VOCABULARY • DICTIONARY ONE.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

... ear and the facility with which he picked up English were marvelous to observe. Evidently, he had been somewhat accustomed to the sound of it before, for there dropped out of his vocabulary, after he began to speak, phrases which would seem to betoken a longer familiarity with its idioms than could be equally accounted for by his present experience. Though the English evidently was ...

— The Pearl of Orr's Island - A Story of the Coast of Maine • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... again—if adventure came in her way, could she refuse it? She would refuse nothing—the song ceased—short of sin. She looked at herself and saw a solemn feminine edition of the portrait hanging behind her on the wall. She was like her father, but she took pride in her greater conscientiousness; her vocabulary was larger than his by ...

— THE MISSES MALLETT • E. H. YOUNG

... of their proposed association is both conservative and democratic. It would aim at preserving all the richness of differentiation in our vocabulary, its nice grammatical usages, its traditional idioms, and the music of its inherited pronunciation: it would oppose whatever is slipshod and careless, and all blurring of hard-won distinctions, but it would no less oppose the tyranny of schoolmasters and grammarians, both ...

— Society for Pure English Tract 1 (Oct 1919) • Society for Pure English

... they gathered about her, kissed her hand and clasped her little ones in their arms, fondling them and calling them by every endearing name known to the negro vocabulary. ...

— Elsie's Motherhood • Martha Finley

... heavy steadiness of a Breton voice could be heard asserting itself. Though every man spoke in French, for the purposes of the common parliament, each man swore in his own tongue; and they all swore briskly and crisply, with a seemingly inexhaustible vocabulary of blasphemy and obscenity, so that the foul air of that inn parlor was rendered fouler still by the volley of oaths—German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Biscayan, and Breton—that were fired into its steaming, stinking atmosphere. ...

— The Duke's Motto - A Melodrama • Justin Huntly McCarthy

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