How many words do you know?
Here are some simple vocabulary tests that you can take to see how many words you know.
Look at the words in Table A below. How many words in the list do you know? Multiply your answer by 60 to work out the rough size of your vocabulary. For example, if you know all 100 words in Table A, then the size of your vocabulary is 6000 words. You don't have to define each word exactly; a speaking acquaintance with the word is enough.
Table A
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abate
affirm
ample
appall
balk
bask
benefaction
bolt
brig
browbeat
burnish
caprice
cherish
chock
clink
coincide
commune
composure
consign
contention
converge
cosmos
crevasse
crotch
cue
|
dale
dearth
denote
deter
diction
discrepancy
draper
engross
evasion
facsimile
feign
filter
foreland
forte
frail
gangway
glazier
gram
gravity
grope
gullet
horde
identical
inkling
inter
|
jubilant
latter
ligament
manifold
marrow
misprint
muff
mussel
nib
ode
onset
oversight
postpone
preamble
prejudice
preside
profess
protrude
radical
recommence
refuge
repress
revile
roan
saber
|
scathe
seminal
shallow
sheer
shorn
skeptic
smart
source
statuary
stream
stud
sublime
succumb
tale
tenuity
texture
tidal
tinct
topple
trawl
unassuming
undergrowth
unfurl
uppish
whisk
|
Try the same exercise with Table B. Multiply each word you know by 120. If you know all 100 words, your vocabulary is 12,000.
Table B
|
administrator
alloy
antipathy
aquiline
arraign
automaton
babble
bedlam
beeve
blowze
bounden
brandish
carnivorous
caw
cervine
clandestine
colter
congregate
covet
deign
dissonant
divulge
duress
ebon
egress
|
epicure
erysipelas
excommunicate
expatiate
extenuate
festoon
fizz
fluctuate
fulminate
gabble
goiter
hackney
handspike
hilarious
huckster
inadequate
inflate
invoke
kink
languid
leaven
leonine
liquidate
longevity
lucid
|
mace
moiety
monsoon
neb
ordain
pagan
parable
peal
perception
pictorial
pip
pliant
postern
primeval
quadrant
quartern
ramrod
rational
residual
retaliate
rife
roseate
rudiment
sanctum
saunter
|
scrunch
sever
siphon
slabber
slink
snigger
somnambulism
spawn
stamen
steppe
stipulate
sunder
swain
tabernacle
tolerable
transcend
trinal
turquoise
vellum
volatile
waft
wary
wilt
yew
zodiac
|
Repeat the exercise for Table C. Multiply each word by 250. If you know all the 100 rather uncommon words below, then your vocabulary is 25,000.
Table C
|
abstemious
ague
amain
anneal
assiduous
barouche bibulous
bissextile
blear
bole
candid
catalepsy
chapfallen
ciliary
condone
cordate
craniology
curvilineal
declivity
derogate
direful
disparage
dory
drachma
dross
|
eloquence
emporium
farrier
folderol
frieze
genealogical
gibe
heptagon
hoiden
hydrology
imbroglio
imperturbable
incog
incursion
induct
insoluble
intestate
kail
labial
loam
malapropos
matrix
medallion
meniscus
metric
|
millennium
mote
nape
nomad
nostrum
obloquy
ostracize
palmiped
paroxysm
penance
permutation
pestiferous
phosphor
plantigrade
poise
polypus
portend
pugnacious
purge
quintessence
redundant
remuneration
replevin
sediment
septuple
|
sillabub
sodality
spicular
spittle
springe
staminody
storied
suppliant
swob
syncopation
temporal
tessellate
thill
torose
toxin
tret
trow
tyro
unmoor
valetudinarian
vertex
vortex
voracious
weazen
xiphoid
|
How does your vocabulary rate?
The above tests were designed by Dr Frank Horace Vizetelly in the 1920s and published in an article in the Popular Science magazine. According to the article, from a choice of around 1 million words in the English language, the average person uses only a few thousand words. Mechanics use around 5,000 words; artists use 5,000 words; "educated" people use from 8,000 to 10,000 words; and lawyers use 23,000 words. How do you rate?