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Improve Your Vocabulary + Good English Explanatory Directory?

by Vogin
8 replies
Hey Warriors,
I've found this one game called Techtionary that is supposed to help you practice your vocabulary.

Basically, you get 7 random letters and you have to compose words from 3 to 7 letters long, it's a real challenge especially for non-native speakers.

On the other hand, sometimes it's very hard for me to actually find out what does a particular word mean - that's where explanatory directories come in.

I know it's a simple matter of googling them, but not single one have known all the words, so, any recommendations?

PS if anyone could explain these words to me as a bonus, that'd be just great:

  • ates
  • neats
  • tars
  • ret

If these aren't words at all, then there might be something wrong with the game's dictionary and I'll try to email the creators...
#directory #english #explanatory #good #improve #vocabulary
  • Profile picture of the author Michael Ten
    ya not words, or not common ones anyway.
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  • Profile picture of the author scortillion
    interesting site..
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  • Profile picture of the author BuckleyOnlineMarketing
    Fun little game, a bit like playing scrabble by yourself - but it does get old after a while so it's more fun to play against someone else if you have a board and a friend or two around. Not a bad way to improve your vocabulary, though.

    For me the best way to gain a good vocabulary is to read a lot, however - books, magazines, online, whatever - it's all good.

    I find the best way to look up a word on Google is to type - for example - ates definition. That gives you a bunch of sites that can tell you what the word means. I find this better than relying on a single source.

    In this case, though, ates seems to be either a Turkish surname or an acronym. Neats are apparently people on one side of the debate about how artificial intelligence systems should be designed (no, I didn't know that either!). They want everything neat and logical.

    Ret is a verb that means to soak wood, flax, hemp or similar materials in water to separate the fibers, while tars is the plural of tar (thick black stuff that remains after you've finished refining crude oil - also occurs in nature in certain locations - and is mixed with gravel and used to cover road surfaces). It can also be the third person singular of to tar (apply tar to something).

    Good luck with your efforts to increase your English vocabulary. Your written English is already very good actually!
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  • Profile picture of the author Serendipitous
    Originally Posted by Vogin View Post

    I know it's a simple matter of googling them, but not single one have known all the words, so, any recommendations?
    Macs have a built in dictionary but honestly, buy a printed dictionary off of Amazon or something or borrow one from the National Library.

    Hope this helps,

    ~S
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    • Profile picture of the author Vogin
      Originally Posted by BuckleyOnlineMarketing View Post

      For me the best way to gain a good vocabulary is to read a lot, however - books, magazines, online, whatever - it's all good.

      Good luck with your efforts to increase your English vocabulary. Your written English is already very good actually!
      I agree that reading is the key element, but more practice can never hurt Actually, the better I get in English, the more I know I have a lot of catching up to do still. Thanks for your explanations!

      Originally Posted by Serendipitous View Post

      Macs have a built in dictionary but honestly, buy a printed dictionary off of Amazon or something or borrow one from the National Library.

      Hope this helps,

      ~S
      The problem with classic printed dictionaries would be that online ones are much easier/quicker to search through - I have no problem with going through catalogs or alphabetical lists, but I usually look up like 30 words per day and even a mere additional minute would dramatically increase the time I usually allocate to this...
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  • Profile picture of the author scortillion
    I agree online one are faster, plus if you get close to the spelling it suggest words for you
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  • Profile picture of the author Radcliff
    Thanks for the site..I am not much good in English and I don't have enough vocabulary to write a good content article. I hope the site will help me to improve myself.
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  • Profile picture of the author Will Edwards
    • ates - can't help with this one
    • neats - go with taties ... erm no that's neaps on reflection
    • tars - plural of tar
    • ret - preparation of flax

    Ate, neat and tar are all words. Sounds like the program thinks that adding the letter 's' makes a valid plural but it doesn't in the case of neats and ates, but does in the case of tars.

    Will
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