The best place to find everyday vocabulary words is the newspaper. Your town or city should print one, and they may even run an online version that you can access for free. Unless it's a high-end newspaper, newspaper articles generally use vocabulary at a high school or lower level. Novels are another way to absorb new vocabulary naturally. Choose novels that are engaging and fun to read.
At the library or in educational stores you can find books specifically designed to help you learn new vocabulary. These books have already selected and organized relevant words for you and may even include exercises, quizzes or word games to help you remember new vocabulary. You can also find a vast selection of vocabulary books online delivered right to your home.
Parsing new words, or identifying their parts of speech, is essential to learning new words. In order to use the word in a sentence, you must know if it is a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, etc. Additionally, most words can form more than one part of speech. For example, "form," "formal" and "formally" are all words which share the same root meaning, but all represent different parts of speech.
Write a new vocabulary word on an index or note card and then write the definition, part of speech and a sample sentence on the back. Practice trying to guess the definition on the other side. This simple exercise can be done by yourself or in a classroom setting. Engage small children in this activity by making it into a game or competition.
Make an effort to use your new vocabulary words in your everyday reading and writing. Practice writing sample sentences for each new word. Keep a journal and force yourself to use your new vocabulary words in your entries. Try using new words in conversation. Once you are able to naturally recall a word and then use it, you will never forget it.