Vocabulary Made Easy series: Guide to hone your word power

Vocabulary skills help you think clearly and put your ideas much more easily.

For students preparing for competitive exams, having good control over vocabulary is important. It helps you think clearly and put your ideas much easily, especially in tasks like essay writing, comprehension passages or even understanding complex questions during exams.

In tasks like essay writing, comprehension passages or even understanding complex questions during exams having good control over vocabulary skills can help you.

Here are some words for the day that you can use to hone your vocabulary skills.

• Abeyance (Noun)

Meaning: a state of temporary disuse or suspension

Example: All property rights in the property to which the order relates lie in abeyance

• Abstemious (Adjective)

Meaning: indulging only very moderately in something, especially food and drink

Example: He was a hard-working man with abstemious habits.

• Affable (Adjective)

Meaning: friendly, good-natured, or easy to talk to

Example: I admired his affable charm and winning smile

• Ambiguous (Adjective)

Meaning: open to more than one interpretation; not having one obvious meaning

Example: It was an ambiguous sentence that could be taken in two ways

Here's a little quiz to work up your mind

• Can you think of 5 synonyms for the word affable?
• Austere, self-indulgent and intemperate. Which among these words is another word for abstemious?

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

(Definitions and examples are from Oxford Languages)