Become more articulate, well-read and improve your vocabulary with these eight awesome hobbies!
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Reading
Reading is an excellent hobby to improve your vocabulary and articulation skills!
Read books that are in a new area of interest or that are outside of your comfort level difficulty-wise.
Keep a dictionary nearby and lookup words that you don’t know.
Try to use those words later on in conversation to really speed up your vocabulary retention and knowledge.
Crossword Puzzles
A daily crossword puzzle is a time-tested and proven hobby to keep your mind sharp and increase your vocabulary skills.
Learn new words, boost your cognitive functioning and preserve your memory for years to come with crossword puzzles.
Not to mention, the feeling of accomplishment from completing a difficult crossword puzzle can boost your self-esteem and put a swagger in your step for the rest of the day.
Check out your local paper, or The New York Times Mega Book of Sunday Crosswords available from Amazon here to get started…
Writing Poetry
Expressing yourself creatively through poetry is a great hobby for improving your vocabulary.
Conveying emotion and finding the perfect rhyming word will not only expand your vocabulary but will also increase empathy and emotional intelligence.
Learning new words to incorporate into your poetry and using those words in your everyday conversations is a sure-fire way to improve your vocabulary.
Join a Club
The best way to improve your vocabulary and articulation skills is to practice conversing with people in real life!
Have conversations with strangers, dive into topics you’re not entirely educated on and see where things go.
Make special note of words that may come up that you don’t understand and look them up online or in the dictionary later.
Try joining a club or starting a new hobby and going to a meetup group.
We recommend MeetUp.com for finding new clubs in your area.
There’s sure to be a lot of jargon and terminology getting used that you won’t understand. That’s ok!
Conversing with people more educated on a topic that you are interested in is one of the quickest ways to improve your vocabulary.
Play Word Games
There are tons of popular word games that can help you to improve your vocabulary just by playing!
A few of our favorite word games include Scrabble, Quiddler, Bannangrams and Scattergories.
Each of these games offers their own challenges and exciting way to improve your vocabulary.
There are also tons of great mobile phone word games to improve your vocabulary including:
Check out our article, The 10 Best Word Games for Family Game Night, for more word game ideas!
Journaling
Journaling is a great hobby not just for your mental health and processing emotion, but also to improve your vocabulary.
Expressing yourself in written form is an excellent way to practice new words, expand your vocabulary and become a better communicator.
There are many different journaling and writing styles to explore including free-writing, diary-keeping, list-making and many more!
Check out our article on journaling for a full list of benefits, types of journaling and resources to get started!
Learn a New Language
Learning a new language is a great hobby for improving your vocabulary in other language as well as your own.
Understanding the nuances of another language can shed light on patterns and manners of speaking in your native tongue.
Learning a new language is a powerful way to improve your communication skills, vocabulary and critical thinking skills.
We recommend online language learning tools like:
Check out our full article on learning a new language for tips, resources and benefits here…
Watch Game Shows
Watching game shows is an excellent hobby for improving your vocabulary and learning new words.
Television shows like Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud, Tug-of-Words and lots more…
These game shows are fun to watch alone or with a friend and can improve your knowledge and vocabulary with little effort.
Not to mention, the competitive nature of these shows makes learning and improving your vocabulary and exciting endeavor!
