Customer Reviews

Merriam-Webster's Vocabulary Builder

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I just bought this book and read 5 pages so far. And I love it! I can speak English, my second language, very well. But I want my vocabulary to be as good as a native speaker, so I was looking for a book that only includes high-level vocabulary and shows how to use them in phrases. This book is the answer and more! It groups words by their roots, and gives a little story of the roots at the right level. Under each root, there are usually 3 or 4 words, which I think is a good quantity. I found this effective in learning similar words quickly. Each word is followed by abundant yet short phrases to illustrate its meanings and connotations. The phrases are informative and fun to read. After several roots, you can take quizzes to see how much you have learnt or forgotten. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to build a powerful vocabulary in an effective way.

Despite advertising hype, no ONE book will double your vocabulary, but reading several vocabulary-building books can double your vocabulary. Different vocabulary-building books have different words and different explanations. If you don't learn a word from one book, you can learn it from another book.

Any vocabulary-building book will have many words, a fourth to half the book, that you already understand. You can always skip or skim the easy-to-you words.

Varied, incomplete word selection is another reason for using several books. Some books just take words used on past-standardized tests, neglecting other words. Other books, limit their words to words based on word roots, neglecting others. Often authors have thrown in personal favorite words, even if others rarely use the words. If you see a word in two or three books, it's generally a need-to-know word.

The only weakness of Merriam Webster's Vocabulary Builder, and no book is perfect, is that the word selection is limited to words based on word roots. I have not seen the CD version noted by other reviewers and my review applies only the paperback. The price is great.

Other Books: Cartoon/Mnemonic vocabulary books have their fans who like the mnemonic memory aids, which are useful before tests. But with only one word and one cartoon per page, these books may only have a few hundred words and are expensive per word. Audio vocabulary books such as Elite Word Power, let you hearing each word pronounced correctly, helpful for improving speaking vocabulary.

An Easy Vocabulary Builder

A Review of "Merriam-Webster's Vocabulary Builder"

by Mary Wood Cornog

ISBN 0-87779-910-5

Copyright 1998

This book 558 pages and is organized into twenty-five study units.

Each of the twenty five-study unit is composed of a series of classical roots. Each root has an explanation.

Following each root/explanation is a list of words based on the classical root. Each modern word has a pronunciation key, followed by a simplified definition and an example. The definitions are good and the examples are well thought-out. Frequent quizzes ensure comprehension.

This book is a good vocabulary builder and is easy to read and use as a self-study guide.

See also:

Merriam-Webster's Everyday Language Reference Set: Vocabulary Builder/Thesaurus/Dictionary


I recommend "Merriam-Webster's Vocabulary Builder" because it is so easy to read. It is a first-class, uncomplicated self-study text.

This book is perfect to begin a disciplined program to increase
your vocabulary for academic or business reasons. A beauty of
the presentation is that it contains a sample quiz to verify
progress at major juncture points. Thousands of intermediary
to complex words are defined in simple terms. Here is a sample
of the vocabulary contained in the work:

o rect- straight
o triptych- carving
paradigm- example of how to do something

This work would be helpful for academics, as well as scientists,
journalists, students and a whole host of others. This would
make a good purchase for the student in your house.

I would only hope that a sequel to this excellent book will come out someday. I've ordered many copies and passed them out to friends and family. I think this is a good since many people only think of dictionaries for vocabulary enrichment.

This book is an excellent review of thousands of words. It was effective for increasing my vocabulary for reading and standardized tests (GRE). I've encountered many of these words in reading Time Magazine and other publications with an educated vocabulary--the words seem relevant and practical.

This is an excellent book. There are thousands of words that you will see and read everyday. there're quizzes to test progress your english. There is an example for every word you learn inside for you to understand easily. I always carry this book everywhere I go. this book teach the most useful of the classical word building roots to help me continue expanding my vocabulary in the future.

Takes the process of building up one's vocabulary one step further, by explainig the roots and origins of different prefixes and suffixes. Hence, you will be able to understand words not included in the book by simply deconstructing them, and interpreting the different parts. Truly excellent!

This is something that can be read from cover to cover. It lacks the boring humdrum that most other Vocabulary building books inevitably contain. Author Mary Wood Cornog uses a very successful method; she defines, in understandable language, Latin roots that make up most of the English language. Knowing these Latin roots simplifies the English language to an undescribable degree.With self-tests at the end of each section, this book is also interactive. I was surprised at how many words I understood after reading this book.

Two thumbs up for this little nugget. Definitions are presented in a clear and precise manner and followed up by exercises after the end of each eight word chunk. The end of each section tests from the all the words presented in the section. If you're looking for an easy and fun way to bone up on your vocabulary skills, this is the one.