Real self-improvement is doing the activities that most people would rather avoid. It could be waking up a little earlier, exercising a bit longer, or going where few ever go to improve their writing: the dictionary.

When I misbehaved as a kid, writing out sections of the dictionary was the way my father punished me. At the time, I wished he’d have chosen any other means of discipline. Throw out my Xbox, no television for a week, make me eat broccoli, anything but that dictionary I’d think. Little did I know how much this book improved my vocabulary.

It’s where I learned words such as…

• Vidilecit — a synonym for “namely”
• Autodidact — a self-taught person.
• Faux pas — a significant or embarrassing error or mistake

Reading plenty of books can work wonders for your vocabulary and sentence structure, as many writers will tell you. But as I grew up I began to realize there’s no other book with as many unique words as a dictionary.

You can read War and Peace or Lord of the Rings (both excellent books by the way) until your face turns blue. Yet you won’t ever learn the word axinomancy (the placement of an ax, hatchet or saw into the ground or stump of tree).

The dictionary isn’t dead. In fact, in 2020 when our lexicon seems to be diminishing due to our reliance on technology, a dictionary can be the most resourceful tool you have.

No Longer a Book for High Brow Readers

Up until the early 1960s, dictionaries were reserved for writers and intellectual snobs. Instead of defining words, Webster’s Second Edition Dictionary seemed to pass judgment on the English language.

Many sociocultural terms were excluded from this edition of the book and sexual terms were suppressed or warped. If you were to look up the word “horny,” you’d find a definition for something to do with actual horns.

Simply put, the book was out of touch.

But in 1961, Philip Gove and his team of lexicographers revolutionized the book forever. According to unbabel, “Gove believed that dictionaries should be descriptive, rather than prescriptive — that they should capture how people use language, instead of telling them how to use it.” Some called the third edition the most controversial dictionary ever published. Videlicet, the word “ain’t” caused news publications like The New York Times and The Atlantic to predict the hastened decline of the English language. Instead, the changes Gove implemented laid the groundwork for how dictionaries are created today.

Today, words enter the dictionary the more people use it. The more a word is used in blogs, comment sections, status updates, and podcasts, the more likely for a lexicographer to stumble upon it.

This has led to a few eye-rolling terms being included in contemporary dictionaries:

• Derp — (exclamation) used as a substitute for speech regarded as meaningless or stupid, or to comment on a foolish or stupid action
• Guac— (noun) short for guacamole, i.e. “Did someone say tacos and guac?”(example used on Webster’s online dictionary)
• TL;DR — (acronym) too long; didn’t read — used to say that something would require too much time to read

These cringe-worthy terms give credence to critics of Grove and his methodology. But with words like “gif, broadband, Facebook,” and “Audible” being added as well, the argument can also be made that the modern dictionary is overseeing the evolution of the English language.

Write Out Ten Words a Day

As a lifelong athlete, the most common mistake I see with beginner gym-goers is burning out. They commit to crazy schedules of working out for hours, not ever once considering sustainability or longevity.

This is why you need to pace yourself when approaching the dictionary. At 2,726 pages and almost 14 pounds, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary is perhaps the most intimidating book in existence.

If I told you right now to read it all by the end of the month or you die; you’d likely start working on funeral arrangements. Thankfully, the current and eleventh edition is much lighter and available online.

Instead of rushing through the dictionary to find sophisticated or bizarre words, take the book page by page — revel in the experience. Write the words down, understand them, and only after that can you continue to the next page. Unless you have a photographic memory, you‘ll likely forget some, if not most of these words. But this isn’t the point of writing out a dictionary. The point is to gain recognition and a real feel for words you never even knew existed.

As a child being forced to copy out large parts of the dictionary, my confidence as a reader soared. I started tackling books from H.P. Lovecraft and David Foster Wallace; two authors I previously gave up on.

But as a writer, the dictionary allowed me to lock onto words that struck my fancy. “Videlicet” and “autodidactic” are two words I continue to use in my conversations and more importantly, my writing.

You’re bound to find a few words that will become staples in your writing.

Start with writing out 10 words a day. You can go with an “a through z” approach or flip to random pages. Either way, make sure you get your 10 words in.

Final Thoughts

In an interview for the Paris Review, Ernest Hemingway was asked how much rewriting he does.

“It depends. I rewrote the last page of A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times before I was satisfied,” said Hemingway.

“Was there some technical problem there,” the interviewer asked. “What was it that had stumped you?”

“Getting the words right,” Hemingway replied.

Words are everything in our work and you can only build your confidence in them with familiarization. Expose yourself to new words every day and do it through the unglamorous task of copying out a dictionary.

After all, words clicking in the minds of our readers is what every writer ultimately chases.