Acquiring a vocabulary takes a lot of reading – a systematic reading of books and articles.
The English language contains words of many types – there are synonyms (words having the same meaning), homonyms (words that sound alike, but differ in meaning), acronyms (words consisting of sets of initials, such as NASA and NATO), antonyms (words of opposite meaning) and palindromes (words/phrases that read the same backwards and forwards) and onomatopoeic words (words similar to the sounds they describe).
Many words or phrases are also derived from numbers. Some common expressions are:
One liner – a short, funny remark
Second fiddle – play a supporting role
Third World – poor, underdeveloped countries
Fourth Estate – the press
Fifth column – a group of people working for the enemy
Sixth sense - intuition
There are many foreign words also that have found their way in the written form of the English language. Though most of these words are drawn from European languages such as French, German, Spanish and Italian, there is a fair sprinkling from Oriental languages such as Hebrew and Hindi.
Words from French are far too many to be enumerated. Some other common foreign words are bonanza, incommunicado, junta and peccadillo (Spanish), angst, ersatz, kaput, putsch, wunderkind and leitmotif (German), gung-ho (Chinese), kibbutz, shalom, kosher and chutzpa (Hebrew), tattoo (Polynesian), hara-kiri, haiku, samurai and tycoon (Japanese), juggernaut and nirvana (Hindi).
There are other sources of words as well – words taken from mythology, planets, place names, people names (names of great people), and colors.
Interestingly enough, there are also many words from the world of cooking. Some common examples are kebab (mutton cooked on skewers), consommé (clear soup), fondue (melted cheese), halva (honey and almond sweet), raita (curds & cucumber salad), ravioli (pasta with stuffing), samosa (crisp pastries fried/baked) and soufflé (dish of whisked eggs). It seems that when it comes to matters of the palette, we have truly acquired an international taste! So much so, that it is sometimes difficult to tell where the dishes in question originate from.
More summaries about the Article: Testing a Candidate'S Knowledge of Words