Words you don't understand.

[conny]

What do you do when you read a word you have never heard before?
Or if you have heard it but don't know the meaning.
Do you accept it at face value if you understand the gist of the sentence/story or do you look up it's meaning on Google or in a dictionary?

 

[Larry1990]

Look it up, forget it, look it up again. Some stick and some don't.

I haven't googled but I think an average persons vocabulary is 50k words but there's over 300k words in English. I'd better get reading the dictionary...

 

[danechip]

I always google it, or reverse search an image if a famous person is mentioned that I have never heard of.

I always have subtitles on too so I don't forget how to spell. Older age is having it's effect on my memory.

 

[conny]

I use Google or a dictionary. Anything particular I want to remember I write it down, with its definition/meaning several times.
A week or so later I ask my wife to pick a word at random from my notebook and I try to give her the meaning.
This process helps it to stick in my ageing brain. It was trick we were taught in English lessons more than 50 years ago. I also do crossword puzzles to keep the grey matter active.
Have to admit I can't stand 'buzz' words that seem to come and go with the fashions. I prefer well established words that most people can understand.

 

[Justin Passing]

Older age is having it's effect on my memory.

it's " its " when used like that.
Sorry, couldn't resist!

That must be about the most common error in English, I got it wrong for a long time, still slip sometimes.

himm...his
her....hers
it.....its
you....yours
us.....ours
them...theirs​

"It's" is only for "it is", - which is because there's a letter and a space missing.

Not a lot of people know that, really.

 

[danechip]

Haha n0b.

At least you see what I mean buddy !!

Having "it is" wouldn't make sense, I agree...

 

[Odds]

It depends upon the context in which the word is being used. If i get the gist of what the writer intends with use of a particular word then i don't bother to look for a definition - although if you try to read anything by Will Self then you will need a dictionary.
A word such as prolepsis i had to look up, though, when reading Dune by Frank Herbert, many years ago and is one that's stuck firmly in my mind ever since.
(if you want to know what it means...look it up)

 

[Deleted member 18243]

What do you do when you read a word you have never heard before?
Or if you have heard it but don't know the meaning.
Do you accept it at face value if you understand the gist of the sentence/story or do you look up it's meaning on Google or in a dictionary?

I look it up in an old dictionary; the older the better. Only look up a word on Google if you want the trendy, left-wing definition.

 

[conny]

Same with me Andy. I think my usual dictionary is around the 1960's but, just for fun sometimes, I look or compare a word in a 1928 edition of The Kings English Dictionary which we picked up at a car boot sale for the princely sum of £1

By the way, the King was George the V

 

[diy_fun_uk]

Google is my friend

 

[Mottie]

Nearly all of my reading is done either on my iPad or my kindle. If I come across a word that I don't know the meaning of, I just hold my finger on the word to find the meaning of it.

 

[johnny2007]

I keep on coming across different meanings of the words "f#ck" and "boll@x"...
Fascinating!

 

[JP_]

Usually Google it. I'm normally reading online, so easy to highlight the word, right click and search.

The most recent search i did though was on Kindle yesterday. Already forgotten what the word was.

 

[Bod ...]

I've learned so many words on this forum. My English have also improved.

 

[Mottie]