Dictionary Definition
vocabulary
Noun
1 a listing of the words used in some
enterprise
2 a language user's knowledge of words [syn:
lexicon, mental
lexicon]
3 the system of techniques or symbols serving as
a means of expression (as in arts or crafts); "he introduced a wide
vocabulary of techniques"
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
vocabularium, vocabularius: vocabulaire. See vocable.Pronunciation
Noun
- A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning.
- The collection of
words a person knows and uses.
- My Russian vocabulary is very limited.
- The stock of words used in a particular field.
- The vocabulary of social sciences is often incomprehensible to ordinary people.
- The words of a language collectively.
- The vocabulary of any language is influenced by contacts with other cultures.
Derived terms
Coordinate terms
Translations
list of words
- Czech: slovník
- Dutch: woordenlijst
- Finnish: sanasto
- Hungarian: szójegyzék
- Japanese: 語彙集
set of words a person knows
- Afrikaans: woordeskat
- Czech: slovní zásoba
- Dutch: woordenschat
- Finnish: sanavarasto
- Hungarian: szókincs
- Japanese: 語彙
stock of words used in a particular field
- Dutch: woordenschat, terminologie, vakterminologie
- Finnish: sanasto
- Japanese: 用語
words of a language collectively
- Afrikaans: woordeskat
- Dutch: woordenschat
- Finnish: sanasto
- Japanese: 語彙
- ttbc Arabic: (ʈalíeq al-lisá:n)
- ttbc Armenian: բառապաշար
- ttbc Chinese: 字彙, 字汇 (zìhuì)
- ttbc French: vocabulaire
- ttbc German: Wortschatz
- ttbc Interlingua: vocabulario
- ttbc Italian: vocabolario
- ttbc Korean: 어휘 (eohwi)
- ttbc Portuguese: vocabulário
- ttbc Romanian: vocabular
- ttbc Russian: запас слов (zapás slov)
- ttbc Scottish Gaelic: faclair
- ttbc Spanish: vocabulario
- ttbc Swedish: ordlista
Extensive Definition
The vocabulary of a person is defined either as
the set of all words that
are understood by that person or the set of all words likely to be
used by that person when constructing new sentences.
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.
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.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. 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.
The Vocabularies of Other Languages
- The three major 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 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 architectural style.See also
References
vocabulary in Afrikaans: Woordeskat
vocabulary in German: Wortschatz
vocabulary in Spanish: Vocabulario
vocabulary in Basque: Berbategi
vocabulary in Persian: دایره لغات
vocabulary in Indonesian: Kosakata
vocabulary in Italian: Lessico
vocabulary in Hebrew: אוצר מילים
vocabulary in Dutch: Woordenschat
vocabulary in Japanese: 語彙
vocabulary in Polish: Słownictwo
vocabulary in Portuguese: Vocabulário
vocabulary in Quechua: Rimay taqi
vocabulary in Simple English: Vocabulary
vocabulary in Slovak: Slovná zásoba
vocabulary in Swedish: Ordförråd
vocabulary in Yiddish: וואקאבולאר
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
argot,
biographical dictionary, cant, chemical dictionary, desk
dictionary, dialect dictionary, dictionary, dictionary of
quotations, electronics dictionary, etymological dictionary,
foreign-language dictionary, gazetteer, general dictionary,
geological dictionary, gibberish, gloss, glossary, gobbledygook, gradus, jargon, language, lexicon, lexis, lingo, mumbo jumbo, nomenclator, onomasticon, palaver, patois, patter, phrase book, phraseology, polyglot
dictionary, promptorium, rhyming
dictionary, scatology,
science dictionary, slang,
slang dictionary, specialized dictionary, stock of words, synonym
dictionary, synonymy,
taboo language, terminology, thesaurus, treasury of words,
unabridged dictionary, verbal, verbiage, vernacular, vocabular, vulgar language,
word list, wordage,
wordbook, wordhoard, words