Your KEYS to a BETTER VOCABULARY
To see how the English Vocabulary Quick Reference works, click on the page numbers in the diagram below. You will find "pedagogy" in the "ped" list on page 9 as well as in the "agog" list on page 180.

On page 300 you will find "science of teaching" as it appears in the Keyword Section. The Keyword Section is a reverse dictionary generated from the main Dictionary Section.

The English Vocabulary Quickreference is the only book of its kind. The only book that gives you a complete list of all the words that contain each word root. Try the tutorial to see how word roots work and how helpful they can be to learning vocabulary.

Select the Reviews button to read the great reviews this book has received, such as School Library Journal and others.
Click here to See How It Works
Diagram of How It Works

 

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

The Vocabulary Quick Reference begins with a primary root index that lists 260 word roots. All prefixes and suffixes are considered to be roots. They are simply roots that occur at the beginning or end of a word. Each root in this section is followed by a page number that indicates the page in the dictionary section where the root can be found.

In the dictionary section, each root is followed by a comprehensive list of words that contain that root. The number of words following each root varies and is limited to those words found in a standard desk dictionary such as Webster's New World, American Heritage, or Webster's 10th New Collegiate. The words in the lists that follow each root are referred to as main entries. If a main entry contains more than one primary root, that main entry appears in more than one list. The secondary root index in the last section of the book includes a list of over 500 additional roots for which no lists were made. These are generally less common roots, but still very important to the etymology of the main entries in the dictionary section.

For each main entry in the dictionary section, the etymology follows the word and the definition follows the etymology. The pronunciation is located after the definition. If the main entry is in red, it was found in a student dictionary such as Webster's High School Dictionary, Thorndike-Barnhart Student Dictionary, or Macmillan's Dictionary for Students and is therefore considered to be a very common word. The main entries in red are very likely to appear on the SAT and other college entrance exams.

The words in blue within each definition are called keywords because they are the most important part of the definition. They are essentially a shorter definition imbedded within the complete definition. These keywords in blue are compiled into a long alphabetical list that comprises the keyword section of the Vocabulary Quick Reference. This comprehensive list of keywords brings the meanings of all the main entries in the dictionary section into one list that groups many related words together.

The red keywords in the keyword section correspond to the red main entries in the dictionary section. If the main entry was red in the dictionary section, its keywords will be red in the keywords section. This is to enable the user to easily pick out the more common words while reading through the keyword section.

The main entry index lists all the main entries and the page numbers they appear on in the dictionary section. This list can be used when the user knows the word to be looked up and just needs the page number.

Braces { } are used in the dictionary section to indicate a short definition or explanation for the preceding word or syllable. See decare on page 163 and the pronunciation for regress on page 97.

Colored tabs are provided for quick access to the dictionary, keywords, and main entry index sections.

The introduction to the Vocabulary Quick Reference appears on page i and the pronunciation key appears on page iv.