In today's professional world, it can't hurt to be armed with a comprehensive vocabulary, especially if you have a lot of direct contact with customers. Employers value this aspect of your cognitive abilities, so expanding your word-stock will benefit your career.

After covering your memory and spatial recognition, this third part of our Cognitive Skills Training Series is dedicated to enhancing your inner lexicon. Verbal proficiency is often associated with high intelligence, although the science is not yet in to corroborate this theory. In any case, it will help you sound smart, and sometimes, that's all you need to get ahead.

But apart from the advantages, learning new words is exciting — if you allow it to be. Rather than locking yourself in with a dictionary, we've come up with an exercise that won't feel like studying. And since it's all about committing new words to memory, we made sure that it's a memorable experience.

An exuberant educational excursion

Before you start your vocabulary-building exercise, you need to get your hands on a thesaurus. This is basically a book of synonyms. It doesn't need to be the latest expensive edition — any old copy from a second-hand bookstore will do. Alternatively, there are plenty of free thesaurus apps available to install on your smart phone or tablet.

Now the exercise begins. Leave your home for a day, thesaurus in-hand, and go to new places and attend events. You could explore an unfamiliar part of town, visit a museum, or attend a festival. Make sure it's something you thoroughly enjoy. Throughout the day, make a habit of looking up  synonyms for significant objects you encounter, actions you observe, or feelings that are evoked in you and put these synonyms to memory. A particular house on the market square looks beautiful? The building looks appealing! Some kids are wildly dancing? The children are friskily prancing! You're very happy? You're cheerful! Or, if you want to indulge yourself: This particular edifice on the agora is pulchritudinous, the scions are gamboling rumbustiously, and you're eminently mirthful!

You might not find a fitting synonym for everything. In these cases, don't stress! Just skip this one and turn your attention to the next point of interest — but try to look up at least four synonyms per hour.

In the evening, meet with a friend and tell them about your day, using the synonyms you just learned. This way, the newly acquired words have a chance to further solidify in your memory, and your friend gets the benefit of learning something new too.

Lather, rinse, repeat. With this simple method, you will quickly aggrandize your word-hoard in a most diverting fashion.

By the way, several studies have shown that the extent of your general vocabulary can be inferred from your repertoire of swear words. Not that we would encourage such unseemly behavior as cursing, but we won't judge if you look into billingsgate behind closed doors.