Average 20-Year-Old in US Knows 42,000 Words

It's difficult to say how many words the English language has. New words are often added to English dictionaries, while others stop being used. People also argue about whether similar words should be counted, and whether to include words borrowed from other languages. However, Webster's Third New International Dictionary has about 470,000 words.

With so many English words, students might worry that they'll never learn enough of them. But native English speakers don't know them all either, as a study from Ghent University in Belgium has shown.

The researchers developed a test to find out how many words people know. Their first test was for Dutch speakers, but they decided to make one for English and Spanish speakers too. The tests were shared on social media, asking people to say whether or not words shown to them on the screen were real.

The English language test was taken by nearly 1 million people. It was found that the average 20-year-old US English speaker knows 42,000 dictionary words. The top 5% of 20-year-olds know about 52,000 English words, and the bottom 5% know about 27,000.

The study also found that the average 60-year-old American English speaker knows about 48,000 words. The difference between 20-year-olds and 60-year-olds suggests that the average person learns a new word every two days as they get older.

However, the researchers did not include all 470,000 of the words in Webster's dictionary. Instead, they made their own list of 62,000 words. Professor Marc Brysbaert, who led the study, said he wants to improve the accuracy of the test by increasing the list to over 75,000 words.

Questions

1. How many words does Webster's Third New International Dictionary contain?

2. Does the average 20-year-old American English speaker know more words than the average 60-year-old?

3. How does Marc Brysbaert hope to improve the accuracy of the test?

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