Quote:
A wide vocabulary refers to the number of words you know. According to a well-known lexicographer of the 1920s, Dr Frank Horace Vizetelly, English has around 1 million words. The average person uses only 4,000 to 5,000 of these words; "educated" people know 8,000 to 10,000 words. The occupations with the widest vocabulary are doctors and lawyers, who average around 23,000 words. (For a rough guide on the size of your vocabulary, try a Vizetelly's vocabulary test.)
Interesting. I would have thought, like Seha, that 8000 was significantly below average.
http://www.write-better-english.com/vocabulary-test.aspx
Second test put mine at 8640, for whatever that's worth.