I am always amazed at the vocabulary count displayed on some of the profiles here and of course the absolute numbers very much depend on the way Lingq counts vocabulary.
I tested my English vocabulary online here and the sobering score was 15,400 words, fewer than Steve’s German vocabulary.
I really doubt how meaningful this sampling is. Also don’t know if they count words or word families. My score was 39,500 but I think it is higher based on how many words I know in reading a few pages of Oxford dictionary.
I doubt this equates to the lingq numbers, or, is even accurate generally. If I was to lingq English, I would assume I’d easily be 50k+.
What’s more important, in my opinion, is your relative level – compared to where you were a year ago, or five years ago, are you improving? Do you continue to steadily challenge yourself?
To improve to a really high level, you have to always challenge yourself, and without a relative yardstick, it can be tough to monitor your real progress.
We count headword entries in a standard English dictionary. This means the standard word derivations are not counted (for example, “quickly,” derived from “quick,” does not count as a separate word). And while compound words are counted (like “air conditioning”), phrases and expressions are not (like “food for thought”).