Measure your English vocabulary

[Perikles]

This test is designed to estimate your total English vocabulary based on how many words you know in a much smaller set. You just tick the words if you know their meaning. I was surprised how many words I had never seen before. No cheating, of course!

Does anybody know of an equivalent one for Spanish?

[chileno]

According to that my vocabulary size is about 23k

And yes, many words that I have never heard of or read before.

Which is a nice addition to one's vocabulary, but what's the point, if nobody's going to understand you?

[Sancho Panther]

36,900!

[aleCcowaN]

17,100

not bad, and I left unchecked some 20 or 25 word I know I knew or looked them up once or I'm not sure

but no wonder as I automatically understand words like uxoricide, gingivitis or cerebral, as they are similar in Spanish -in fact, I made a sampling long time ago and there are some 22-25,000 English words I already know by these means- what doesn't mean that I know 30 or 40,000 words in English.

[Sancho Panther]

I think it must generate different words each time you enter because 'uxoricide' wasn't in my list. I don't know exactly what it means but as I think 'uxorious' means obsessive, excessive love of one's wife, it probably means 'murder of a beloved wife', does it?

I'll post and look it up - honest!

Surprisingly it's not in my 'Concise Oxford Dictionary' so I had to refer to Wikipedia; but yes, it's 'wife murder'! Not a commonly used word though, at least not on this side of the Atlantic.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by Sancho Panther

Surprisingly it's not in my 'Concise Oxford Dictionary' so I had to refer to Wikipedia; but yes, it's 'wife murder'! Not a commonly used word though, at least not on this side of the Atlantic.

We are very used to all these constructions with "-cida" and a noun in Latin that is was a common joke to make up terms for hyperbolic effects. Long time ago, I was called cucurbiticida for tearing apart a pumpkin using a knife instead of removing the peel and cutting it.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by chileno

Which is a nice addition to one's vocabulary, but what's the point, if nobody's going to understand you?

Because then they can look the words up and learn something as well, and everybody has won.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Perikles: I'll look for something similar in Spanish, but I doubt there is anyone carrying on such systematic research online.

Originally Posted by Perikles

Because then they can look the words up and learn something as well, and everybody has won.

Agreed!

24,700... I expected less, as I left so many words unchecked.

[wrholt]

Hmm, 37,100. Looking at the breakdowns, it seems that my result is unusually high for my age and my SAT verbal score. But my verbal skills are lopsided: I've always tested much better in grammar and vocabulary than in literary knowledge.

[sparkling]

just 7.5k (

I suck

Maybe I have the disadvantage that my native language does not even remotely share any sort of vocabulary with English as opposed to Spanish that does

[vita32]

23,600 words. It would really be nice to have a similar test in Spanish.

[sosia]

23,200, but I think it's due many latin/spanish/historic words (like tricorn, uxoricide) in my quiz.
I left many uncheked, so I think it would be worse.
Honestly I think I should be 12.000 or less.
Saludos
Good test perikles

[nk2014]

I got 20,800 words. I think that is pretty cool.

But it is nothing compared to the 250,000 words in the english language.
_____________
Yo recibí veinte mill y ochociento palabras. Es un poco asombroso

Pero es nada cuando aprendí que hay doscientos cincuenta palabras en íngles.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

It's good that you write in Spanish and in English, so we can have a clear idea on what you mean. Nice job!

Originally Posted by nk2014

Yo recibí tuve veinte mill y ochociento (wrong spelling) palabras. Es un poco asombroso ("Un poco asombroso" is an awkward construction, if you mean something positive. "Asombroso" means "amazing", "astonishing", so it should be accompanied by an emphasis on how amazing or astonishing something is, like "bastante asombroso" / "muy asombroso". These expressions give an idea of something actually amazing or astonishing. "Pretty cool" might be said with "muy bueno", "increíble", "magnífico", "genial"...)

Pero no (check the structure of negative sentences in Spanish) es nada cuando aprendí que hay doscientas cincuenta mil ("doscientas cincuenta" is only 250) palabras en íngles inglés (Be careful, the way you wrote it, should be pronounced "ingles", which means "groins") .

[nk2014]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

It's good that you write in Spanish and in English, so we can have a clear idea on what you mean. Nice job!

Thank you a lot. I learned the corrections and understand it now.
I will try have the accents on the words correct.
_______________
Gracias mucho. Yo aprendí las correcciones y las entiendo ahora.
Yo probare tener los acentos en las palabras acertado.

[Elaina]

26, 800

don't know if it is good or bad......some words looked made-up....

[Gatsby]

19.7k here. Just goes to show that vocab isn't the only thing that's important; I didn't even test into the regular "average" for English speakers, but happen to excel at writing in a way that's been unrivaled by nearly all my peers in recent memory.

Perhaps less is more when it comes to communicating in a concise fashion.

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by Gatsby

19.7k here. Just goes to show that vocab isn't the only thing that's important; I didn't even test into the regular "average" for English speakers, but happen to excel at writing in a way that's been unrivaled by nearly all my peers in recent memory.

Perhaps less is more when it comes to communicating in a concise fashion.

I agree: knowing more words does not, by itself, improve one's ability to write either well or effectively. In fact, using too many little-used words when writing may make the result less effective for its purpose.

[pjt33]

Es curioso: según la explicación han quitado todas las palabras que tengan cognados portugueses, porque hacen una investigación especial con brasileños. Pero quedan algunas que tienen una derivación claramente latina (como uxorious, por ejemplo).

[caliber1]

LOL!!! I'm reading all of your guys' (and gals' ) results of 20,000 or so thinking, "I got this". Then I realized I didn't thuroughly read the original post which said it was for English. I will retake it. I will do better

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

@Perikles: I'll look for something similar in Spanish, but I doubt there is anyone carrying on such systematic research online.


Agreed!

24,700... I expected less, as I left so many words unchecked.

Show off!