How big is the average persons vocabulary?
An average high school graduate has a vocabulary of about 10,000 words. An average graduate of a 4 year college understands about 20, 000 words. I study vocabulary from a book called “Verbal Advantage” by Charles Harrington Elster which is a fairly high level vocabulary book, and he indicates that the difference among educated people between having a good vocabulary and an excellent one, is about 3500 words. Of course his book contains those 3500 words.
