Focus on Vocabulary: Relate Words

Synonyms are words that have nearly the same meaning. For example, one word might create a stronger feeling than its synonym does. Knowing the exact meanings of synonyms can help you better understand what you read.

EXAMPLE

The Great Lakes are all big, but Lake Superior is enormous.

How the Strategy Works

The more words you know about an idea, the better you’ll understand what people say and the better you will be able to express yourself.

  • 1. Whenever you read, take time to learn new words.

  • 2. Put words into groups, or categories. This web shows two categories of words related to water.

    Illustration of a word web showing three connected circles going from left to right

  • 3. Then use a Synonym Scale to rank words in the same category in order of their strength.

    Synonym Scale

    Synonym Scale

Use the strategy to sort out shades of meaning for the underlined words.

Rain in Washington

Washington State is known for its damp climate. Every year, it rains an average of 38 inches. In 1996, however, the state was drenched. That year, Seattle had almost 51 inches of rain. The ground was soaked. A few years later, in 2000, Seattle had only about 29 inches of rain. It was still a moist year, but it was tolerable.

Strategy in Action

“ Damp and drenched both describe a shade of wet, but drenched is much stronger. 1996 was a very wet year in Washington!”

Illustration of the check icon REMEMBER Knowing the exact meaning of synonyms will help you understand what you read.

Academic Vocabulary

  • • category (ka-tu-gor-ē) noun A category is a group of items that are related in some way.