Links

A good vocabulary involves more than just knowing a large set of words (see further, Write Better English, "What Is A 'Good Vocabulary'?"). A good vocabulary also includes the many various shades of meanings that these words have in special contexts. Many people fool themselves about the depth of their vocabulary. They think they know, say, 40,000 words. But, in fact, they know only around one-fifth of these words (Pitkin, 39).

A large vocabulary is not so useful as a moderate vocabulary thoroughly understood. It is better to know all the important meanings of 15,000 words than to know only one meaning of each of 50,000 words. Mastery of a little is better than a shallow knowledge of a lot (Pitkin, 39).

Vocabulary Test

Here is a simple way to test the depth of your vocabulary:

1. Write down, without consulting a dictionary, all the distinct shades of meaning you can think of for the word "heavy".

2. Next, write a sentence or phrase in which "heavy" occurs, each time with a distinct meaning.

3. After you have finished, consult a good dictionary to see how many meanings you have missed.

4. Now see in the dictionary how many meanings of "heavy" are strange to you (you may ignore obsolete meanings).

5. Repeat these steps for each of the following words: heel, initiate, discharge (the verb), contract (the verb), mill, mince, strain (the verb), straight, wild, will, close, seed, rule, out, of, over.

Check your results

If you know as many as one-half of the meanings of these words, then you have an unusually good grasp of them. If you do not know the meanings well enough to have written them down, but you do recognise the meanings when you see the words in print, then you have a fair working grasp.

REFERENCES

Walter B Pitkin, The Art of Rapid Reading (1930)

Write Better English, "Vocabulary Test" (accessed 18 June 2010)

Write Better English, "What Is A Good Vocabulary?" (accessed 18 June 2010)