Let’s begin with Tier One words.  These are words of everyday speech and are not challenging to native speakers.  Each Tier One word may have multiple meanings depending on the context.  For example, the word up has over 25 meanings depending on context.  Look it UP.

Tier Two words are more commonly found in written text rather than speech.  For example, informational text may contain such words as relative, vary, formulate, specificity, and accumulate.  Literary text may contain misfortune, dignified, faltered, and unabashedly.  Technical text may contain calibrate, itemize, and periphery.  In addition, Tier Two words often represent subtle or precise ways to say relatively simple things, such as saunter instead of walk.

Tier Three words are referred to as domain terms, because they are only found within a specified domain or field of study.  Each Tier Three word only has one meaning.  Examples include carburetor, legislature, patisserie, proprietorship, and aorta.

Because most daily reading is for information, the Common Core Learning Standards challenge teachers and pupils to learn new and "hard” words.  Every lesson plan in Lesson-Up.net contains several Tier 2 and Tier 3 terms, which are defined within the context of the soft technical skill.  Learners are encouraged to compile their own job-specific glossary.