So, how large is it?

[Starlequin]

So glad I finally get to do this!
*goes to test*
...38,000.
Huh. Thought it'd be higher.
*shrugs*

[Anya]

Yayyy... I think that I got the lowest score. 14,800 words.

[BadForm]

35,600... I am not happy with myself. Oh well, such is life for us ignoramuses.

[Caeli]

Yayyy... I think that I got the lowest score. 14,800 words.

Seeing as how English is not your native language, I think that is an absolutely impressive number.

[Anya]

Seeing as how English is not your native language, I think that is an absolutely impressive number.

Teehee! Thank you Caeli.

[Lilias]

The maximum score one can get is 45,000. The highest I've seen is in the 43K, but that was an older person on a religious forum (= well-versed in archaic language).

Anything over 10K, for non-native speakers, and you can give yourselves a pat in the back. I also put down money that if you retake it after a year here, you're going to score much, much better. ;)

[Wolfling72]

How interesting. I took the test. (The fourth column killed me!)

37, 200. Hmmm. Pretty good, I think. Not great but not utterly uneducated either.

[NinjaWeazel]

43,000 words.  My English Major aunt would be so proud.

[Erich Norden]

 Your total vocabulary size is estimated to be:
31,100 words

Between the ones I didn't get, I've seen about half of them but forgot (or never learned) the definition.

[Marduk]

30,500, allegedly.

I'm fairly cynical of these sorts of things. Never the less, I'm happy with that.

[kylie]

24,300 it says.

Believe it or not, more than  few of the harder words were learned from gaming books such as White Wolf's "World of Darkness" and DnD.  Tenebrous, caitiff, hobgoblin, to name a few.  Read more fantasy and learn more words!  Woo!

No fair...  It only gave me a bugbear.  Pouts.  Bugbear cleaves hobgoblin, though -- yes?   ;)

[Safire]

Apparently I know about 20,400 words. I'm not happy with that. They got pretty hard on the last list... I could probably figure them out if they were in an actual sentence instead of just a word list.

[Monfang]

18,100

I need to get back to reading more.

[yugi006]

22100

That really isn't a lot.

[Chris Brady]

33,700 words.

And I also knew several words only from my RPG experiences - Caitiff and Regnant, primarily.

I actually didn't check those.  Not because I didn't know the meaning, but White Wolf has this tendency to 're-purpose' words for their games, so to be honest, what I know (I looked them up, had to, because I had two separate definitions of those words) may have been actually wrong.  And if I had to look them up, I didn't check them.

[Athem]

38,400 - a liking for obscure words apparently has some uses!

By the time I got to that last column, I was wondering if it was throwing made-up words at me just to catch out cheaters!

[Endorphin]

30,500

Probably a fair reflection, since I certainly wouldn't consider myself an avid reader.

I get the impression that a polyglot would have a significant advantage in this test. Especially one with a good understanding of French.

[Renegade Vile]

I had 31,800 words as my estimation. Bearing in mind that I'm 24 and I'm not a native speaker, I seem to be doing quite well.

However, for those not happy with their scores, take a look at the averages for your age for both native and non-native speakers, it offers more context to your score. Also keep in mind that some of the later words are very niche terms you never really come across except by happenstance. If you have the average of what is expected, I believe one can be very pleased already.

[Swordsman18]

28,300 is my estimation, I think it is a bit low but I think that is a good checker.

[Geraint]

The maximum score one can get is 45,000. The highest I've seen is in the 43K, but that was an older person on a religious forum (= well-versed in archaic language).

Anything over 10K, for non-native speakers, and you can give yourselves a pat in the back. I also put down money that if you retake it after a year here, you're going to score much, much better. ;)

Older certainly does work to one's advantage, especially when combined with a lifetime of reading tons of fiction.  My experience is that forum roleplay adds greatly(see below), especially if one does a lot of historical and fantasy, and tends to research heavily (which I guess would qualify as well versed in archic language).  A keen curiosity, Google Fu, and Wikipedia addiction have to help as well.


My estimated number was:

42,900  (likely because of all the above).


Of course I know of very few people besides writers who might get to use nearly that amount of vocabulary in real life (people tend to back away from you when you do).  Certainly I don't.  So I took the test again, counting only words I actually use in real life (without getting strange looks) and came up with:

24,300


That's where roleplay really shines.  Taking it a third time, I included all the words that are actually in  active use in my roleplay vocabulary, and I got: 

34,600

I'd say that is quite a testimonial to the affect of roleplay on vocabulary.


And yes, my muse wanted distraction this morning.   ::)

[Blythe]

My number was 39,800. I felt it was a passable estimate, seeing as English literature is my field, but much of what I use doesn't always come up in everyday conversation, so I've gotten a tad rusty.

[CupidCatt]

36,000

I was surprised at how many words I did recognise (as sounds or patterns of letters) but couldn't for the life of me define  :-[

[SweetSerenade]

41,400

I think that's good? I just like to read, learn a lot of things from reading... ya know?

[Hades]

Figured I'd take the test to see how I ranked.  Being from the American south (barely, since I'm in Kentucky, but that's beside the point!) I thought it might be amusing.

Your total vocabulary size is estimated to be:
34,400 words

Guess having my nose buried in all those books are good for something after all, besides risking an early death by means of 1000 papercuts.

[LeSane]

Your total vocabulary size is estimated to be:
44,600 words

Coming from a person that has not started college yet I feel that I am rather accomplished right now. Though I stuck my head near an art pad rather then a book it never stopped me from doing some reading, and like Hades I was raised in the South. Atlanta, Ga to be exact. Woot!