English vocabulary is so complex and there is a wide range of words!
But it is not the reason for panic!
Of course it's really important to select a correct word, which will be appropriate in certain situation.
For instance, "a conversation", "a chat", "a discussion" and "an argument" have the similar gist but you should to remember their accurate meanings to use them in your speech.
What should you do, if you don't recognize the word?
Just look at the context and try to guess what does your word mean.
After that you may take a dictionary and finally identify the meaning of the word.
Remeber: always keep a record of the new words.
And don't let a frustration to control you!
You'll eventually recognize new word and it'll be encouraging, just keep learning!
It's rather important to revise your records and do a repetition of vocabulary!
Don't afraid to make mistakes!
And don't forget about a pronunciation!
If you are not sured how to pronounce a word, use your dictionary and look at the phonetic symbols.
Which syllable is stressed?
Why the usage of dictionary is so important?
Because there are definitions of words in detail.
The dictionary will help you to build your vocabulary, to know about style of a word (don't use offensive words, if you don't want to be rude with people), to learn related words, collocations, examples of usage, idioms (e.g.
"go out on a limb" may be in the entry about word "limb") and expressions.
All this information is provided by one entry about certain word.
If you read about the verb, you'll be aware about its phrasal verbs.
Some dictionary has white pages for making notes.
One more advice: at first learn words of everyday English and then you may learn specialized words, which are relevant to your work and interests.