Why are poets so widely admired? Knowing great varieties of words allows you to express your thoughts precisely, perhaps even at all. Of course, communication requires your audience to understand those words, but context helps a lot in that area. As an example, consider the idea of hot and cold. At what point do those things become dangerous? If there are no words indicating the degree of peril, then how do you know? Sure, you can use "very" or other adverbs to modify what you're saying, but isn't "searing," "scalding," "freezing," or "numbing" better?
Being well spoken is widely regarded as a sign of intelligence. Sure, it's not a requirement, but it's a very obvious indicator. Something I've noticed is when you increase your vocabulary there's an increase of your interest in the world, and that will make you smarter. Actually, simply adding to your overall knowledge does the same thing, but you won't have the words to express your new wealth of interests.
It's been said that the average English speaker has a vocabulary of around 5,000 to 12,000 words. I'm not sure it's been figured in any accurate way, because there's too many variables (such as dialects, slang, and other words which may or may not count in the final figuring). What I can say is most people have a limited vocabulary to say the least--some being so poor in words as to be effectively broke. Do yourself a favor and get a "Word-a-Day" calendar app. In no time, you'll be using words with pinpoint accuracy. Plus, you'll enjoy the looks of dismay from those around you, as they ask, "what's that word mean?" Trust me, it's fun.
- M
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