I am a native English speaker. There are some words in English that we don't see or read or use very often. It is not easy to remember the definitions of words from the dictionaries. If we don't read those words very often, it is easy to forget the word's meaning or definition. I always suggest that people look at the synonyms (words that mean the same thing or are very similar). Here is a simple example: The new word "humongous". The easiest synonym to remember is "immense", and immense means "huge". So, if you remember that humongous = huge, then you will understand and remember the word humongous. Here is another example: The new word (not used very often): "extraneous" If we search for the word in a thesaurus (list of synonyms) [http://www.thesaurus.com/], we will see the synonyms "extra / unnecessary". So, extraneous = unnecessary, e.g. He provided a lot of extraneous (unnecessary/extra) information. There is one more techniques I would recommend, however, it does not work for all the English words. In the word "extraneous" you see the smaller word "extra". In the word "dangerous" you see the word "danger". In the word "remember" you see a small part of the word "memory". So, seeing a small part of a word in a bigger word may help us to remember the meaning of the larger word. These are my recommendations for remembering new words.

I keep a piece of paper taped to the wall behind my computer and write new words on the paper as soon as I learn them. That way I can study just by looking at the paper. Even if I'm watching a movie, I can glance up once every 10 minutes and read every word and its translation. That's studying new words 9 times throughout the movie, without it even seeming like work. Also it's good to try to learn new words in conversation as soon as possible. Also, I like to associate certain new words with particular sentences/ideas. So when I remember the fact that I sometimes use English grammar when I speak French, I remember the sentence "C'est quelque chose d'anglais qui s'est glissé dans mon français." which means "It's something English that has sneaked into my French." Now I'll never forget "se glisser". Also, if you can associate certain words with the situations you learned them in, that can be a great help. I have a friend who taught me the word "raccourci" which means "shortcut". Every time I talk to her, I remember the word. Quoted from: http://www.italki.com/question/324420