Pay attention to word parts: Learn Greek and Latin roots or simply pay attention to word parts and use that to guess at meaning. When encountering a new word, ask yourself if part of the word is already familiar to you. For example, when you encounter epidemiology, you might think of epidemics and then think about ology meaning "study of" – as in sociology and psychology. You will then guess correctly that epidemiology means "the study of epidemics."