1
as in dialects
the special terms or expressions of a particular group or field
scientific vocabulary
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Relevance
2
as in languages
the stock of words, pronunciation, and grammar used by a people as their basic means of communication
children learn enough of the common vocabulary to make themselves understood by around the age of two
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Recent Examples of vocabularies
By the end of the learning unit, Burton said growth in the children could be seen as their vocabularies expanded to using words such as thermometer, blood pressure and punctured.
—
Tribune News Service, Baltimore Sun, 30 Apr. 2026
Shallow, misogynistic speech has seeped into the daily vocabularies of many, suggesting the toxic, anti-woman values that have long inspired such rhetoric are once again calcifying into a widespread and serious problem.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 28 Apr. 2026
By the end of the learning unit, Burton said growth in the children could be seen as their vocabularies expanded to using words such as thermometer, blood pressure and punctured.
—Darcel Rockett, Chicago Tribune, 27 Apr. 2026
In the October 2025 study that followed families over time, children who spent more time with digital media at age 2 tended to have smaller vocabularies at age 3, regardless of the child’s temperament or the caregiver’s personality traits.
—Miriam Fauzia, Dallas Morning News, 2 Mar. 2026
Teams were asked to learn new interfaces, adopt new vocabularies, and take responsibility for outputs whose behavior remained probabilistic rather than deterministic.
—Alexander Puutio, Forbes.com, 28 Jan. 2026
The discovery of language skills in great apes — various gorillas and chimps learned substantial vocabularies in sign language or symbols — and that of tool use across the animal kingdom have, over the years, chipped away at the idea that there is any single ingredient that makes humans unique.
—Tom Chivers, semafor.com, 13 Jan. 2026
Children who are read to from under a year old often have larger and more complex vocabularies than their peers by the age of three.
—Rachael O'Connor, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Nov. 2025
The 306-page book use solos by Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis and other jazz immortals to provide melodic and rhythmic vocabularies for improvisation.
—George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Nov. 2025
Tribune News Service, Baltimore Sun, 30 Apr. 2026
Shallow, misogynistic speech has seeped into the daily vocabularies of many, suggesting the toxic, anti-woman values that have long inspired such rhetoric are once again calcifying into a widespread and serious problem.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 28 Apr. 2026
By the end of the learning unit, Burton said growth in the children could be seen as their vocabularies expanded to using words such as thermometer, blood pressure and punctured.
—Darcel Rockett, Chicago Tribune, 27 Apr. 2026
In the October 2025 study that followed families over time, children who spent more time with digital media at age 2 tended to have smaller vocabularies at age 3, regardless of the child’s temperament or the caregiver’s personality traits.
—Miriam Fauzia, Dallas Morning News, 2 Mar. 2026
Teams were asked to learn new interfaces, adopt new vocabularies, and take responsibility for outputs whose behavior remained probabilistic rather than deterministic.
—Alexander Puutio, Forbes.com, 28 Jan. 2026
The discovery of language skills in great apes — various gorillas and chimps learned substantial vocabularies in sign language or symbols — and that of tool use across the animal kingdom have, over the years, chipped away at the idea that there is any single ingredient that makes humans unique.
—Tom Chivers, semafor.com, 13 Jan. 2026
Children who are read to from under a year old often have larger and more complex vocabularies than their peers by the age of three.
—Rachael O'Connor, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Nov. 2025
The 306-page book use solos by Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis and other jazz immortals to provide melodic and rhythmic vocabularies for improvisation.
—George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for vocabularies
Noun
-
Sperm whales communicate using group-specific dialects orders of magnitude older than Sanskrit.—
Ryan Huling,
Time,
7 May 2026
-
The small cadre of community radio stations in coastal Bangladesh, using local dialects, provide an early-warning system against tsunamis, flooding, and cyclones.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
23 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Conrad Weiser was a Pennsylvania German who had roamed the frontier for decades, learning the Indian languages and befriending Indian leaders, including some who encountered Washington in Ohio.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
20 May 2026
-
The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.—
Angelique Brenes,
PEOPLE,
20 May 2026
Noun
-
The Western musical tradition is mostly sidelined in favor of kuduro, gqom, batida, and sounds too free of familiar musical idioms to be easily categorized.—
Will Lynch,
Pitchfork,
11 May 2026
-
If the assignment is to translate something from a foreign language, there are plenty of tools and resources that can do it for you, including by recognizing and figuratively translating idioms.—
Ethan Siegel,
Big Think,
25 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Belonging to the same group of mammals as sloths and anteaters, armadillos are voracious insectivores that eat large numbers of beetles, grubs, ants, termites, and other insects, grabbing them with their sticky tongues.—
Arricca Elin SanSone,
Southern Living,
19 May 2026
-
Maldonado is well-known in Miami for hosting intense services at his West Kendall church that often involve speaking in tongues and channeling the Holy Spirit.—
Lauren Costantino,
Miami Herald,
19 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Vocabularies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/vocabularies. Accessed 25 May. 2026.
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