Vocabulary
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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]]