Are you aware that the average university graduate has a vocabulary of about 20,000 words? The joe in the street has one of about 10,000, and Basic English specifies that between 850 to 1350 words would be sufficient to live and work with.
Now I made a tongue in cheek comment here, about knowing loadsa words, but I got curious; what size is my vocabulary, approx?
I found a test, and ran with it. Seems I have an estimated working vocab of something like 85,000 plus words.
Seriously.
Is that a lot?
85,000 is pretty good. Of course in general these things have to be specified statistically, otherwise you’d have to start on page one of the dictionary ticking off the words you knew. It would take forever.
I just took an online test, having read your post, and only got 25,000. Must be that Masters degree that got me 5000 extra.
Only 38,600, which left me feeling a little disencromulated.
A cromulous score.
Yep. In fact, I think the whole claim is a little cromulent.
Sounds like you broke it. Online tests usually pander to the ego of those taking them.
Sure, and these days any ego boost is gratefully accepted.
I like to think I have a large vocabulary, but being as I can’t be bothered to search out these sites of which you speak, that measure it, I can’t quantify it.
Unfortunately, the word that I seem to use most these days, particularly when viewing or reading the MSM is ‘cunt ( In all forms, Noun, Plural, Verb and Adjective(. that can’t be right?
Me also know some words.
But me not know what they all mean.
Okay, let’s see… “A”. Yes, I know that one. Er… “Aardvaark”, that’s another. Ooh, “another”. Put that down. Um. I’m sure I’m missing some out here. How many is that now, three? Righto, only another 19,997 to go. “Abaft”, “abate”…
This might take some time.
The problem with these kinds of tests is that they take no account of the difference between recall and recognition. There is also always going to be natural variation over time in recall, so there are days when you can’t recall a given word, but you know that you know it and then kick yourself when it comes back to you later.
So for example in this test, I knew (i.e. I could recognize and give you the meaning of) all of the words in sections F and G (except item 15: ketch), but I could only recall the words for section F and about half of section G (I stopped at item 15). I could also recognize about a third of the words in sections H and I.
Accounting for recognition in addition to recall, and assuming the statistical basis of that test is sound, then I would guess my vocabulary is somewhere between the 50,000 and 100,000 mark. Some of you will probably be higher - especially CC and those with interests in science, where many (most?) of the rare and most interesting words occur.
Hmph.
I scored 7, 7, 5, 8.
I got the wrong word for 20, but the word I did get was still correct, and even more obscure. 19, my word was too precise, as opposed to the generality of the correct one, and 39 the word I got was better known, and still correct. I gave myself 20 & 39, but conceded 19.
These really are pointless tests, aren’t they? Who cares, really?
I got 39 and 20 right, but I got 19 wrong. Did you give “possum” for 39?
Possum? Nah, wombat.
I use it to play a great game of wom.
Ha! With out menomics, where would we be…
[Alexia-ndra obviously - a place where you need half a mnemonic to remember how to spell "mnemonic"]
Yes, there’s definitely a problem with these tests. Being the impatient sod that I am, I went straight to Section I and got ‘em all. Result! Then I turned to Section F and was stumped on about three, generally for the reason mike pointed out. Seriously, who uses “unity” as a noun in normal conversation? What I mean is, that was the first word that sprung to mind, but I thought it must be wrong. Load of bollocks.
“Azerty”, “Aztec”, “Azure”… dammit, I’ve lost count. “A”, “Aardvaark”…
I got between 8 and 9 per section on Mike’s test, but this frequently included different answers to those provided - eg. Bismuth instead of Barium, monoglot instead of monolingual, hussar instead of jhonved (should be honved, I think) and so on.
Which test gave you a score of circa 85,000 words, CC?
hmph,
I avoided mentioning any specific words, that seems to have been blown.
I chose monoglot as well. I’m gunna claim hussar, which I didn’t before, and I chose praetor rather than proconsul, and I think it is a better choice.
So, upgrading myself to 7, 7, 7, 8.
How odd. I’m sure I’m not supposed to get a curve up towards the right.
Going back to the first para of the post, an observation that’s mildly off topic:
One of the problems I contend with living abroad is language. I’m bloody hopeless at learning them. My ex, however (bless her studded, spiked & armoured little boots) was fluent in not only her native French but colloquial English both estuarine & Caribbean & three flavours of Greek - not to mention bits of German, Dutch, Italian & I actually watched her assimilating a usable Arabic in a period of a few days. On the other hand, intellectually, there are shellfish that could give her a good run for her money. And I never cease to be amazed at how many of the dregs of society I seem to encounter display similar talents. My current Colombiana interest is functionally pretty well illiterate, the legacy of an upbringing in the slums of Medellin, but learns English at several times the rate I acquire her Spanish.
It occurs that the more simplified one’s vocabulary & grammar the easier it is to learn another one. For instance I’ve noticed that many people seem to get by with just three tenses of a verb whilst I’m dallying with the nuances provided by the pluperfect. The all purpose f*****g that modifies adjectives….
If there’s anything in the above, just at the moment I’d swap a great deal of vocabulary for the facility to deal with the aircon guy.