Vocabulary flash cards have the vocabulary word on one side and the word's definition on the other. Practice recognizing the word from its definition or associating the definition with the word. You can work with flash cards on your own or enlist a friend or family member to quiz you on vocabulary terms. Making your own flash cards from index cards will help reinforce vocabulary words in your mind; because you're familiarizing yourself with the word from writing as well as on sight, you'll reinforce your understanding of the new vocabulary word.
People pick up much of their understanding of a word from context. The word "set" has multiple meanings, but readers easily pick out the proper meaning based on the words surrounding it. Read writing that exceeds your current vocabulary and make guesses about unfamiliar words from context. Write these words down and look them up in the dictionary after you finish the article or story and see how close you came to the new words' meanings.
The English language borrows heavily from other languages. Once you become familiar with the roots, prefixes and suffixes that English has inherited from other tongues, you will be able to make an educated guess at a new word's meaning or pick its proper definition from among multiple choices. These roots can give you a vivid mental picture of a word's meaning. For example, the word "extortion" comes from the prefix "ex-," meaning "away," and the root "tort," which means "twist." The mental image of someone wrenching money from another person's hand or of wringing someone dry might help fix the meaning of the word in your mind. Latin and Greek roots make up the majority of scientific terms, so these roots will help your scientific knowledge as well as your general vocabulary.
Mnemonic devices rely on using simple, memorable phrases or jingles to memorize more-difficult terms. While mnemonics may not help you recall a word's meaning readily, they can help you recall a proper spelling. "I before E except after C, or as an A as in 'neighbor' or 'weigh' " is a mnemonic that children learn in grammar school. Make up your own mnemonic devices to memorize challenging vocabulary words.
Memorizing vocabulary for a test may help you for a short time, but to add words to your permanent vocabulary, you'll need to use them regularly. Think of synonyms and antonyms for the term and replace them in common phrases. If you wanted to add the word "remuneration" to your vocabulary, you might think of pay day as "remuneration day" instead.