Test Your Vocab

[The Brain]

If I want to be tested I can go to the clinic.

[Norgy]

Got halfway through it, became bored and stopped.

That's the spirit.

[ulmont]

I smell a rat, just because you recognised a word and think you understand it's meaning, seems only half of what constitutes your vocabulary;  I'd have prefer an analysis of you active vocabulary, take an sample of your writing, say all of your Languish posts and work out a figure from that.

Well, understanding a word's meaning does indicate that the word is in your vocabulary.   Your "active vocabulary" is going to be relatively pointless; 2000 words cover 80% of English text.

But, in the name of Science!, I did an analysis of my last 50 posts (excluding URLs and quoted material).  Apparently, they only needed 592 unique words.  Of course, the total words in said posts was 1282, so c'est la vie.

Also, 37,200 on the original.

[Ideologue]

35.7.

Fuck--I did know what what "verdure" meant.  I guess that's okay, since I said I knew what "hypnopompic" meant, but evidently did not.

[Warspite]

I smell a rat, just because you recognised a word and think you understand it's meaning, seems only half of what constitutes your vocabulary;  I'd have prefer an analysis of you active vocabulary, take an sample of your writing, say all of your Languish posts and work out a figure from that.

Well, understanding a word's meaning does indicate that the word is in your vocabulary.   Your "active vocabulary" is going to be relatively pointless; 2000 words cover 80% of English text.

I would disagree to an extent.

Being able to fathom the rough gist of a word isn't, at least to me, the same as knowing it.

One could certainly surmise a basic meaning from context and, particularly in the case of English, a root derived from Latin, Greek, German or French. But would this mean knowing the differences between a conundrum and a dilemma; or to think and to ponder? Or the nuanced difference between bifurcate and diverge?

[ulmont]

Being able to fathom the rough gist of a word isn't, at least to me, the same as knowing it.

I think if you're only able to fathom the rough gist of a word, you shouldn't have checked in on the original test.

Don't check boxes for words you know you've seen before, but whose meaning you aren't exactly sure of.

[Eddie Teach]

35.6 

[Martinus]

33,300

[Ed Anger]

70 million.

[FunkMonk]

70 million.

I was going to post an outrageous number but you beat me to it. 

[Razgovory]

33,300

I guess "bronze age" wasn't on there.

I got bored halfway through the second page and stopped.  Bleh.

[Richard Hakluyt]

It seems to me that one's vocabulary depends on context. One of the words in the test was "adumbrate". FWIW it is a word I'm completely familiar with. It is also not a word I would use in speech unless I was rather drunk and being deliberately irritaing/pretentious. I would possibly use the word in an academic essay but probably not in a personal letter, I prefer "foreshadow" anyway. But, possibly, the fact that I prefer the common word indicates that my understanding of the rarer word is deficient..............maybe someone with a really good vocabulary uses adumbrate when foreshadow simply won't do 

[Ed Anger]

33,300

I guess "bronze age" wasn't on there.

I got bored halfway through the second page and stopped.  Bleh.

Or 'stat'

[DontSayBanana]

Two, Ug.

Two?  "Beer" and "bicycle?"

[MadImmortalMan]

40200