Vocabulary Made Easy series: Brush up your language skills to score well in exams

Reading helps students learn new words and is proven to help people improve their vocabulary.

Having a strong hold over one's language skills can help them in expressing better during exams. This can be an added factor to score better in exams. Students can improve their language skills in various ways. Reading helps them learn new words and is proven to help people improve their vocabulary.

Having a strong hold over one's language skills can help them in expressing better during exams. (Shutterstock)

Here's a way to improve your vocabulary and communication skills. Check out the words for the day and a small quiz to push yourself to improve your word power and language skills.

Boor (Noun)

Meaning: a rough and bad-mannered person

Example: At last the big obnoxious boor had been dealt a stunning blow for his uncouth and belligerent manner

Cloying (Adjective)

Meaning: excessively sweet, rich, or sentimental, especially to a disgusting or sickening degree

Example: It did not result in the best pie - it was cloying and overly sweet

Calumny (Noun)

Meaning: the making of false and defamatory statements about someone in order to damage their reputation; slander

Example: It would be a calumny on the reputation of that great man to suggest it

Declivity (Noun)

Meaning: a downward slope

Example: When he walked, he walked as though he went down a declivity

Coterie (Noun)

Meaning: a small group of people with shared interests or tastes, especially one that is exclusive of other people

Example: He has numerous houses in several countries and embraces a coterie of celebrity friends

Deride (Verb)

Meaning: express contempt for; ridicule

Example: The decision was derided by environmentalists

Din (Noun)

Meaning: a loud, unpleasant, and prolonged noise

Example: I could barely hear the announcement above the din

Eschew (Verb)

Meaning: deliberately avoid using; abstain from

Example: He appealed to the crowd to eschew violence

Fetid (Adjective)

Meaning: smelling extremely unpleasant

Example: The fetid water of the marsh

Put your thinking cap on and try to answer the following questions to understand how much you have grasped.

1. They ______________ political discussion. Which of the following words fits best in the sentence? ( Eschew, Fetid)
2. I couldn't talk to him at the party. There was such a _______. Which of the following words fits best in the sentence? ( Din, Deride)
3. Can you think of some antonyms for the words Coterie and Declivity?
4. Can you think of some synonyms for the words Cloying and Calumny?

Watch out for this space for your weekly update on improving word power.

(Definitions and examples are from Oxford Languages)