Top 100 Vocabulary Words That Adults Should Know
Educators often use words with meanings that students may not fully understand. Rather than looking foolish and asking for an explanation, students may go through years of schooling and not truly grasp the meaning of important terminology.
After consulting with a past English teacher, my sister, Lesley Hamilton, and a future English teacher, my daughter, Terra Rothpletz, we came up with a list of 100 words that are dispersed by educators but not necessarily understood by students. Rather than list the definitions here, I thought it might be better to just include the link so that you could test yourself. Look at the following words and see how well you do. To find out the definitions, just click on the word.
- Acquiesce
- Acronym
- Ambiguity
- Analogy
- Anachronism
- Andragogy
- Antithesis
- Antonym
- Articulate
- Assonance
- Benchmarking
- Brainstorming
- Circumspect
- Clandestine
- Cognition
- Collaborate
- Colloquial
- Connotation
- Contrived
- Conundrum
- Correlation
- Criterion
- Cumulative
- Curriculum
- Deference
- Developmental
- Dialect
- Diction
- Didactic
- Dissertation
- Divergent
- Egregious
- Eloquence
- Emergent
- Empathy
- Enigma
- Epitome
- Epiphany
- Epitaph
- Erudite
- Existential
- Exponential
- Formative
- Holistic
- Homonym
- Hubris
- Hyperbole
- Incongruous
- Infamy
- Initiation
- Innate
- Intellectual
- Interactive
- Irony
- Jargon
- Juxtaposition
- Malapropism
- Magnanimous
- Mentor
- Metaphor
- Meticulous
- Mnemonic
- Monologue
- Motif
- Myriad
- Nemesis
- Nominal
- Norms
- Obfuscate
- Obtuse
- Onomatopoeia
- Ostentatious
- Oxymoron
- Paradox
- Paraphrase
- Pedantic
- Pedagogy
- Perusal
- Phonemes
- Phonological
- Plagiarism
- Plethora
- Posthumously
- Preposition
- Pretentious
- Pseudonym
- References
- Reflection
- Rubric
- Sardonic
- Satire
- Simile
- Soliloquy
- Superfluous
- Syntax
- Thesis
- Validity
- Vernacular
- Virtual
- Vocational
Terra 5:40 pm on July 22, 2011 Permalink |
Love the final list. Great words!
drdianehamilton 5:41 pm on July 22, 2011 Permalink |
Thanks for your help 🙂
The Impassioned Daydreamer 1:46 am on July 8, 2016 Permalink |
As a writer, I was looking for new ways to expand my vocabulary, without getting locked into a set list of words that are more commonly used, or by using the same lists other writers and students use for vocabulary builders. (It’s very important to me that I have my own unique voice in my writing; not only in style, but in vocabulary as well.) I stumbled upon this list along my search and decided to test myself. As a self-professed “grammar nerd” I was surprised that a few words are completely new to me! Of course some words were quite familiar, and still others had me staring at them with intransigence as I willed my mind to figure out the meaning of a common word to no avail. Haha! I guess I didn’t realize how common it truly is, even as adults, to be familiar with a word yet totally unfamiliar with its meaning. I think this is a wonderful list. I plan to familiarize myself with each of these words, as well as passing it on to my husband who writes as well and my youngest brother who is a college student. Very well done ladies!
-Eli