All of us-from beginning learners of the English language to professional speakers and experienced writers-know the frustration of not being able to get the right word to roll off our tongues. Sometimes it's a matter of not being able to recall the right word; sometimes we never knew it to begin with. The Complete Idiot's GuideA (R) to Improving Your Vocabulary will help readers expand upon their language skills by teaching terms groups by subject area, related words, definitions, pronunciations, sample sentences, synonym/antonym lists-covering approximately 1500 words in all!

Table of Contents

I. THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY, AND MORE: PEOPLE WORDS. 1. It Takes All Kinds: Types of People. A Few Good Men (and Women). Boors, Tyrants, and Other Nasty Folk. Confidants and Cronies: Words for Friends. Adversaries and Antagonists: Words for Enemies. Big Shots: Words for Important People. Small Frys: Words for Unimportant People. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink. 2. More People Types. Ideologues and Apostates: Believers and Nonbelievers. A Few Fan Words. Curmudgeons and Other Grumpy People. Cadres and Cliques: Groups of People. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 3. How People Behave, Part 1. I, Me, Mine: Selfish Behavior. Party Types and Talkers: Adjectives for Outgoing People. Homebodies: Adjectives for Shy and Quiet People. Words for People We Like. Words for People We Don't Like. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 4. How People Behave, Part 2. Following the Wind: Words for Changeable People. Immovable Objects: Words for Stubborn People. Fightin' Words: A Hostility Lexicon. Living La Vida Lazy: Adjectives for the Inactive. Some Tricky Behavior Words. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink. 5. How People Think. A Thinking Person's Guide to Thought. The Search for Knowledge. Words to the Wise: Terms for Intelligence. A Fool and His Words: Terms for Stupidity. The Mind Field: Terms from Psychology. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 6. How People Look. Hale, Hearty, and Hunky: Attractiveness. Soft, Scruffy, and Unsightly: Unattractiveness. It's a Small Word After All: Terms for the Tiny. A Lexicon for the Large. Slang Terms for Various Body Parts. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink. II. AND NOW, SOME WORDS FROM OUR CULTURE. 7. A Few Food Words to Chew On. A Cornucopia of Food Words. Verbs for Eating. Verbs for Cooking. Fine Word Dining: Restaurant Terms. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 8. Drink Words on Tap. Taking a Swig: Verbs for Drinking. A Draft of Beer Words. The Message on the Bottle: Wine Words. Mixed Drinks: Miscellaneous Liquid Refreshments. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 9. Screen Gems: Television Words. Words You Should Know If You're Buying a TV. The Ratings Game: TV Programming Words. Docudramas, Infomercials, and Other TV Programs. Kickers and Stand-Ups: Television News Terms. From Boob Tube to Couch Potato: TV Slang. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 10. The Book Nook: Book and Publishing Terms. From Bluestockings to Bookworms: Book Folk. From Manuscript to Galley: Book Editing. The Book Look: Book Parts and Pages. The Business of Publishing. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 11. The Lexical Enquirer: Newspaper Words. Newspaper Odds and Ends. Editors and Their Departments. Newspaper Journalism and Journalists. Thumbsuckers and Tick-Tocks: Words for News Stories. The Anatomy of a News Story. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. III. LEXICONOMICS: WORDS FROM THE ECONOMY. 12. Words at Work: Job Titles and Professions. General Job Jargon. Gaffers, Grips, and Best Boys: Movie Workers. The Corporate Ladder: Some Top Business Titles. Smiths, Wrights, and Other Tradespeople. Medicine Men and Women. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 13. Terms from Business and Economics. Supply-Siders and Keynesians: Words and Phrases from Economics. The Business of Business. Business Finances: From Balance Sheet to Cash Flow. New Words from the New Economy. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 14. Business Buzzword Buster. Buzzwords I: "24/7" to "Buy In". Buzzwords II: "Core Competencies" to "Exit Strategy". Buzzwords III: "Going Forward" to "Litmus Test". Buzzwords IV: "Low-Hanging Fruit" to "Paradigm Shift". Buzzwords V: "Solution Provider" to "Win-Win". Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 15. Bulls, Bears, and Blue Chips: Stock Market Words. Stock Talk: Some General Stock Words. What Goes Up...: Words for Stock Market Movements. Buy Low, Sell High, Talk Funny: Buying and Selling Terms. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. IV. THE SYSTEM: WORDS FOR HOW THE WORLD WORKS. 16. Legal Lingo. "I'll See You in Court": Lawsuits and Charges. "All Rise": Judge and Jury Words. "Order in the Court": Trial Terms. "We Find the Defendant...": Verdicts and Judgments. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 17. Weasel Words from Politics and Government. Stump to Stalking Horse: Election Words. Government Words of the People, by the People, for the People. When Good Politicians Go Bad: Corruption Words. Some Political "-isms". Government By, Well, Whoever You Want. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 18. War and Peace: Military, Spying, and Diplomatic Terms. A War of Words. An Aside on the Suffix "-cide". U.S. Military Ranks. U.S. Military Units. Spies, Spooks, and Sleepers: Espionage Words. The Art of the Deal: Some Words from Diplomacy. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. V. TECHNOLINGUISTICS: COMPUTER AND INTERNET TERMS. 19. A Glossary for Computer Buyers. It's What's Inside That Counts: The Microprocessor. Getting Through the Memory Maze. The Dope on Disk Drives. Graphics Cards, Monitors, and Other Video Jargon. Sound Cards, Modems, and More. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 20. More Computer Words. "Bit to WYSIWYG": General Computer Terms. "Program" to "Virus": Software Terms. "Bus" to "Printer": Hardware Terms. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 21. Internetese: The Internet and Its Jargon. Wired Words: Getting on the Internet. A World Wide Web of Words. Can I Get Here from There? Internet Address Terms. More Net Words You Should Know. From Newbie to Netizen: Internet People. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 22. Talking the "Talk" Talk: E-Mail, Chat, and More. "Have Your People E-Mail My People". Real-Time Talk: Words from Chat and Instant Messaging. Usenet Lingo for Newsgroupies. The Incendiary Internet: Playing the Flame Game. An Initial Look at Internet Abbreviations. Internet Hieroglyphics: Smileys. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. VI. VOCABUCOPIA: AN ABUNDANCE OF MISCELLANEOUS WORD TREATS. 23. Speaking in Tongues: Words from Foreign Languages. Ad Hoc to Sine Qua Non: Latin Words. Au Contraire to Nouveau Riche: French Words. Autobahn to Zeitgest: German Words. Casa to Kvetch: Words from Other Languages. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 24. Names of Things You Didn't Know Had Names. Names for Body Parts. Names for Sleep Things. Names for Traffic Things. Miscellaneous Names. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 25. Brave New Words. Ad Creep to Casualization. Chad to Day Trading. Entreprenerd to Learning a Living. Lexus Liberal to Screenager. Soccer Mom to Zine. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 26. Making Word Whoopee: Fun Words. Akimbo to Flibbertigibbet. Galoot to Hullaballoo. Kibosh to Nincompoop. Razzmatazz to Thingamajig. Tomfoolery to Zilch. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. VII. SHARPENING YOUR SKILLS: MORE WORDS YOU SHOULD KNOW. 27. 100 Nouns You Should Know. Acclaim to Catalyst. Catch-22 to Embargo. Enigma to Juxtaposition. Labyrinth to Recourse. Repertoire to Zenith. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 28. 100 Verbs You Should Know. Abstain to Censure. Circumvent to Ensue. Ensure to Jeopardize. Jettison to Purport. Raze to Yearn. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. 29. 100 Adjectives You Should Know. Abrasive to Concerted. Conducive to Esoteric. Ethical to Innocuous. Insidious to Procrustean. Prodigious to Wry. Questions and Exercises to Help Everything Sink In. VIII. APPENDIXES. Appendix A. Answers to End-of-Appendix Exercises. Appendix B. Prefixes and Suffixes. Index of Vocabulary Words. General Index.

About the Author

PAUL McFEDRIES is the president of Logophilia Limited (Latin for "the love of words") and has written more than three dozen books that have sold over two million copies worldwide. He also runs the Word Spy mailing list and Web site (http://www.wordspy.com), which are devoted to the study of new words and phrases and have been featured in publications such as Wired and The Wall Street Journal.