> "Yield: Produce or provide a natural product"
Eh?
How many of the 170k English words do you know?
261–270 of 575 posts
Re: How many of the 170k English words do you know?
#262Not native English speaker (Norwegian), score: 55500.
But many of the hard words were quite similar to more common words we have here.
Re: How many of the 170k English words do you know?
#263As others have pointed out, too many clicks per word. I am a sucker for a 'how many words do you know' quiz so I finished anyway. Overall I'm skeptical of the classifications. In broad strokes, the early words are easier and the latter words are more challenging, but the middle is pretty muddied.
Some of the words chosen are rather absurd/inappropriate: breviary (which I got wrong but felt like a vaguely religious word) was characterized as intermediate but I think it's much more obscure and less obvious than that; Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia was used as a word (I got that wrong as well) - any type of 'phobia' word is really the sort of thing a fourth grader opens up a page in the dictionary and points out, not a word that is used... ever; metamorphosis and kinetic were labeled expert, which I don't agree with (what elementary schooler doesn't learn about the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly? what high schooler doesn't learn about kinetic energy?).
Most words were reasonably well defined in a way that most people would understand or recognize. A few words had poor definitions: lethargy ("the state of being lethargic" - obvious); complacent ("smug satisfaction with oneself" - I disagree that complacency is intrinsically smug); magnanimous ("generous toward a rival" - I disagree that a rival must be involved); gauche ("socially awkward" - this is sort of close but the given definition completely misses the idea of being tactless).
They call it scientific and give a hand-wavey formula, but they don't explain how words are stratified in the first place. If stratified sampling is a formally recognized method of doing this, it would be nice to have a link to a real reference. I think I know a lot of words, but I am skeptical of the estimate this app provided (north of 75k).
Re: How many of the 170k English words do you know?
#264It should be possible to respond "I don't know". When you really-really don't know, it's unfair to get a 1/4 chance at right anyway, or even better if you use routine multiple-choice tactics. I got credit for a few that I would have happily just missed.
Agreed
I did the full 100. It's not even 1/4, with the harder ones when one description is significantly longer than others, it's the correct one. Even outside that 2 choices are usually some object - which I think is never the correct answer
I'd also say the toughness should be mixed up a little. The last 30 or so became a slog
Cool idea though!
Re: How many of the 170k English words do you know?
#265I like how it tests whether I know 170k words by requiring me to click on 170k words 3 times each
Re: How many of the 170k English words do you know?
#266Interesting concept, but 100 words is really quite a lot to get through... It's tiresome trudging through the easy words at the start, and I never got to see the interesting words before getting bored. I've seen other systems like this calibrate far more quickly by assigning a sort of score and confidence behind the scenes. Confidence starts out low and increases over time - correct/incorrect answers rapidly adjust s…
Also the explanations are too broad.
F.e. Frugal - Economical with money or goods
I don’t think frugal means economical it means rather over the top …
Yeah I don’t know how to define it properly but I don’t need to learn new words if they don’t even teach the right meaning
Ai slop
Re: How many of the 170k English words do you know?
#267That was fun. Bit confused by the result because it says I was "wow are you stephen fry?" Which I assume meant I did decent. (72K). But then below it said "you are a man of few words". I take it the latter is just because I've only done the test once? But it's mixed messaging on first attempt I think.
Combined with the factoid it features under "how is this calculated": However, most native speakers have an active vocabulary between 15,000 and 35,000 words. We must be geniuses, lol.
There are words that I know from this quiz that I would never use in real life or in my writings. I’m not sure why. That’s the active vocabulary distinction.
Re: How many of the 170k English words do you know?
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed, there were also a few where I deduced the correct definition by comparing the options.
Yeah, I way overperformed on this test because it was multiple choice. There were 11 words I didn't know at all, and another 8 where I was uncertain to varying degrees. My score of 99/100 does not reflect my actual ability. Even the one I got wrong was a misclick.
Miss-click!
I managed a paltry 90/100. Some of those words require a classical education and probably a British one at that. I studied Latin at two posh schools and have O level English Language and Literature (that's two qualis at age 16).
I'm pretty well read and know exactly who Sandi and Stephen are. Ironically Sandi is Danish but notably erudite (that turned up for me) and navigates her way around English with remarkable aplomb.
Re: How many of the 170k English words do you know?
#269This dearly needs a "Don't know" or a "Skip" option.
Also, as others have said, mixing easy and difficult words would make the process less boring.
Re: How many of the 170k English words do you know?
#270Apparently I am Stephen Fry in disguise?