Welcome to Vocabulary Mnemonics — we’re thrilled you’ve found us! We’re a community of word-lovers and life-long learners, and we could always use another inquisitive and precocious member.
Our mission is simple: to help you remember words forever.
We don’t care if you’re obdurate, jejune, or even mulish (yes, it’s a word — stubborn like a mule). We believe our unique and fun approach can teach you GRE test words, tricky medical terms, Latin and Greek phrases, and more… and help them stick in your head for the long haul.
Our Strategy
First and foremost, we use mnemonics.
Whether or not you’ve heard that term, you’ve probably used mnemonics before. For example, maybe you met someone with shaggy hair named Paul. He kind of looked like Paul McCartney, so that’s how you remembered his name.
That, in a nutshell, is a mnemonic. It’s an association that helps you remember something.
When it comes to memorizing vocabulary, mnemonics are a dream come true. We’ve found that you can use them on just about ANY word.
For example, take the word “hirsute” (pronounced hir-SOOT). It’s a fancy way of saying someone is hairy.
It also happens to sound a lot like “hair suit.” So, to remember what it means, just picture a hirsute guy walking around town in a hair suit.
Or take the word “desiccate.” It means “to dry up,” as in a lake that’s been desiccated by the sun. How can you remember that? Simply change the middle of the word to “suck,” making it “de-suck-ate.” Now you can always remember that it means to suck something dry.
Pretty neat, right? These are just a few examples. In our podcast and all throughout the website you’ll find many more examples.
Mnemonics Are Just the Start
But mnemonics are just part of our approach. We use several other techniques that are proven to work just as well.
As a professional Ad Man, Matt is enveloped in memory techniques (surrounded by them). They’re integral, indispensable… perhaps even the sine qua non of his work (“without which, none”). He’s well-versed in the techniques advertisers use to get you to remember their brands.
Dr. Mom is even better-qualified to teach you. During her graduate work, she studied memory and performed real-life studies on ways to boost recall. Memory was a prominent component of her dissertation.
In other words, the techniques we share with you are scientifically proven to boost recall.
Of course, can we guarantee you’ll remember every word we teach you, for the rest of your life? Of course not. You may still have instances of L’esprit de l’escalier (not remembering a clever reply until it’s too late).
But we can guarantee that you’ll have all the tools you need to boost your vocabulary like never before… and have a lot of fun in the process.
So please, jump in! Listen to the podcast, read the articles, participate in group discussions. And most importantly, subscribe to our newsletter by adding your email below — that way you’ll never have to worry about missing a thing.
We’re excited to join you on this new adventure.
As Mark Zusak, author of The Book Thief, says, “The best word shakers were the ones who understood the true power of words. They were the ones who could climb the highest.”
Vocabulary Mnemonics 