Should I search for the meaning of unfamiliar words I encounter with when reading?

I'd finish the paragraph to try and figure it out from context, then search it up to see if you're correct.

When I was younger and started reading for fun I would keep a dictionary near me and look up any unfamiliar words immediately. That was how I built up my vocabulary.

Yes, you definitely should. Just keep in mind the context. If the definitions don't fit the context, then this is more than likely a turn of phrase, or idiom.

jott down the words and search em up later. [thesaurus.com](http://thesaurus.com) good place learning words in my opinion. you can search up unfamiliar it will show synonyms and similar words with similar meaning.

Personally, I find it better to look up an unfamiliar word as soon as I encounter it, particularly if it can be done quickly and easily e.g. if you have instant access to an online dictionary. Otherwise, you would need to keep a list of such words, look them up later, and then presumably have to go back and re-read the text in which they occurred. This seems inefficient, and worse, risks causing a cascading failure of comprehension when you assume the meaning of something incorrectly which subsequent text relies on. It's bad enough that you are typically obliged to encounter unfamiliar words during live conversation -- I see no advantage to extending that difficulty to the reading of text. Furthermore, it seems like waiting until later would lead to having to unlearn an incorrect assumed meaning and replace it with the correct meaning, which seems like an undue cognitive burden. By the way, your written English seems rather excellent. Whatever method you are presently using seems to be working rather well for you. I hope this helps.

If it stops you from understanding the story, stop and look it up. If it doesn't - jot it down, and look those all up later. --- Keep a specific, small "English notepad" for all your new words. Something like this: https://i.imgur.com/15vEiyO.jpeg Carry it with you at all times. Write down all new words. Whenever you have five minutes to space - for example, when you're waiting for a bus, or standing in a queue (line), look through it and try to make up new sentences in your head.

during. so that you can fully understand the context of what you just read. it's annoying and frequent at first but it'll get a lot easier later on. same goes for when you're watching something. have the English subtitles on and pause when necessary.

This exactly what I been solving with my app Scrolla AI. You can just quickly look at word meaning by tapping on them with simpler explanations. It’s an e-reader app. Currently you can read physical books, epubs. You can download the alpha version from this link if using iOS https://testflight.apple.com/join/15XrB9rY

I would read through without stopping in order to absorb the context. Then go back and pick out particular words to look up.

I think it makes sense to do so. I am a native English reader and I read often on a kindle, I do occasionally encounter unfamiliar words and I look them up on the kindle as I go.

It's probably also a good idea to write them down in the context (sentence or phrase) you found them. In the past, I've made the mistake of writing the definition and then completely forgetting in what contexts this word was used.

Indubitably.