THINK YOU KNOW
YOUR VOCABULARY?
Specialized Words Everyone Needs to Know
NEW YORK
®
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Copyright © 2009 Learning Express, LLC.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. Published in the United States by LearningExpress, LLC,
New York.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009926366
A copy of this title is on file with the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-1-57685-687-1
Printed in the United States of America
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For more information or to place an order, contact LearningExpress at:
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v
CONTENTS
Introduction: The Top 20 Reasons Why You—Yes,
You—Need a Better Vocabulary v
Pretest: How Much Do You Know? 1
PART ONE Vocabulary Boot Camp: Just the Basics 7
Day 1 Person, Place, or Thing? Commonly Used Nouns 9
Day 2 It’s Alive! Vivid, Vibrant Verbs 17

Day 28 Play Ball! Sports Terms 187
Day 29 You Design It: Interior Design Terms 193
Day 30 School Days: Educational Terms 199
Posttest: How Much Do You Know Now? 205
Answers 211
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vii
INTRODUCTION
The Top 20 Reasons Why You—Yes, You—
Need a Better Vocabulary
E
veryone needs a strong, extensive vocabulary.
Why, you ask? Simply put, a good vocabulary is something that you’ll
use every single day, in one way or another. You’ll meet people all the time who
use specialized words, and if you don’t understand them, you may be the one to
pay the price. Take a look at the following top 20 reasons for developing a strong
vocabulary. You’ll probably find yourself in there somewhere.
Having an extensive vocabulary will help you to:
1. do better in school, from taking tests to writing papers. Better grades
mean better colleges, better resumes, and better job opportunities. In the
end, that can mean a better income and ultimately, more money!
2. impress teachers, bosses, friends, parents, mentors, and other relevant
people.
3. understand more quickly and easily any materials you’re given in school or
on the job.
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INTRODUCTION
viii
4. express your emotions and thoughts in a more articulate and accurate way.
5. be less likely to have people catch you off guard when they use words that

the words may have more actual definitions than are included here. You’ll
mostly find the main definitions of words as they are used in normal conversa-
tion, but feel free to look up additional ones at your leisure.
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INTRODUCTION
ix
DO Try This at Home
Think your vocabulary is just fine? Try this simple experiment. For the next
seven days, every time you read or hear a word you can’t easily define, write it
down. This includes words you hear on television as well as in conversations
at home, school, and work. Write down any word you find in your textbooks,
newspapers, books, magazines, or on the Internet that you can’t easily define.
When you’re finished, you may be surprised at how many words you come
across on a daily basis that, if you had to define, you couldn’t!
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1
PRETEST: HOW MUCH
DO YOU KNOW?
B
efore you begin reading and learning all the
new words in this book, test the strength of your vocabulary as it stands
right now. This pretest gives you examples of words you’ll find in each lesson.
Good luck!
Read each statement below and circle the correct answer.
1. The word faction refers to a
a. body part.
b. clique.
c. political party.
d. equation.

b. anxiously.
c. logically.
d. consistently.
8. A truly miserable person is
a. credulous.
b. bellicose.
c. disconsolate.
d. zealous.
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PRETEST: HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW?
3
9. The distance around a circle is the
a. circumference.
b. diameter.
c. denominator.
d. equation.
10. A maestro is a
a. teacher.
b. author.
c. conductor.
d. officer.
11. Another word for C.V., or curriculum vitae, is
a. reference.
b. recommendation.
c. resignation.
d. resume.
12. The small statements at the bottom of a contract renouncing legal rights
are called
a. disclaimers.
b. defaults.

18. Keratin is found in
a. fingernails.
b. clothing.
c. vegetables.
d. medicine.
19. Spam
®
is the name of a meat product, but spam can also refer to
a. snail mail.
b. television commercials.
c. unwanted e-mails.
d. instant messaging.
20. Xenon is a type of
a. gas.
b. alien.
c. planet.
d. metal.
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PRETEST: HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW?
5
21. Another word for armistice is
a. peace.
b. happiness.
c. love.
d. hope.
22. Bread that is unleavened doesn’t
a. bake.
b. taste good.
c. rise.
d. contain wheat.

b. football.
c. soccer.
d. basketball.
29. A certain style of couch is called
a. a valance.
b. an armoire.
c. a patina.
d. a settee.
30. Someone who is bilingual is
a. able to speak in two different languages.
b. allowed to have residency in two countries.
c. born in one country but living in another.
d. trained to speak English as a primary language.
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7
PART
ONE
VOCABULARY
BOOT CAMP:
JUST THE BASICS
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9
DAY
1
I
f you’ve ever played 20 Questions, you’ve heard
people ask, “person, place, or thing?” or “animal, vegetable, or mineral?”
While the answer to these questions changes throughout the game, they all have
one thing in common: they are nouns.

usually to express disapproval or to force acceptance of terms
[This word can act as either a noun or a verb in a sentence.]
charlatan a person who pretends to have more knowledge, skill, or ability than
he or she actually possesses
[The word comes from Italy and is based on people from the village of
Cerreto, most of whom were deemed medical quacks.]
condiment something used to make food tastier, such as mustard, ketchup,
salt, pepper, or other seasonings
Just Be Glad
Be thankful this is a vocabulary book and not a grammar book. If it was,
you’d see instructions on how nouns relate to appositives, articles, pronouns,
compound-possessive forms, infinitives, objective complements, plural pos-
sessives, direct objects, and subordinate clauses. Whew. Don’t you feel lucky
right now?
Pet Peeve
Don’t you just hate it when you look up a word in the dictionary and a form
of the same word is in the definition? It can make you feel like your brain is
going in circles. This book tries not to repeat the word or a version of it in def-
initions so that the meaning is as clear as possible.
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PERSON, PLACE, OR THING? COMMONLY USED NOUNS
11
dissertation a long, usually written, thesis or essay on a subject, normally part
of the process for earning a college degree
epoch (1) an event or time that begins a new period of development; (2) a
memorable event, date, or period; (3) a division of geologic time less than a
period and greater than an age
facsimile (1) an exact copy; (2) a system of transmitting and reproducing
printed matter or pictures by means of signals sent over telephone lines
[This is where the word fax comes from, as in “I’m sending you a fax.” The

edge, or art, especially for the names of plants and animals in biology
pacifist a person who opposes, or is against, war or violence as a means of set-
tling disagreements or whose belief in nonviolence causes him or her to refuse
to go into military service
prodigy (1) an amazing event or action; (2) an unusually talented or gifted child
restoration the act of returning something to its former, original, or normal
condition
symposium (1) a group meeting at which there are several speeches and often
a group discussion; (2) a collection of opinions on a subject
[These things have certainly changed a lot since Greek and Roman times
when the word just meant a big party!]
Activity 1: HIDDEN WORDS
All the vocabulary words from the lesson are hidden in this puzzle. Look across,
down, diagonally, and backward to find them.
R P H T T F R T P I R H C D A O
K R H A B I T A T I F O N O N R
H E R E T I C S P O A L L T P S
T S G R C C N O I T C A F D O A
M T B U H H P T T F S Y R O S T
N O I T A T R E S S I D O N Y E
A R H A R Y A L A I M C N B M I
I A T L L N G E L L I A A R P C
S T N C A R O O C O L D A P O O
N I I N T E R L O P E R S N S H
N O R E A C E R N O P P D A I L
L N Y M N D I F O R L I O N U O
C I B O I R S R C T M E R C M H
O T A N M T N P I E N M I M H C
M S L T D N S U N M U L A P L S
K I N D R E D T Y G I D O R P S

dissertation
epoch
facsimile
faction
habitat
heretic
iconoclast
interloper
kindred
labyrinth
metropolis
nomenclature
pacifist
prodigy
restoration
symposium
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THINK YOU KNOW YOUR VOCABULARY?
14
4. To get the party started, you might decide to stand up and read the fantas-
tic _______________ you wrote as part of earning your honors status in
your senior year.
5. Your teacher told you that it was so amazingly well written that a new
______________ has begun in student essays, although he was rolling his
eyes when he said it.
6. Even though everyone at your party would be having fun, there would be
the typical ______________ who would sit in the corner, only interacting
among themselves.
7. You might be tempted to tell them to go back to their own
______________, but you’d just smile and keep playing the part of a

Across Down
2 someone opposed to a set of 1 where an animal lives
beliefs 3 an important event or period in
6 a person who breaks and destroys history
images 4 a system of terms for a field of
8 someone not willing to fight about knowledge
things 5 a clique
10 the act of making something look 7 someone who is most
like it did originally unwelcome
11 a person who claims to be 9 relatives, such as aunts, uncles,
something he/she is not and cousins
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
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