English Vocabulary

Improve Your English Vocabulary With Compound Words

Compound words are when two or more words are put together to form a new word with a new meaning.

There are three forms of compound words:

• the closed form, where the words are together
  (notebook, keyboard, basketball)
• the hyphenated form
  (six-pack, mother-in-law, check-in)
• the open form, where the words are separated by a space
  (post office, real estate, vice president)

For some words, both the open form and the hyphenated forms are acceptable (light-year, light year), and for some words both the hyphenated and the closed form are acceptable (easy-going, easygoing).

Sometimes compound words are easy to understand: a bookstore is a store that sells books; a dishwasher is a machine that washes dishes.

But others might not be so obvious; for example, brainstorm – an intense process where you think of many different ideas, or scapegoat – meaning someone who bears the blame for others.

This word is from “escape” + “goat,” and its origin is in the Bible, which describes a ritual in which a goat symbolically took on the sins (the bad actions) of the people, and was then sent out into the wild to die.

In today’s webinar, I’m going to go through the alphabet A to Z and teach you one or two interesting compound words starting with each letter.

AFTERMATH (N.)

So, is “aftermath” what happens after your mathematics class? No – this word refers to the effects or consequences after an event (usually a tragic one, like a war). The aftermath of an earthquake would include many collapsed buildings, injured people, etc.

BACKFIRE (V.)

What does it mean for something to backfire? Well, imagine shooting a gun, but the bullet comes out the back instead of the front – not good, right? If something backfires, it goes wrong and has the opposite effect than intended. If a company launches a TV commercial to increase sales, but the TV commercial is offensive and sales decrease instead, then you could say the commercial backfired.

CLOUDBURST (N.)

You probably already know that this is a cloud, and to “burst” means to explode – so a cloudburst is a sudden, heavy rainfall, when rain starts falling very quickly without warning. Another compound word for heavy, continuous rain is a downpour because rain is just pouring down out of the sky!

DAREDEVIL (N.)

Someone who is “daring” is bold, courageous. And this is a devil – well, a drawing of a devil, anyway. Devils are considered bad. So a daredevil is a person who is very bold but in a risky or dangerous way – for example, someone who does rock climbing without any ropes or protective equipment!

EYELID / EYE SHADOW / EYELASH / EYEBROW (N.)

Now I’m going to teach you four words related to your eyes. The small fold of skin that covers your eyes when you close them is your eyelid.

Women like to decorate their eyelids with a type of makeup called eye shadow. The tiny hairs on your eyelids are your eyelashes, and the line of hairs above your eye is your eyebrow.

FROSTBITE (N.)

The word “frost” refers to tiny ice crystals, and to bite is to cut something with your teeth. Put the two together and you get frostbite – an injury when your skin is exposed to extreme cold for too long, and the cold destroys the tissues. Sometimes people with frostbite have their fingers or toes amputated because the damage is too great.

frost on a leaf

GREENHOUSE (N.)

A greenhouse is a structure especially used for growing plants. It’s usually made of glass so that the temperature and humidity can be controlled.

HOMEMADE / HANDMADE (ADJ.)

How would you like some homemade cherry pie? The adjective homemade means it was made by a person at home, not by a factory or by a big company.

Similar to that is handmade, which describes something made by hand, not by a machine. We usually use homemade for food and handmade for objects.

IRONCLAD (ADJ.)

“Ironclad” literally means to be covered in the metal called iron. A battleship can be ironclad. But it’s often used metaphorically, for example an ironclad rule or ironclad protection – meaning something that is fixed and can’t be broken.

JELLY BEANS (N.)

This one’s pretty self-explanatory: a type of candy that’s like a bean made out of jelly is a jelly bean!

KILLJOY (N.)

A killjoy is a person who ruins other people’s fun or pleasure. If your office normally celebrates people’s birthday parties, but then there’s a new manager who says you can’t have parties anymore, he’s a killjoy.

LIGHTHEADED / LIGHTHEARTED (ADJ.)

To be lighthearted is to be happy and free from worries, trouble, or stress. But feeling lightheaded is not so nice – it means you feel dizzy, like you might lose consciousness.

MILESTONE (N.)

When you’re driving along the highway, you sometimes see small signs that show how many miles (or kilometers) you’ve traveled. We actually call these signs “mile markers,” but the word milestone is used metaphorically to describe an important point in a process.

If your goal is to be fluent in English, and you pass a B2 upper-intermediate level exam, you’ve reached a milestone – you’re not finished yet, but you’ve accomplished a significant goal.

NEWBORN, NEWLYWEDS, NEWCOMER, NEWBIE (N.)

A baby that has just recently been born is a newborn, and two people who have just recently been married are newlyweds.

Someone who has recently arrived at an event or in a social group is a newcomer, and a newbie is a slang word for someone who is just beginning some activity and doesn’t have much knowledge or experience yet.

OUTLAW (N., V.)

The word outlaw actually has two different meanings. A person who is an outlaw is a criminal, usually one who is running away from the police and trying to avoid being captured.

The verb outlaw means to prohibit something by law – for example, if your country outlaws talking on your cell phone while driving, it means that it’s now illegal and you will be punished if you do it.

PANHANDLE (V.)

This is a pan and this is its handle – but the verb panhandle means to approach someone and ask for money or food – to beg. Maybe the word panhandle began to be used in this way because the beggars used pans to collect the money; I’m not sure.

QUARTERBACK (N., V.)

In American football, the quarterback is the name of the player who controls the strategy for play; he directs the rest of the team on what to do.

But quarterback is also used informally for the action of leading/directing any operation: the marketing department of a company needs someone to quarterback the new ad campaign.

RUNAWAY (N., ADJ.) / RUNWAY (N.)

The work runaway refers to a person or animal that has escaped – you can have a runaway elephant that has gotten out of the zoo. Don’t get runaway confused with runway, which is the road that an airplane uses to gain speed before taking off.

SHIPWRECK (N.)

When a ship sailing in the ocean crashes into the rocks, this is called a shipwreck. We also use the word shipwreck for the destroyed remains of the ship, which may be underwater.

For ships, we only use the word shipwreck; for cars and trains, we can say car crash / train crash OR car wreck / train wreck; and for airplanes, we always say plane crash (never “wreck.”)

TIEBREAKER (N.)

When two teams are playing each other and the score ends in an equal number like 2-2 or 5-5, this is called a tie. But in many games and contests, we need one winner – so an extra activity called a tiebreaker is done to “break” the tie and determine the champion. (In sports like soccer and basketball, this is often called overtime).

UPCOMING (ADJ.)

This word is used to describe an event that is coming up in the future: if a presidential election will be held next month, you could call it “the upcoming election.”

VINEYARD (N.)

A vine is a type of plant that “climbs” up a surface as it grows. Grapes grow on vines. And a yard is an area of land – so a vineyard is an area where grapes are grown, especially for the purpose of producing wine.

WHOLESALE (ADJ.) / WAREHOUSE (N.)

Sometimes companies buy very large quantities of items from a manufacturer, in order to get a discount. This is called buying wholesale.

The great number of items can then be stored in a warehouse – a building especially for storage of things that are not being used at the moment – until they are sold.

YEARBOOK (N.)

Many high schools and colleges publish a book at the end of the school year, with pictures and information about the things that happened during that year. This is called a yearbook.

ZIGZAG (ADJ.)

Something that is zigzag follows a path with sharp turns in alternating directions.