Vocabulary 191445 225873525 2008-07-15T20:19:19Z 192.175.173.142 /* English vocabulary */ {{merge|Lexicon|date=April 2008}} The '''vocabulary''' of a person is defined either as the set of all [[word]]s that are understood by that person or the set of all words likely to be used by that person when constructing new [[sentence]]s. Tests of vocabulary are integral components of intellectual assessment within psychology. Level of vocabulary has been consistently found to predict overall level of intellectual functioning as well as educational achievement.{{Fact|date=June 2008}} == English vocabulary == It is widely circulated that the [[English language]] has the largest vocabulary of any language, but this claim is difficult to formulate precisely, and essentially impossible to prove.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/lang/vocab.html |author=Jucca Korpela |title= Which language has largest vocabulary? |date=[[August 31]], [[2003]] |work= IT and communication—Human languages }}</ref> The [[Oxford English Dictionary]] lists a total of 171,476 words with an additional 47,156 obsolete and 9,500 derivative words as subentries, giving almost a quarter of a million words in the English language, even when technical terms, place names and multiple word senses are excluded.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutenglish/numberwords?view=uk |work= Ask Oxford |title=How many words are there in the English Language? }}</ref> Clearly, therefore, any individual's vocabulary must necessarily consist of only a small subset of the total possible vocabulary of the language. One estimate, by [[David Crystal]], is that the average college graduate has an active vocabulary of 60,000 words and an additional passive vocabulary of 75,000 words.<ref name="crystal">{{cite book |title=Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language |last=Crystal |first=David |year=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0521596556}}</ref> == The vocabularies of other languages == * The three major [[Japanese language|Japanese]] dictionaries each contain between 220,000 and 240,000 individual lexical entries (words). * The mainland Chinese ''Hanyu Dacidian'' dictionary and the Taiwanese ''Zhongwen Dacidian'' each list about 370,000 words for the [[Standard Mandarin|Mandarin Chinese]] language. == Other uses == The word "vocabulary" is also used figuratively in the [[arts]] or [[crafts]] for qualities or techniques distinctive to a particular style, especially in the context of [[architecture|architectural]] style. == See also == *[[Glossary]] *[[Grammar]] *[[Idiom]] *[[Jargon]] *[[Lexicon]] *[[Part of speech]] *[[Register (linguistics)]] *[[Slang]] *[[Technical terminology]] *[[Term]] *[[Terminology]] == References == {{reflist}} [[Category:Vocabulary| ]] [[af:Woordeskat]] [[de:Wortschatz]] [[es:Vocabulario]] [[eu:Berbategi]] [[fa:دایره لغات]] [[id:Kosakata]] [[it:Lessico]] [[he:אוצר מילים]] [[nl:Woordenschat]] [[ja:語彙]] [[pl:Słownictwo]] [[pt:Vocabulário]] [[qu:Rimay taqi]] [[simple:Vocabulary]] [[sk:Slovná zásoba]] [[sv:Ordförråd]] [[yi:וואקאבולאר]]