appear next to each word. Next, check the selection boxes next to the words you’d like to include in your list. You may then optionally perform additional searches, and your previously selected words will appear within a scrolling list above the new search results. Once all of the desired words are selected, use the drop-down to append to an existing list or create a new list. Lastly, click on the “Create List” button, and you’ll be taken to the Edit List screen.
Alternatively, click on the “Create a New List” button in the Vocabulary Lists section or on My Profile. On the “Create New List” screen, there are three ways to enter words: One at a time, All at once, or From Text. The “One at a time” screen is a rich word list builder with predicted words as you type, dynamic definitions, and an example sentence browser. In the “All at once screen,” lists can be typed or pasted in comma or line-delineated format. In the “From text” screen, feel free to paste in up to 100 pages of text and we’ll grab all the Vocabulary words for you. We’ll present you with the example sentences wherever individual words appear in the text, so you can easily choose examples to be displayed on the list review screen.
From the Vocabulary Lists page, click “Create a New List.” Next click “From text” and you will be taken to the “Create a Vocabulary List from Text” page. On this screen, paste up to 100 pages of text in the field on the left, click “Grab Vocab,” and all of the vocabulary words will appear in the scrolling list. Check words to include them in the Vocabulary list. You may also “shift-click” to select multiple checkboxes by clicking on a checkbox while holding down shift, scrolling-down the list and clicking the last checkbox you’d like to include. Click on each word individually to view and select the example sentences from the text. You may choose to not include example sentences by un-checking the “Include Example Sentences” checkbox. Each word or example can then be edited in the “One at a time” option in the Edit subnavigation.
The Challenge is also a great feature. Once you are registered you can play this game and the words will be tailored to your level. It can be very addictive as you try to get a high score guessing the meanings of word after word. Definitely try out The Challenge!
To get the most out the site you should take a minute to look at the FAQs
http://www.vocabulary.com/help/
Oh and one more thing that will interest all of you....
Here is a recent article I found on the site's blog aimed at learners of English. It's got some really good advice for people who are serious about improving their vocabulary.
http://www.vocabulary.com/articles/under-the-hood/esl-tricks-for-vocabulary-learning/
Once you have played around with this site it a little, write a comment to let us know how you like the site and how you are getting the most out of this fantastic resource.
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