#Vocabulary November 1

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

Today is the first of the month so that means a new 30 Day Challenge. For November 2020 myself and others will be taken on a VOCABULARY Challenge.

Excited that friends like Jeff Neelon, Tina Bullard, Lee Scott, Lee Ann Musslewhite, Linda Branch, John Tanner, and Owen Thomas have already told me they are joining in. The VOCABULARY Challenge Bus is quite vast with plenty of seating so come join us and improve.

This challenge to enhance my conversational jargon became intriguing because of analytics. Here is what piqued my interest. The English language has approximately 500,000 words in it. The average adult may be able to use 20,000 of those words while speaking. When it comes to non speaking passive vocabulary reading its around 40,000 words.

The analytics say there are potential 460,000 words I can add to my VOCABULARY in November. It should not be that hard to add one new word a day. The truth of the matter is there are probably only 45,000 words that would really matter. After 45,000, they’re pretty much all either archaic scientific, or very technical. For example “Uhtceare” which is an older English word meaning “lying awake before dawn and worrying”.

I went searching for some lexical facts to help motivate me. Well really I had to look up the word lexical. I already have my first word completed in the 30 Day VOCABULARY Challenge. Lexical is defined “as of or relating to words or the vocabulary of a language as distinguished from its grammar and construction”

In 2013, The Economist published a blog article about “Lexical facts,” based on results gathered by researchers at TestYourVocab.com.

Well I took the TestYourVocab test (which is free) and my results confirm I am not in the upper echelon. That is what a challenge is suppose to do help you improve.

Here are my results:

If you need some more motivation to improve your VOCABULARY consider some takeaways.

• Most adult native test-takers range from 20,000–35,000 words
• Average native test-takers of age 8 already know 10,000 words
• Average native test-takers of age 4 already know 5,000 words
• Adult native test-takers learn almost 1 new word a day until middle age
• Adult test-taker vocabulary growth basically stops at middle age

Well I am past middle age but I don’t want my VOCABULARY to stop.

So how do you take on a 30 Day VOCABULARY Challenge? First pick a method on how you want to learn a new word each day. Here are some methods choose what works best for you.

1. You can sign up for email subscription for daily VOCABULARY word.

Here are some examples

Merriam-Webster Word of the Day

The Free Dictionary Word of the Day

2. You can find or create a list with 30 new words.

The godfather of 30 Day Challenges Matt Cutts produced a list he did when he completed his 30 Day VOCABULARY Challenge. He called it his A-Z list. I do not know a single word on his list. This is what I am going to use.

Here is a link to a 30 Day VOCABULARY Challenge by Jill Nystul. I didn’t know any words on her list either.

3. Open the dictionary and scroll until you come to a word you don’t know.

Whatever method consider you utilize put the word into practice three times each day. Create a word journal, use the new word in a written sentence, or use it verbally.

Okay who is joining me in the 30 Day VOCABULARY Challenge? Just type “I’m in” in the comments.