# Test Your Vocabulary



## Ghost (Oct 16, 2012)

I came across this website and thought it would be fun to share. There were words I've come across but didn't know a definition to, words I've only come across once or twice and didn't remember in what context, and words I definitely didn't know. Caitiff? Vibrissae?? Heh.

Anyway, this was my result:
Your total vocabulary size is estimated to be: 36,500 words.

What's your result? (Before anyone's feathers are ruffled, I'll add that we shouldn't take this test seriously.)

Do you use much of your vocabulary as a writer? I default to boring words, especially when it comes to verbs. Everyone in my stories walks here and there, looks at this and that, and hears something or other. I'm working on it.


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## CupofJoe (Oct 16, 2012)

36,700 - I think it was "terpsichorean" that saved me...
If I'm not careful I tend to switch from the hard-boiled Raymond Chandler style to prose so glossy purple that it would make HP Lovecraft blush. Sometimes I can do it in the middle of a sentence let alone a scene...


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## Chilari (Oct 16, 2012)

30,800 - now I feel stupid. Excuse me while I go read a dictionary.


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## Philip Overby (Oct 16, 2012)

Yeah, about half of those words you'd probably never even read unless you read literary journals, really old books, and the like.  "Tatterdemalion" is someone wearing tattered clothes.  Why on earth would you refer to someone as that nowadays?  

Anyway, it was a good test of what kind of books I read anyway!


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## Chilari (Oct 16, 2012)

By pure coincidence I came across one of the words I had been unable to tick this afternoon when using Word 2003's thesaurus function - maladriot (having looked for synonyms of clumsy) so now I know that one. But I can't be bothered to go through the thing again.


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## PaulineMRoss (Oct 16, 2012)

Ooooh, a quiz! I got 34,100. I thought it was interesting that the average continues to rise well into middle age - I wouldn't have guessed that. Until I got my Kindle, I just never bothered to look up new words when I was reading. But of course all you writing types are using a thesaurus - that makes sense.


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## Graylorne (Oct 16, 2012)

Ha! I managed 35.100. Some words I remembered but I couldn't describe them, so they don't count. Still, not bad, but I wish my grammar was as good as my vocabulary.


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## Ghost (Oct 16, 2012)

I like tatterdemalion. Since I wouldn't use it as a noun, I'd go with a shorter word like _tattered_, even if tatterdemalion is more fun to say.



PaulineMRoss said:


> I thought it was interesting that the average continues to rise well into middle age - I wouldn't have guessed that.



It surprised and pleased me. People make it seem like you stop learning when you get older, as if your brain suddenly gums up or fossilizes. Plenty of authors hit their stride in their thirties and forties, though.


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## Steerpike (Oct 16, 2012)

> Your total vocabulary size is estimated to be:
> 36,900
> words



Not sure where that falls on the scale of possible results.


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## Ghost (Oct 16, 2012)

You can score up to 45,000.


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## Steerpike (Oct 16, 2012)

Ghost said:


> You can score up to 45,000.



Drat. Maybe my next book will be the dictionary


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## Philip Overby (Oct 16, 2012)

So if you're older then your average is higher?  Maybe that's why mine sucked so much since I'm such a young buck.


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## Chime85 (Oct 17, 2012)

34,500!!!!! I REALLY didn't know my vocabulary was so vast. Mind you, there were many I had to speak out loud to recognise.


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