Learning new words gives you new ways to think. A bigger vocabulary is a bigger room for your mind.

Words are the handles you use to pick up ideas. Without a name for something, it stays a vague feeling you cannot examine or explain, and the moment you learn the term, you start noticing the thing everywhere. Vocabulary is less about sounding educated than about how finely you can think.

When you meet a word you half know, look it up properly rather than moving past it. Use it that week. Each one adds a little more precision to what you are able to notice and say.