1
as in dialects
the special terms or expressions of a particular group or field
scientific vocabulary
Synonyms & Similar Words
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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
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
All the tired vocabularies have been thrown out, replaced by a mad, post-minimalist openness and pluralism.
—Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2025
Transcripts, grammars, vocabularies, dictionaries, glyph studies, botanical studies, commentaries, articles, editions of codices, correspondence, maps, charts, drawings, photographs, Maya Society materials, genealogies of Maya families, and Mayan glyphs on moveable type.
—The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 12 Sep. 2025
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
All the tired vocabularies have been thrown out, replaced by a mad, post-minimalist openness and pluralism.
—Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2025
Transcripts, grammars, vocabularies, dictionaries, glyph studies, botanical studies, commentaries, articles, editions of codices, correspondence, maps, charts, drawings, photographs, Maya Society materials, genealogies of Maya families, and Mayan glyphs on moveable type.
—The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 12 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for vocabularies
Noun
-
The British colonial name of New Cut was different from other nearby creeks—Wadmalaw, Bohicket, Leadenwah, Stono—all named in Indigenous dialects.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Apr. 2026
-
Human communication with honeyguides in northern Mozambique occurs in local dialects.—
Rafil Kroll-Zaidi,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Four are beautifully translated from their original languages.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
14 Apr. 2026
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The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.—
Christina Coulter,
PEOPLE,
13 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
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
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Those books introduced me to a vision of American teenage life and taught me the rhythms and idioms of American English, nuances that would later replace my Britishisms and shape my career as a journalist.—
Faith Karimi,
CNN Money,
17 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Notebooks filled with two tongues leaning against each other.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
14 Apr. 2026
-
Chows are magnificent dogs of ancient Chinese descent known for their black tongues and lion-like mane.—
Katelyn Chef,
Martha Stewart,
12 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Vocabularies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/vocabularies. Accessed 16 Apr. 2026.
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