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Wirds an readin

Hou mony wirds kens the average person?

A muckle online study estimatit median recognition o aboot 42,000 lemmas at age 20 amang native speakers o American English. Recognisin a wird disna shaw that a body can define or uise it. Study

Test yersel (Inglis)
An open buik wi a fleein blue sphere an a white puzzle piece.

Bi the Helibrain teamLast checked

Key evidence an nummers

Coontin unitEstimate at age 20Meanin
Lemmas42,000Entries that group inflected forms, sic as walk and walked.
Wird faimlies11,100Wider groups that group sib derived wirds an aa.

Soorce: original estimates table. The full dataset haed 221,268 individuals; that isna the native-English or age-specific N.

Whit affects it?

Age, education, language experience an coontin rules aa hae an effect on the estimate. Study

Gie the related free test a try

Wird buik test

Pit yersel tae the test: wird buik (Inglis). Follae the instructions aboot real an made-up wirds; tak the result as an estimate for that wird list.

Test yersel (Inglis)

Common questions

Daes this estimate apply tae ilka adult?

Naw. The age, leid an volunteer sample limit the comparison.

Why dae ither soorces gie lawer totals?

Check their coontin unit an whit “kennin” needs.

Is the size o yer wird buik the same as intelligence?

This task estimates wird ken. It disna shaw a body's oweraw intelligence.

Sources

Cite this page: Hou mony wirds kens the average person?. Helibrain. 2026. https://helibrain.com/sco/answers/how-many-words-does-the-average-person-know. CC BY 4.0.

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