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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to The Rest of Science. I'm Hannah Fry. And I'm Michael Stevens. Today is an episode of Field Notes, where we have discovered something made by you.
Chapter 2: How can you measure your vocabulary size?
And not just all of you, but one of you named Jake. I don't know the last name. I don't know the last name either. Didn't provide it. But what I will say is Jake is an absolute legend. Yeah, maybe Jake wants to be a little bit anonymous, but his website should not be anonymous. Absolutely not.
Inspired by a discussion we had on a previous episode about how many words does a person know and how many words are there to know, he looked into it and made a website that tests how many words you know. It estimates the size of your vocabulary. Certainly does. That's what we're going to get into today.
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OK, so the website is called Vocab Owl, which looks like vocab bowl, like Super Bowl. Yeah, it's a little bit competitive. Vocable. It's vocable. It's very fun. And you and I have both done it. We don't know each other's scores. Basically, you just go through and you're shown words and then you have a multiple choice challenge. Which of these four is the definition of this word?
And you go on like that for what, like 100 words? Yeah, 100 words.
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Chapter 3: What is the Vocab Owl and how does it work?
Also, bluntly, I just quite like you. So, you know, I don't think it would be... I might tease you in jest. Just rib you around the edges a little here and there.
No, it's fine.
Yeah. I like you too.
However, let's compare our vocabs. Okay, deal. According to Jake's vocab owl.
Vocab owl. Okay. What are we saying? Do you want the number I got correct out of? No, I want the estimated number of words you know. Okay. 73,400. 73,400. Don't look at me like that. What was yours?
72,250. Wow. Wow. Okay, congratulations. Congratulations to you. All right. Well, that's a lot of words. So you know a thousand more words than me, approximately. What are they? Who knows? Probably British ones like chim-chim-chree and... I don't know them. Jiminy Cricket. I know Jiminy Cricket. I like that. I say that when I'm upset. Jiminy. I say Jiminy Christmas. I got 10 words wrong.
I got nine wrong. Oh, but maybe we got them wrong in different parts. I think that's what it is, because the way the website estimates your vocabulary is by saying, OK, in the English language, there are this many words that are of intermediate difficulty or intermediately known. And if you only know two thirds of them, then you only know two thirds of those words. Of the wider corpus.
I missed more from lower down the chain. Yeah, you must have done. And fewer up at the top, but there's fewer to know at the top. So you have a larger vocabulary than me. But I think maybe I'm lopsided.
I think you've been reading too many of the scrumdiddlyumptious.
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Chapter 4: What surprising words did Hannah and Michael discover?
Laconic. Laconic. I said, oh, that means being lazy and slow. But no, it means using very few words. Yeah. Did you know that? I think I did know that one. Yeah, I bet you did. Laconic is a great one. It is a good word. Like, oh, the way she describes things is so laconic. No wasted words. Just... Okay. Should I go through what I've missed or should we trade?
I don't have a full list of them. I'll be honest with you. I found the test quite painful. I don't like getting things wrong.
Yeah. Well, me neither. Actually... No, I did like getting them wrong. I mean, look at me. I've written them all down and I've put them into sentences and I'm like, I'm not going to get these wrong again. So I'll share my list. Yeah, go on. OK, lugubrious. Lugubrious. I got that one wrong. Now, I've heard the word before.
I decided that it means looking or sounding happy or gay, but it means looking or sounding sad and dismal. I think I got that one wrong as well, you know. Oh, really? Lugubrious. So that's a sad way to be. Ah, his lugubrious pose.
You can really tell in the way that you're saying it. When you say lugubrious, it sounds like it's got the opposite definition.
All the children with their lugubrious play. But no, lugubrious play would be very sad. Okay, unctuous. I got that one wrong.
Well, can I just tell you, this one, I also got this one wrong, but I actually got this one wrong particularly because I was sitting next to producer Lauren, who was like, oh... It means delicious.
Apparently not. It means excessively or irritatingly flattering. That is cool. I would not have guessed that. I guess that it meant dry and rough and rude. Unctuous. Oh, this drink is unctuous. But no, to be unctuous means to be like a salesperson is unctuous. They're like, oh, you have such great tastes and oh, this is, you know what's good. And it's just, oh, stop being so flattering.
I was a bit unctuous earlier when I told you I liked you. you said it not me and now we all understand it this one is the one that I wish I'd not missed innervate right innervate it does not mean to cause someone to be filled with energy it means the opposite it means to cause someone to feel drained of energy that's a tricky one that is a tricky one is you would
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