How many words do you know?

by whateverpedia

Posted: 13 years ago 26 replies

OFF TOPIC

Here's a test to determine how big your English vocabulary is.

Test Your Vocabulary

Based on over 200,000 participations so far, we've got some initial statistics already. Most Native English adult speakers who have taken the test fall in the range 20,000–35,000 words.

Apparently I know 31,000 words, which puts me squarely within that range..

How many do you know?

Alexa Smith

Banned 13 years ago

39,000: Test Your Vocabulary

(I must say, my own score, the overall figures for this one, and the distribution-graph offered on this site, are significantly different from those in a little book I have on this subject.)

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whateverpedia

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

(I must say, my own score, the overall figures for this one, and the distribution-graph offered on this site, are significantly different from those in a little book I have on this subject.)

In what way do they differ?

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Alexa Smith Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by whateverpedia

In what way do they differ?

My book (which comprises the same sort of tests, but is a really old one: it was my father's) discusses it all in terms of the typical vocabulary sizes and reading-levels of regular readers of the (then) different English newspapers. It gives a far wider "normal range" than the 20,000 -35,000 words mentioned by this site (I thought something like 15,000 - 50,000 words, but that's only from memory and I may therefore be exaggerating), and I think its estimate of my own vocabulary was quite a lot higher than the "score" this site gave me.
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- Kay King 13 years ago
  
  42,800 words was my result
  
  Guess reading several books every week year after year does some good after all!
  
  The pages of additional test info given on the page are interesting.
  
  kay
  
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  Kay King 13 years ago
  
  I first saw the title of
  
  Eats, Shoots and Leaves on Amazon a while back and thought it was hilarious that someone could come up with that title for a book about punctuation. Brilliant!
  
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  Alexa Smith Banned 13 years ago
  
  Unfortunately, many of those most interested in it are perhaps really those who have least to gain from it, but still it's a very nice book - recommended!
  
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  Kay King 13 years ago
  
  I had no desire to read it - just thought it was a great idea for a title.
  
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Jeff Williams 13 years ago

Apparently, I only know 25,900 words.

So, I guess I only have a few options here if I want to expand my verbiage:

1. Learn more (bla ha ha ha ...)

2. Invest in spinning software for all of my content. (including tax forms)

3. Or, keep posts short and use extra "smilies" for filler. :p:rolleyes:
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kenmichaels 13 years ago

Hmmm, i thought i read that the average 10 year old knows and understands the meaning of
about 35,000 words.

despite all the clicking my results say 37,900

crap, i am a dumb ass
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- Big Rob 13 years ago
  
  This completely confirms what I already knew...
  I am severally out gunned here.
  
  26,100.
  
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HKSEO Jonbones 13 years ago

23,000; I don't read or write for fun, I'm far more visual media oriented
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HeySal 13 years ago

I be knows hundreds of words.

I started to take it but then saw the second page and just clicked off. It was a totally inadequate test so it might have been fun for some people to take it but about all it's good for is entertainment value,
A true test of word knowledge would include single morphemes - which are the smallest units that contain meaning. When people understand morphemes, they can deduce the meanings of many words that they have never seen before.

There's also the case of "formal register" -- terminology known in specific circles but not generally known to the public - such as medical terms, or legal terms, geological terms, etc. I didn't see a widespread enough representation of formal register to be of any use as a knowledge indicator.

Okay - so you guys had fun taking the test, I had fun analyzing it.
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hardraysnight 13 years ago

three, yes, no, maybe, or is that really four
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DJL 13 years ago

39,600 for me.
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Dennis Gaskill 13 years ago

Apparently I know 10 words...and I just used them all.
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- HeySal 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill
  
  Apparently I know 10 words...and I just used them all.
  
  Nice going, Dennis - you just gave away your next book.
  
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  Dennis Gaskill 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by HeySal
  
  Nice going, Dennis - you just gave away your next book.
  
  Well yes, but no one knows the order those words will appear in.
  
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  Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.
  
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  whateverpedia 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by HeySal
  
  Nice going, Dennis - you just gave away your next book.
  
  He can fill it with pictures. After all a picture is worth 1,000 words isn't it?
  
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  globalseopoint 13 years ago
  
  Oh great. I often think that there's no way to check my vocubulary. Now I got it. 31.000
  
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Sue McDonald 13 years ago

If you come across a word when you are reading just Google it and you are sure to find a meaning for it. The tendency with people sending texts has totally ruined spelling. The correction factor in most programs tends to make some people lazy IMO.
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- Daniel Evans 13 years ago
  
  16,000.
  
  I bet the website can't play guitar.
  
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  AprilCT 13 years ago
  
  I scored, supposedly at least decently, around 28,000. I'm not putting much value into that test because it really left out a lot of things I do know for many different words, some in other languages, some other specialties and those words were not on there.
  
  That test is definitely not a one size fits all and I don't think we can make any real conclusions on how well or how poorly we did. Asking the questions before the test leads me to believe the final scores might be adjusted according to those answers.
  
  Thanks
  
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Kurt 13 years ago

I know:

eat
football
scratch

I believe my mancabulary is complete and everything else is overkill.
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- whateverpedia 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Kurt
  
  I know:
  
  eat
  football
  scratch
  
  I believe my mancabulary is complete and everything else is overkill.
  
  You left out pizza. No 'cabulary is complete without that word.
  
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  Why do garden gnomes smell so bad?
  So that blind people can hate them as well.
  
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thunderbird 13 years ago

Did I miss the check-all box? I didn't do the test because checking them all one-by-one sure looked liked an exercise in boustrophedonic tedium.
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eidetic14u 13 years ago

40,800.... thank you smut.... :-/
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