Vocabulary Mnemonics

Welcome to the home of Vocabulary Mnemonics! Your hosts, Matt and Dr. Mom, have long been intrigued by words, and our hope is to share with anyone and everyone some of our tricks for remembering the elucidations of recondite units of the English lexicon😊. Appropriately, the first word we will discuss is “mnemonics.”

Mnemonics are memory tricks or strategies people use to remember things. On the Vocabulary Mnemonics podcast, we focus specifically on helping our listeners remember the definitions of lesser-known but nonetheless good-to-know words. We don’t aim to teach strict dictionary definitions, necessarily, though these are not bad to know. Rather, we hope listeners will grasp the gist of our vocabulary choices such that they feel comfortable and confident using those words in their everyday lives. (This is the true test of whether you “know” a word: Do you dare to try it out in your world?)

With this aim in mind, we devise mnemonics based on certain tried-and-true criteria.  We share these criteria with you now by way of, appropriately, a mnemonic device. The device is a common one: an acronym. The acronym is V-O-C-A-B.

Components of a Great Mnemonic

V is for vivid. Think sharply focused, imaginable, even colorful. It’s always best if the memory trick is something you can picture in your mind.

O is for obvious. By this we mean the mnemonic incorporates a feature of the word or a concept that logically follows. For example, think of the concept of “parallel” from the domain of geometry. To remember that this word refers to lines that run side by side but never intersect, one need look no further than the word itself. The two letters “l” in the middle run side by side and never intersect. The mnemonic literally depicts the meaning.

C is for creative, clever, and/or catchy. (I like them all here!) Basically, we tend to remember things that are new, unusual, or novel because they are less likely to get lost among similar things. Spotting a blueberry in a bowl of strawberries is easier than finding a raspberry.

A is for alliterative. Dover, Delaware, or Honolulu, Hawaii, are more memorable than Bismarck, North Dakota or Lansing, Michigan. This criterion can also nicely include other easy-on-the-ears grabbers like rhymes and rhythm.

B is for bizarre. Yes, this one might feel like it overlaps with creative and/or contradicts obvious. The idea, however, is that if you paint a picture in your mind that comes right out of a Far Side cartoon, that’s okay. It will stick as long as it relates. For example, to remember Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania, I taught my History students to think “pencil” when they heard Pennsylvania (directly relates), and make the pencil all hairy (the bizarre part). The weirdness did the trick for most kids.

We should note that, though we do our best, few mnemonics we create meet all these criteria. The more, the better, of course, but sometimes one good hook does the trick. You likely have your own “go-to” mnemonics, so please view these as potential additions to your supply.  As a matter of fact, we would love to hear your great ideas, so please share below!