Quotes About Vocabulary

When the daily number of words for each group of children is projected across four years, the four-year-old child from the professional family will have heard 45 million words, the working-class child 26 million, and the welfare child only 13 million.

The eventual strength of our vocabulary is determined not by the ten thousand common words but by how many rare words we understand.

Amaro likes words. . . . I think he enjoys their taste.

Colonial counterinsurgency policies rest undiluted in current security measures. Molten in their form, colonial entailments may lose their visible and identifiable presence in the vocabulary, conceptual grammar, and idioms of current concerns. It is the effort of this venture to halt in the face of these processes of occlusion and submersion, to ask about how they work, their differential effects; and on whom they most palpably act.

One store owner said he was going to leave a dictionary on a public bench so the vandals could at least spell the obscenities correctly. It

For those learning English as a second language, there is little to do but roll the eyes, tear at the hair, and grimly memorize each one.

I say 'incantation' a lot, when what I really mean 'incarnation.' It's a programmed mistake.

I'm not against profanity. It's an important part of the language when used properly.

I'd like to provide an SAT word in everything I do.

Nothing irks me more than the vocabulary of social responsibility. The very word 'duty' is unpleasant to me, like an unwanted guest. But the terms 'civic duty', 'solidarity', 'humanitarianism' and others of the same ilk disgust me like rubbish dumped out of a window right on top of me. I'm offended by the implicit assumption that these expressions pertain to me, that I should find them worthwhile and even meaningful.

I enjoy using words. Or rather: I enjoy making words work.

I'm a massive fan of the dictionary.

I'm a big 'Countdown' fan.

I try to avoid saying 'fantastic' too often and 'obviously' is a dangerous word for all broadcasters.

I was fascinated by the shape of words even before I knew what they meant.

Britain's fascination with its changing language is renowned.

Language changes very fast.

I keep a big, fat dictionary with me while writing.

Most people understand that the more words children are exposed to, the stronger their vocabularies will be. But fewer people are aware that the quality of the words also significantly affects brain development.

There's an awful lot of us who don't quite speak finance, speak money.

You can't fix a problem if you don't have the words to describe it. You can't even think about it clearly.

One superlatively important effect of wide reading is the enlargement of vocabulary which always accompanies it.

According to my wife, my use of vocabulary is wide and varied.

If scientists could communicate more in their own voices - in a familiar tone, with a less specialized vocabulary - would a wide range of people understand them better? Would their work be better understood by the general public, policy-makers, funders, and, even in some cases, other scientists?