Test Your Vocabulary

[ThisBougieLife]

Approximately how many English words do you know? Take this test to find out:

http://testyourvocab.com/

Check off the words that you can define. Do not check them off if only you recognize them, but cannot define them.

No test is perfect. This test seems to be skewed away from STEM vocabulary and more toward that of literature.

The average adult for whom English is their first language will score between 20,000 and 35,000.

I scored 34,300

 

[Mousse]

Some of the words I know only because I have read fantasy novels. Bugbear? Heilophant? Come on, man. Normal folks would never know them, but it's common knowledge among D&D nerds. Yarp, I question the accuracy of the test. It's akin to peeling potatoes with a cleaver.

I scored a mere 35,700. Seems a bit high, since I'm a man of few words.

 

[chown33]

¿Qué?

 

[Huntn]

Approximately how many English words do you know? Take this test to find out:

http://testyourvocab.com/

Check off the words that you can define. Do not check them off if only you recognize them, but cannot define them.

No test is perfect. This test seems to be skewed away from STEM vocabulary and more toward that of literature.

The average adult for whom English is their first language will score between 20,000 and 35,000.

I scored 34,300

How many check marks did that require?

 

[citizenzen]

Average: 33,400

I think it would have been more fun if they actually tested your knowledge of the definitions.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Average 40,200, or so they say.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Wow. I scored way lower than I thought I would. I guess I'm a man of simple words.

 

[Raid]

I tried to be as honest as I could and even where I wasn't sure I didn't check the box, my score was a paltry 30,100 words. Though I thought of someone here when they asked me if I knew the word 'midget'.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

I tried to be as honest as I could and even where I wasn't sure I didn't check the box, my score was a paltry 30,100 words. Though I thought of someone here when they asked me if I knew the word 'midget'.

I posted this on another site and most people were scoring in the 20s, so that's not bad at all.

The only two on the other site who scored above 40,000 were both English teachers/professors lol

 

[jerwin]

Some of the words I know only because I have read fantasy novels. Bugbear? Heilophant? Come on, man. Normal folks would never know them, but it's common knowledge among D&D nerds.

I only got 30,900 this time.

Bugbear
Bugbear \Bug"bear`\, n.
Same as {Bugaboo}. -- a. Causing needless fright. --Locke.

Bugbear \Bug"bear`\, v. t.
To alarm with idle phantoms.

Bugaboo \Bug`a*boo"\, Bugbear \Bug"bear`\, n. [See {Bug}.]
Something frightful, as a specter; anything imaginary that
causes needless fright; something used to excite needless
fear; also, something really dangerous, used to frighten
children, etc. ``Bugaboos to fright ye.'' --Lloyd.

But, to the world no bugbear is so great As want of
figure and a small estate. --Pope.

The bugaboo of the liberals is the church pray. --S. B.
Griffin.

The great bugaboo of the birds is the owl. --J.
Burroughs.

Syn: Hobgoblin; goblin; specter; ogre; scarecrow.

versus

[doublepost=1499455909][/doublepost]

How many check marks did that require?

Did this test use red herrings?

 

[Mousse]

Wow. I scored way lower than I thought I would. I guess I'm a man of simple words.

Ernest Hemingway is also a man of simple words, so you're in good company. The man rarely use big words.

 

[jerwin]

http://vocabulary.ugent.be

this test will punish you for "knowing" too many nonwords.

 

[Mousse]

http://vocabulary.ugent.be

this test will punish you for "knowing" too many nonwords.

A better test. More accurate, imo. I scored on 77% Real words. No penalties for non word; and boy there were a lot of non words. About 20% of them were covfefe worthy.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

Cool test

I got 80% adjusted (83% real words - 3% fake words). So I only said yes to one fake word, but I missed a few of the real words.

 

[SoggyCheese]

29,700 apparently. Plus 89% (96%-7%) on the other one.

 

[Strider64]

I was honest as I could be, so I scored a low score thusly I'm not posting it (though it was above 20,000). I didn't check words that I've seen, but didn't really know the true definition of it. I mean I can tell what the word means, but doesn't mean I would be 100 percent correct.

 

[mobilehaathi]

Well, that was interesting, thanks. Some of the research from that group at Ghent University is interesting. I scored quite high on both.

 

[maflynn]

I got 31,300 - somewhat surprising I suppose, but I guess I owe that number to the fact that I enjoy reading.

 

[LizKat]

Reading is the way to go. I scored 37100 leaving out any words i recognized and would understand in context but staring at them was unsure of an accurate definition. When I got to "midget" I did lose my concentration so I'd say someone owes me another taco.

 

[Tech198]

I scored 20000, I should lay off my computer magazines..

 

[ThisBougieLife]

Yep, I don't think I would have gotten the score I did (especially at my age) if I were not such an avid reader. I remember reading The Magus by John Fowles and jotting down over 50 words that I had never seen before in my life (and looking them up).

 

[LizKat]

I scored 20000, I should lay off my computer magazines..

You raise an important point, I think. The more involved we get with AI, the more of a hassle it is when techies don't have more liberal arts exposure or else a from-childhood habit of reading past what is required to get by.

A lot of what we will need to apply code to requires understandings -- and analyisis-- of bodies of knowledge having no direct relationship to math and science. We see that every day if we work as systems analysts where the subject matter isn't all ledgers or rates of return on investments.

I remember getting into it one day with a systems analyst when we were getting towards making up some specs related to computerizing how a client group handled their information about contracts for exhibiting and promoting movies. The guy hadn't seemed to have asked enough questions to help us sort out entity relationships.

Spoiler

Looking over his notes it seemed to me the client was telling him the relationship between a contract and a movie was a one-to-one gig. I knew enough to know that wasn't true. In the early on chats with the clients about the project, I'd heard references to "exhibition rights" and "ancillary rights", and I had also heard some guy say something about making a library contract, i.e. one that covered some aspect of rights to a whole raft of films. I remembered writing down the word library and flashing to image of a lot of DVDs on a shelf...

He said well they didn't say anything about that really. I said OK but did you ask? He said how the heck would I know anything about the movie business. I said, well exactly, they are who have the body of knowledge. We have to pick their brains, and we have to use language they understand. If you say to them "So is this like a one to many thing" they are going to draw a blank. You have to ask them the questions in their own language. "Could you have a contract that covers exhibition rights for more than one movie?"

And if they say yes, then we have a lot more questions to ask them.. also in their own language. It ain't just zeros and ones. What does ancillary mean? Tell me about exhibition windows, is there a venue that goes with the right to show the product or is it a right to show it anywhere?

Yah so that project came in late, but at least it came in useful LOL.

 

[mobilehaathi]

A lot of what we will need to apply code to requires understandings -- and analyisis-- of bodies of knowledge having no direct relationship to math and science

Oh my, what a radical thought!

 

[AlliFlowers]

I hit 35,000 on the nose. I thought it was interesting. Gonna share with my mother.