I felt like it was time for a look at some vocabulary for once, so today I’m sharing some thoughts on how to develop and use an advanced vocabulary, from a chapter originally published in Advanced Writing Skills (which celebrated some big milestones last month!).

Widening your vocabulary is essential to improve in any language skill. The more words you know, the more subjects you can discuss with greater accuracy. Advanced vocabulary helps you to be more specific. Wider understanding of words helps you to read more and to understand people from different regions or cultures. However, the more words you learn, the more caution you need when using them.

Let’s have a look at why, and what to do about it…

A wide vocabulary can harm your writing if you use words inappropriately or inaccurately. This may happen when you use a word your reader does not understand or if you use a word outside its correct context. It can also happen when you use language that is more complex than is necessary, negatively affecting the reading experience. Your writing’s main job is to communicate effectively, and difficult or uncommon vocabulary can prevent that.

Using Advanced Words in English

Consider the following two sentences:

Arthur sat on a wooden bench and quietly drank some milk.
Arthur parked his rear on a timber bench and tacitly consumed a pasteurised beverage.

The second sentence might seem impressive if you want to demonstrate how many different words you know, but it does not create a clear picture. It does not communicate its main idea effectively.

Using advanced vocabulary requires two levels of understanding. First, you must learn the word’s meaning. Second, you must learn when it should be used. Properly understood, advanced vocabulary should be applied strategically for a particular effect. Considering our example again, we could use one advanced word at a time, for different purposes:

Arthur sat on a wooden bench and tacitly drank some milk. (emphasising his shyness with an advanced word that may also hint at his intelligence)
Arthur sat on a wooden bench and quietly drank some pasteurised milk (focusing on the technical aspect of the drink, perhaps demonstrating a health-conscious character, or a detail-focused writer)
Arthur parked his rear on a bench and drink some milk. (using a colloquial expression to give the action a very particular tone, in this case suggesting an irreverent narrator)

The notes in brackets may seem like an extreme interpretation, but this is the level of consideration that makes your use of advanced vocabulary effective. Your particular purpose is likely to depend on the wider context. In the form of a narrative, such considerations may be used to reflect the personality of the central character:

Arthur, a scientist who spent more time with books than people, perched on the bench and sipped what he considered to be a very tasty beverage.

This sentence conveys more than the idea of our simple scene. Here, we are communicating Arthur’s personality through a pompous narrative style. What if we wanted to give him a different tone?

Arthur plonked himself on the bench and downed his milk.

This example takes a jump from advanced vocabulary to informal, regional vocabulary. Such a vocabulary choice has a big impact on tone.

In non-fiction writing, reflecting such attitudes and tones is far less common, making it safer to stick to simpler vocabulary choices. However, advanced vocabulary is common when specific vocabulary is necessary or expected, and certain subjects require specialist language for discussion. Academic, medical, and business terms, for example, often represent ideas which do not have a simpler alternative; words which should be commonly understood when read by a like-minded audience.

But as a guiding rule, keep in mind the concept of simplicity. Choose the most common word, or (generally) the shorter word, unless you have a good reason not to. Deciding on a good reason for using advanced vocabulary is where your personal understanding of language becomes very important. Essentially, the only reason for using advanced vocabulary is that the specific function of a word is necessary to convey a specific point. If not, choose the word most likely to be understood.

It is likely that the first words you learnt in English will be the words you continue to use most. And that’s a good thing.