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Test your vocabulary.


Swamptribe

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Damn, I possess a vocabulary of only 24,300 words! That comes as a surprise to me because people often comment on my choice of language. I suppose I spend more time being a "Grammar Nazi" than I do as a reader.

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43,700. Eh, I'm that person who seeks out what the hell an aglet is (the plastic or metal tip of a shoelace) and flips through dictionaries for fun just because it's fun to learn obscure words and for playing Words wit Friends and Scrabble. I think it's less important to know more words than it is to know how to use the words you know to accurately express yourself. As I understand it, some complete languages have fewer than 30,000 words in total, yet have no problem with expression. The English language has a lot of synonyms. And so we really needs words like "defenestrate" when it's just as day to say you're going to throw someone through a window? Yes, that means the act of throwing through a window.

One of my favorite events from my Early Modern European History class was the Defenestration of Prague. Actually, there are two Defenestrations which o thought was kind of funny. It seems the Bohemians were really into chucking people out windows.

But that is where I first learned the word, and loved it since.

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One of my favorite events from my Early Modern European History class was the Defenestration of Prague. Actually, there are two Defenestrations which o thought was kind of funny. It seems the Bohemians were really into chucking people out windows.

But that is where I first learned the word, and loved it since.

hNoXsV2X7bs

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I also love the National Spelling Bee... it was the highlight of my week.

Heh, mine too! :D And did you notice the fundie mother wearing a frumper in the audience?

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I was 28,500. I saw some of the words and was trying to figure them out but then I remembered to be honest! :) I sent this to a bunch of my english-prof friends who surely will warp their figures....

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Heh, mine too! :D And did you notice the fundie mother wearing a frumper in the audience?

I did! I forgot her son's word but it was apparently not God's will that he proceed to the next round....

I got 35,000 words. Wow, and I hardly use any of them.

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36600, and I'm quite a wordy sort. I was shocked by how hard some of those words were. I honestly assumed I'd do much better, but some of those words were crazy hard!

ETA: I didn't mean that to sound snotty, I just usually know most words or can figure them out through etymology. Some of those words I thought were made up. I spent a good deal of time looking up words, though, so that was fun!

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41,800 words

Though, as I recall from the last time I saw this, there were a number of words that I know because I know the roots, not because I ever use them in conversation or see them written.

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43,200 words

I'm just a bit of a geek though. I tend to look up words I don't know when reading and playing word games and I read a lot.

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Thanks for posting this! I loved the words they chose for the test- legerdemain and tatterdemalion are some of my favorite words.

However, I only got a shabby 31,600 word estimated vocabulary. But I'm only 22, so I've got time. :pray:

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36,000. I may suck at grammar and proper placement of words in a sentence, but I do have a large vocabulary! I am also an avid reader who reads with a dictionary next to me so I don't have to travel far to look up a word.

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29,200... about 5,000 more than my age group (22). Not bad but I feel like I should have more of a vocabulary. I read all the time but I have never been good with vocabulary. I did fine with vocabulary tests but I never liked them and always had to study - never knew the words off-hand. I think I can get a word with context clues but don't remember it or know it enough to use it on my own. I am more into grammar, structure, and story/plot in terms of my own writing habits. I'm very bad at things like Words with Friends because I can never remember half the words I know, lol. I do appreciate a good word, but I've never been like nerdy about learning them or anything, just reading. I am still friends with one of my high school history teachers though and she is a total word nerd. I still have to look up words she uses sometimes :oops: She was a classics major so that probably plays into her vocabulary; I'm not good with roots. I remember our class thought she was hilarious because she knew and used around five synonyms for prostitute. Describing historical figures of course. :naughty:

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woe is me, i only got 23,800 (29 yo)...i guess my PhD education didn't offer much time for non-technical reading.

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woe is me, i only got 23,800 (29 yo)...i guess my PhD education didn't offer much time for non-technical reading.

I don't know what your major is, but I was hoping for exothermic or apoenzyme to be on there and no such luck! I still did well enough.

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Which is one reason I posted it here, wondering if any lurkers would take the challenge.

http://www.testyourvocab.com/

Interesting survey and figured I'd help 'em out by posting a link.

Thanks for the link, I'll be sharing it! It was indeed interesting!

I'm one of the occasional lurkers; and, of course, I'm only replying because the results were decent - 42,600. I don't know if the words are the same for everyone or not; the only ones I didn't know were:

tatterdemalion, deracinate, fuliginous, hypnopompic, and opsimath

(Spoilers inserted in case anyone wants to avoid an exposure bias before taking the test.)

It was enjoyable to see some of my favorite sesquipedalian words on the test :-D

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I don't know what your major is, but I was hoping for exothermic or apoenzyme to be on there and no such luck! I still did well enough.

haha. my doctorate is in clinical psychology, didn't see any clinical/research words on that list!

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34,900 (36yrs old) There were quite a few words I recognised but couldn't give a meaning to. I guess that shows my parents and teachers did a great job of teaching me to use a dictionary. (Remember the important/recurring words and know how to deal with other words when they occur.) Going to get hubbyto do this test as soon as he gets home. He is far more academic than me (university professor) but his knowledge is all in the one area - science - which isn't going to help him much in this test.

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35,300. Well above their average. I too am 36 and have always been a voracious reader. Some of those words, though...wow. I could halfway guess at a few but not with enough confidence to click them. I wasn't going to cheat even if nobody was looking!

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32,500, which seems to put me at strictly average for the company here. Not bad for someone who started off in remedial reading in 2nd grade. :)

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I don't know what your major is, but I was hoping for exothermic or apoenzyme to be on there and no such luck! I still did well enough.

I felt the same way. I am good at medical terms and was hoping for at least one of those, lol.

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19800, I am very proud since English is a language I learnt at school and I never lived in an English speaking country :)

But to be honest, some words are very similar to the French ones, so that was not that hard ;)

I think I have read somewhere that 60% of the English words have a root in French !

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