VOCABULARY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Vocabulary

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/voʊkˈæbjəlˌɛri/ Listen

noun

Vocabulary n. (pl. vocabularies)

A list or collection of words arranged in alphabetical order and explained; a dictionary or lexicon, either of a whole language, a single work or author, a branch of science, or the like; a word-book.

A sum or stock of words employed. "His vocabulary seems to have been no larger than was necessary for the transaction of business."

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Etymology of 'Vocabulary'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Vocabulary" Quotes from Famous Books

... which belonged to him in common with his family required much practice to develop it. With strong sense, and the greatest readiness of wit, a certain tendency to hesitation was hereditary in the line of Fox. This hesitation arose, not from the poverty, but from the wealth of their vocabulary. They paused, not from the difficulty of finding one expression, but from the difficulty of choosing between several. It was only by slow degrees and constant exercise that the first Lord Holland and his son overcame the defect. Indeed neither of ...

— Critical and Historical Essays, Volume III (of 3) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... employs in telling these stories may seem at first glance to be simple: short sentences, a sparse vocabulary, uncomplicated syntax. In actuality, Anderson developed an artful style in which, following Mark Twain and preceding Ernest Hemingway, he tried to use American speech as the base of a tensed rhythmic prose that has an economy and a shapeliness seldom found in ordinary speech or even oral narration. ...

— Winesburg, Ohio • Sherwood Anderson

... Rylance, who was to be invited to join the exploration party, much to the disgust of the Winchester lads, who denounced her as a stuck-up minx, and distinguished her with various other epithets of an abusive character selected from a vocabulary known only to Wyckhamists. Blanche and Horatio and a smaller boy, called Ernest, who was dressed like a gillie, and had all the wildness of a young Highlander, were to walk, with the occasional charity of ...

— The Golden Calf • M. E. Braddon

... our neighborhood and I visited him often. To get to his cabinets, it was necessary to go through his garden where thorn-apples and cacti grew abundantly, and where they kept a gray parrot, brought from Gaboon, whose vocabulary consisted of words learnt from ...

— The Story of a Child • Pierre Loti

... not, of course, write any language whatever. Two words of French he knew: they were fromage and chapeau. The former he pronounced "grumidge." In English his vocabulary was even more simple, consisting of the single word "po-lees-man." Neither B. nor myself understood a syllable of Polish (tho' we subsequently learned Jin-dobri, nima-Zatz, zampni-pisk and shimay pisk, and used to delight The Zulu hugely ...

— The Enormous Room • Edward Estlin Cummings

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