vocabulary

American  

[voh-kab-yuh-ler-ee] / voʊˈkæb jəˌlɛr i /

noun

• vocabularies
  plural

1. the stock of words used by or known to a particular people or group of persons.

   His French vocabulary is rather limited. The scientific vocabulary is constantly growing.

2. a list or collection of the words or phrases of a language, technical field, etc., usually arranged in alphabetical order and defined.

   Study the vocabulary in the fourth chapter.

3. the words of a language.

4. any collection of signs or symbols constituting a means or system of nonverbal communication.

   vocabulary of a computer.

5. any more or less specific group of forms characteristic of an artist, a style of art, architecture, or the like.

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vocabulary British  

/ vəˈkæbjʊlərɪ /

noun

1. a listing, either selective or exhaustive, containing the words and phrases of a language, with meanings or translations into another language; glossary

2. the aggregate of words in the use or comprehension of a specified person, class, profession, etc

3. all the words contained in a language

4. a range or system of symbols, qualities, or techniques constituting a means of communication or expression, as any of the arts or crafts

   a wide vocabulary of textures and colours

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• vocabularied
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• vocabularies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of vocabulary

1525–35; < Medieval Latin vocābulārium, noun use of neuter of vocābulārius of words, equivalent to Latin vocābul ( um ) vocable + -ārius -ary

Explanation

Vocabulary is all about words — the words in a language or a special set of words you are trying to learn. Vocabulary is so important, we even created a web site to help expand yours. First used in the 1500s to mean a list of words with explanations, the noun vocabulary came to refer to the “range of language of a person or group” about two hundred years later. A lot of hobbies, like fishing or knitting, require that you learn their unique vocabulary before you can get the most out of them. If you're in a rush, vocab is a faster way to say vocabulary.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vocabulary vocabularies

Wall Street analysts who cover Bank of America need a grasp of complex financial metrics, familiarity with regulatory ratios and, apparently, a high SAT vocabulary score.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

McDonald’s becomes not merely something Trump eats or campaigns beside, but part of the visual vocabulary through which people understand him.

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026

"The available inscriptions allow us to understand it up to a certain point, but we lack vocabulary and texts," he said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026

Protest movements have always developed their own emotional vocabulary to help people endure moments of fear together.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

The other day, when the Pickled Onion was pestering me about my grammar and vocabulary and bettering myself, she asked me what I aspired to in this life.

From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan

In totalitarian regimes, censored vocabularies create the illusion of consensus and the impossibility of dissent.

From Salon ● May 3, 2025

Toossi’s script handles this duality elegantly: The actors speak unaccented, colloquial English when they’re speaking Farsi; when they’re speaking English, their vocabularies scale back, and syntax becomes stilted, indefinite articles get forgotten.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 8, 2024

"As the vocabulary grows, the number of different vocabularies that you could move to is increasingly constrained."

From Science Daily ● Mar. 1, 2024

One of the reasons off-Broadway continues to be so vital is that it requires us to retool our critical vocabularies and to rethink our certainties of how this art form should behave.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2023

We've searched our vocabularies for the name of the wood and settled on mahogany.

From "We Are Okay" by Nina LaCour

Related Words

• dictionary
• glossary
• jargon
• terminology