Vocabulary

Vocabulary CurriculumVocabulary Resources

Vocabulary (voh-kab-yuh-ler-ee) -noun, plural = laries
  1. The stock of words used by or known to a particular people or group of persons: His Spanish vocabulary is limited. Technical vocabulary is always expanding.
  2. A list or collection of the words or phrases of a language, technical field, etc., usually arranged in alphabetical order and defined: Study the vocabulary in the third chapter of your textbook.
  3. The words of a language
  4. Any collection of signs or symbols constituting a means or system of nonverbal communication: vocabulary of a computer
  5. Any more or less specific group of forms characteristic of an artist, a style of art, architecture, or the like
[origin: ML vocabularium, n. use of neut. of vocabularius of words, equiv. to L vocabul(um) or "word" + arius or "pertaining to"]

As a young student, I was once given a large hardcover children's dictionary. It was full of brightly colored pictures and had about twenty words per page. I was fascinated by the book and spent hours reading the definitions. Later on, I read quite a bit and thus gained a decent familiarity with words. Occasionally I would ask my mother the question, "What does this word mean?" And she would invariably answer, "Go look it up!" Sometimes I followed through and did, but mostly my lazy side would win out and I wouldn't bother to look up the meaning. While I did have spelling exercises, and I was usually required to look up the definitions of the words on my spelling lists, that was pretty much the extent of my formal vocabulary training. That background has proven to be perfectly adequate for my daily life, but it was a haphazard approach to vocabulary.

By contrast, a number of my friends learned Latin as children—or at least learned Latin and Greek roots. There have been several instances when we have together come across words that we didn't know. I had to search for a dictionary to look it up; they were able to make an educated guess at the meaning of the word, saying, "that root means this, and this root means that, so the word must mean something like..." How I covet that skill!

To be sure, we'll function just fine without learning word roots. In our modern age of computers and the Internet, we have dictionaries galore at our fingertips, and can quickly find the meaning of a word if we need it. But with so much of the English language derived from classical roots (many other languages are, too!), it seems wise to pursue knowledge of those roots. Therefore, nearly all the curricula we carry are root-based.

The main exception to this is the Wordly Wise 3000 series, which teaches a carefully selected list of 3,000 words culled from current popular literature and high-stakes tests.

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23 Items found Print
Active Filters: 9th grade (Ages 14-15), Used Books & Materials
Analogies 2
by Arthur Liebman
from Educators Publishing Service
for 9th-10th grade
in EPS Analogies (Location: LOG-EPS)
$7.00 (2 in stock)
Artful Nuance
by Rod L. Evans, Ph.D.
from Perigee Books
for 6th-Adult
in Vocabulary Resources (Location: REF-VOC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
English 9 - Homeschool Curriculum Lesson Plans
2nd edition from A Beka Books
for 9th grade
in A Beka Grammar & Writing (Location: GRA-ABK)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Illustrated Word Smart
by Tom Meltzer
1st edition from Princeton Review
for 9th-12th grade
in Clearance: English & Language Arts (Location: ZCLE-LAN)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Insider's Complete Guide to SAT Vocabulary
by Larry Krieger & Vinay Bhaskara
from Insider Test Prep
for 9th-12th grade
in Vocabulary Resources (Location: REF-VOC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Jensen's Format Writing
by Frode Jensen
3rd edition from Wordsmiths
Writing Curriculum for 7th-12th grade
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Jensen's Grammar - Text & Answer Key
by Frode Jensen
from Wordsmiths
for 7th-12th grade
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Megawords 1 - Teacher's Guide and Answer Key
by Kristin Johnson & Polly Bayrd
2nd edition from Educators Publishing Service
for 4th-10th grade
in Megawords (Location: SPE-MEGA)
$25.69 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Megawords 6 - Teacher's Guide and Answer Key
by Kristin Johnson & Polly Bayrd
2nd edition from Educators Publishing Service
for 4th-10th grade
in Megawords (Location: SPE-MEGA)
$25.69 $10.00 (1 in stock)
Megawords 7
by Kristin Johnson & Polly Bayrd
2nd edition from Educators Publishing Service
for 4th-10th grade
in Megawords (Location: SPE-MEGA)
$18.49 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Viking Vocabulary Building Exercises
by Grant Fontenot
from Thinking Tree
for 9th-12th grade
in Single-Volume Writing Curriculums (Location: WRI-1VOL)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Vocabulary Builder Workbook
by Chris Lele
from Zephyros Press
for 9th-12th grade
in Vocabulary Resources (Location: REF-VOC)
$6.00 (2 in stock)
Vocabulary Cartoons: SAT Word Power
by Sam Burchers
4th edition from New Monic Books
for 9th-12th grade
in Vocabulary Resources (Location: REF-VOC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Vocabulary From Classical Roots C
by Nancy Flowers & Norma Fifer
from Educators Publishing Service
for 9th grade
Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
in Vocabulary From Classical Roots (Location: VOC-VCR)
$18.69 $9.50 (1 in stock)
Vocabulary From Classical Roots C - Teacher's Guide
by Nancy Flowers & Norma Fifer
from Educators Publishing Service
for 9th grade
Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
in Vocabulary From Classical Roots (Location: VOC-VCR)
$5.00 (2 in stock)
Vocabulary From Classical Roots C - Tests
by Norma Fifer & Stephen Weislogel
from Educators Publishing Service
for 9th grade
in Vocabulary From Classical Roots (Location: VOC-VCR)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
Vocabulary, Spelling, Poetry III - Quiz Key
6th edition from A Beka Books
for 9th grade
in A Beka Spelling & Vocabulary (Location: SPE-ABK)
$13.00 (1 in stock)
Vocabulary, Spelling, Poetry III - Teacher Key
6th edition from A Beka Books
for 9th grade
in A Beka Spelling & Vocabulary (Location: SPE-ABK)
$20.00 (1 in stock)
Vocabulary, Spelling, Poetry III - Workbook
6th edition from A Beka Books
for 9th grade
in A Beka Spelling & Vocabulary (Location: SPE-ABK)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Word Roots A1 (old)
by Cherie Blanchard
from Critical Thinking Books
for 4th-12th grade
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Word Roots B2 (old)
by Cherie Blanchard
from Critical Thinking Books
for 7th-12th grade
in Clearance: English & Language Arts (Location: ZCLE-LAN)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
Wordly Wise 3000 Book 9 - Teacher's Resource Book
by Kenneth Hodkinson & Sandra Adams
4th edition from Educators Publishing Service
for 9th grade
in Wordly Wise 3000 Vocabulary (Location: VOC-WW3K)
$35.00 (1 in stock)
Words You Should Know
by David Olsen
from Adams Media Corp.
for 6th-10th grade
in Writing Reference (Location: REF-WRI)
$6.00 (1 in stock)