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How Playing Word Games Can Improve Your Vocabulary



Learning new vocabulary is not just something that happens in your school days, but can continue throughout your life if you work at it. There are many ways to build your vocabulary from looking through a dictionary to reading books regularly, but the newest and most entertaining way to learn new words is by playing word games. Read below to see how playing word games can improve your vocabulary while also providing you with entertainment and variety.


Engaging Cognition

Unlike some mindless games that require minimal brain activity, word games engage thinking and require a person’s full attention in order for them to achieve their objectives. Some word games that you can download as apps onto your phone will make you find words in a word bank or make as many words as possible with a select number of letters. Sometimes these games are even set with time restraints so that you push your brain to the limit to try to solve the puzzles or fill in the answers quickly. These games serve as little brain exercises that will help keep you sharp and prevent memory loss down the road.  


Expanding Your Mental Word Bank

Playing word games is a painless way to gradually integrate new vocabulary into your life.

As you can see at https://unscrambledwords.org/, by using online word game tools, you will find yourself using longer and more complex words than ever before when you play games like Scrabble with your family and friends. When you play these games with others, you will also learn from them as they use words you may have never heard of. This can lead to an exchange of words as you teach them some and they teach you others. 


These word games are designed so that players will be exposed to complex letters that make complex words, leading to breakthroughs in understanding. When you are organically introduced to these words, you will begin to see yourself using them in the context of daily life. You may even start to experience the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon which happens when a person learns something new and then they begin to see that thing everywhere they go. When you add a new word to your mental word bank, you may begin to see it in newspaper articles, on TV, and in books even though you had thought that you had never seen it before. This repetition of recognition will solidify the word in your head so you can move on to learning the next one.  


Learning Words in Context

Instead of reading through a page of words in a dictionary or using flashcards to try to memorize definitions, most word games put words into context. This helps your brain to more easily associate each new word with how it fits into conversation. It is a more natural way of learning language than forcing it down your throat one word at a time. When you play a game that requires you to fully understand the meaning of a word in order to use it, you become accustomed to using it in sentences because you are doing it repeatedly for the sake of the game. 


Learning While Having Fun

Many word games come in the form of board games like Scrabble and Boggle, making them a fun pastime for groups of people like families. When playing games like this with young children, you show them that improving their vocabulary can be fun. This will instill in young minds how important it is to always be inspired to learn and that you are never too old to learn new words in your own language. This is a much better way of developing new vocabulary than traditional study methods. Some word games may even allow the players to input a list of words that they want to practice that can be integrated into the game. This way they can learn without the feeling that they are studying. Pair this with fun graphics and multiplayer modes and learning can become fun for the whole family.



Improving Spelling and Pronunciation

When playing word games, you have a visual representation of each word laid out in front of you. This is helpful for people who know words and can speak them but have never actually sat down and written them before. Knowing how to spell a word is key to having full knowledge of it and its uses as well as helping you to know how to pronounce it correctly. 


Why Improve Your Vocabulary?

Cognitive Benefits

Continuing to learn throughout your life will keep your brain active, leading to more years of lucidity and cognition. As you get older, your brain will start to lose its ability to hold memories and learn new things. You can delay that decline if you work your brain every day by doing things like word games.


Enhanced Communication Skills

Being able to speak to anyone about anything is a valued skill that can come from having an advanced vocabulary. When you have a big vocabulary bank in your head, it is easier for you to form thoughts and express ideas than if you only have a limited vocabulary.


Better Understanding of the World

With an expanded vocabulary, you can go out into the world and understand more about what people are saying. From philosophers to politicians, you will be able to listen to a person speak and know exactly what they are talking about. By learning vocabulary from other English-speaking regions, you will also have an enhanced knowledge of local customs and traditions from around the world, giving you a more enriched worldview. 



Making daily word games a part of your routine will help you to see an improvement in the variety of vocabulary you use. Friends and relatives will start to notice and point out the big words you are using and may ask you how you are learning them. You can then explain how fun and easy it is to play word games either in the form of board games or on their devices in the form of apps. Soon you and everyone around you will be competing to see who has the most complex vocabulary around.

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