Paraphrasing two of the industries' priests, you don't need to know a man's exact weight to know that he is fat, nor do you need to know a basketball player's exact height to know he is very tall.
Likewise, in addition to building a large vocabulary, you will alsoneed to learn ways of paraphrasing so that you will be able to communicateeffectively when you don't know an expression or it has slipped your mind.