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I recently came across a link to 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know, by the folks who brought you the American Heritage Dictionaries. The cool part is that they went ahead and printed the 100 words on the web site, leaving you to buy the book (a quite reasonable $5.95 at Amazon) if you want to learn more about them. But my motto is: have Google, will learn.
I approached the list with some trepidation. I’m a high school graduate, so by definition I “should” know these. I’m a writer, so I really should know these. But how many would stump me? It turns out, I only identified six words which made me uncomfortable: abjure, abstemious, bowdlerize, moiety, orthography, tautology. A few of those I might “get by on” (like abjure, which I could probably figure it out in usage), but bowdlerize? Well, thanks to Google and Wikipedia, I’ve got all 100. (For example: read about Thomas Bowdler’s expurgation of classic works, which led to the term bowdlerize.)
Now it’s your turn — which of these words do you need to learn? (List of words after the jump.)
abjure
abrogate
abstemious
acumen
antebellum
auspicious
belie
bellicose
bowdlerize
chicanery
chromosome
churlish
circumlocution
circumnavigate
deciduous
deleterious
diffident
enervate
enfranchise
epiphany
equinox
euro
evanescent
expurgate
facetious
fatuous
feckless
fiduciary
filibuster
gamete
gauche
gerrymander
hegemony
hemoglobin
homogeneous
hubris
hypotenuse
impeach
incognito
incontrovertible
inculcate
infrastructure
interpolate
irony
jejune
kinetic
kowtow
laissez faire
lexicon
loquacious
lugubrious
metamorphosis
mitosis
moiety
nanotechnology
nihilism
nomenclature
nonsectarian
notarize
obsequious
oligarchy
omnipotent
orthography
oxidize
parabola
paradigm
parameter
pecuniary
photosynthesis
plagiarize
plasma
polymer
precipitous
quasar
quotidian
recapitulate
reciprocal
reparation
respiration
sanguine
soliloquy
subjugate
suffragist
supercilious
tautology
taxonomy
tectonic
tempestuous
thermodynamics
totalitarian
unctuous
usurp
vacuous
vehement
vortex
winnow
wrought
xenophobe
yeoman
ziggurat
29!
posted by Tara on 6-8-2007 at 10:21 am
As I reviewed the list I came to suspect that this was more of an indicator of a balanced education then a balanced vocabulary. The words seemed to be carefully spread across disciplines, i.e. moiety, thermodynamics, laissez faire, parabola, orthography, nanotechnology, or principles appropriate for academic discourse, ie. bowdlerize, subjugate, enfranchise. I would expect the text is more of a primer on ways to take full advantage of a liberal arts college experience.
posted by pablopk on 6-8-2007 at 10:48 am
I knew most of them.
Do we really need to know words like chicanery or antebellum, which are way out of common usage (yes,Civil War history is extremely important, but who ever used antebellum to refer to the war in Iraq?).
That said, I’m headed off to look up the ones I didn’t know….
posted by Jim on 6-8-2007 at 10:50 am
Wow. I just graduated with an honors BA in English, and don’t know about 25% of those words (maybe less). Who wants to play, Are You Smarter than a College Graduate?
posted by Kate on 6-8-2007 at 11:10 am
why on Earth do we need to know what a Ziggurat is? I haven’t talked to a Zoroastrian in like twenty three hundred years.
posted by Xeno on 6-8-2007 at 11:58 am
I’m Belgian. Although Belgium has 3 official languages (Dutch, French and German) I consider English to be my second language.
I’m a qualified electrician who nowadays works as a piping draughtsman. Not having majored in English at all, nor any other languages, and not having a college degree I’m proud to say that even I know 85 % of them without looking them up. Perhaps reading lots of Science Fiction in English does indeed help to enhance ones vocabulary.
posted by Pjotr on 6-8-2007 at 12:05 pm
Gosh. I’m only in ninth grade and I knew 83 of them. They’re pretty easy.
posted by Rubik on 6-8-2007 at 12:55 pm
I knew all but 6 of them, but as someone with an MA in linguistics who teaches English to adults, it bothers me that I didn’t know them all. On the other hand, I suppose I can rationalize this by saying I have filled up a lot of my memory for words and definitions with vocabulary from other languages!
posted by Anne on 6-8-2007 at 12:58 pm
I am at about 57, though many of them would only be known by context. However, I am not sure why some people would know some of those words and why you would need to know others. Seems like a weird list.
posted by Amber on 6-8-2007 at 1:21 pm
A lot of these words seem to come from the subjects of English, Geography and Science. That said, as I am only in Grade 9, I still managed to identify almost all the science related words and some of the words that I just know ( I read a lot of books ). Still I don’t think most graduates know these words.
posted by Eric on 6-8-2007 at 1:57 pm
I know most of them by sight. Where I have problems is no one I know talks that way, so I don’t know how to pronounce some of them.
And “yeoman”? Why on earth would a college student need to know “yeoman”, unless they aspire to be Naval officers?
posted by Pam on 6-8-2007 at 4:54 pm
I know them all. So what?
posted by Sinapup on 6-8-2007 at 6:12 pm
OH WOW!
I knew 78, never went to college. I had a 12th grade vocab in 6th grade. Sadly my son and his friends (juniors)and most of my youth group knew less than I did. No I am not counting the homeschoolers… That would be grossly unfair to the rest of us. :)
And no I am not bragging.
posted by Matt on 6-8-2007 at 8:05 pm
I think some have gotten the wrong end of the stick. It’s not about applying these words in everyday use, but by understanding their context predicates a wide and varied knowledge. “More of an indicator of a balanced education then a balanced vocabulary” is right.
posted by paulo on 6-8-2007 at 8:31 pm
Sweet! I know 96 of them! But then again, I am a huge vocab nerd…
posted by Tom on 6-8-2007 at 10:09 pm
I am over 50 and never in all my years alive have I had the occasion to use the word quotidian.
posted by Jean on 6-8-2007 at 10:24 pm
About sixty-six. Awesome. Gonna go read up on the other ones, though..
posted by Cassidy on 6-8-2007 at 11:04 pm
Not all those words are English! laissez faire…. nuff said!
And they aren’t even spelt in English- they’re spelt in American! Hemoglobin should be spelt HAEMOGLOBIN
posted by Kathryn on 6-8-2007 at 11:24 pm
I do wonder *why* they feel these are words that a HS graduate “should know”. Their webpage says that these are a benchmark to indicate whether you have a superior command of the language.
A superior command? So if I know all of these words by the end of High School, then I have some assurance that I can use the English language to good effect, and have a better grasp of its breadth than most of my peers? Or does this mean that I can reasonably converse with a wide range of people and understand what they are saying?
Perhaps the intent is to list a hig-hwater mark of vocabulary, on the assumption that a HS graduate who knows these words must also understand the lesser words that are associated with the same subjects or specialities. If someone knows the meaning of “gerrymander” and “filibuster”, they can be assumed to have a working knowledge of other words associated with U.S. politics. They would know why a judge is “recused” from cases involving a particular issue, or how one leader is “ideaological” while another follows “realpolitik”.
If this is the case, then learning the definitions of these 100 words will not be indicative of anything. It would be the equivalent of “teaching to the test”.
posted by Daniel Kim on 6-9-2007 at 7:00 am
I think we should all take note of the fact that a non-native English speaker who makes his living as an electrician (a working man, folks) scored 85%.
That said, I screwed up on one word. I’m a high school drop-out.
As to why one would need to know these words… Well, they obviously aren’t essential in a society where people are educated in a very narrow, career oriented fashion.
I would refer you to the idea of cultural literacy as promulgated by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. Alhough it is very Euro/Ameri-centric, and has appeal for social conservatives, it is still quite valid for us all and can easily be made to encompass other cultures. It is also (to me) a modern plea for a true liberal arts education.
posted by Bassman on 6-9-2007 at 7:48 am
Any writer worth his pen will tell you one of the biggest mistakes writers make is to use “20 dollar words” when a 5 cent word will do.
Sure, you can say your hero was “Incognito” or you can simply say he was in disguise. Great, you call him incognito, and some English professor will be impressed with your vocabulary skills, but Joe Sixpack will be picking up his dictionary, or worse throwing your book in the pile because he doesn’t understand half of what you are writing.
You want your writing to be accessible to the masses. To be a successful writer, you want as wide an audience as possible. LESS IS MORE.
Your professor may find your work fatuous, but he will be the fool who only sells his books to his students, while you’re hitting the NY Times best sellers list again.
posted by Please on 6-9-2007 at 7:34 pm
Maybe being in high school gives me easier access to SAT review lists, but the only words on this list I don’t know are tautology and ziggurat.
posted by Bridget on 6-10-2007 at 5:17 pm
Though I agree that ostentation and clunkiness are unattractive in writing, I disagree with the later statements made in comment 21.
First of all, love it or hate it, English is a sprawling language. Rather than treat this characteristic as a lure into gross verbosity, I would like to think an author would take it as either a challenge or a blessing to have so vast and nuanced a collection at his or her disposal.
Also, I think many authors, and artists in general, would resent the notion that their craft’s ultimate goal is to be as widely comprehensible as possible. Subtlety, I think, is as legitimate as clarity. And, though sometimes frustrating, less common words (esp. technical terms) may serve the end that the comment maker seems to find wanting in wordy prose: a statement inescapably specific and straightforward.
posted by Sima on 6-10-2007 at 7:05 pm
I wonder how many people who thought they knew the meaning of a word really did know it. The Readers Digest had, and may still have, a list of words you needed to identify. I was often amazed that words I thought I knew the meaning of were actually different than I said. It would be interesting to have the definitions on the same page to help in scoring yourself. I believe I got 84%.
posted by Ware on 6-10-2007 at 8:54 pm
i just graduated high school and i know 65 of these words.
posted by Rhonda on 6-10-2007 at 10:39 pm
I knew 75, but English is only a secondary language to me.
Is there any data on how many high school graduates actually *know* these words? The fact that they *should* know implied they don’t :-)
posted by Xaphire on 6-11-2007 at 8:16 am
I have a BA in English. There were eight words I could not immediately recall, but I gave myself credit for abstemious for correctly guessing the root meaning. Of the remaining seven, there were three that I had never learned, and four that I had learned and forgotten. My education (at one of the toughest high schools in the country) left out “jejune”, “quotidian”, and “fatuous.”
posted by Cathy on 6-11-2007 at 9:17 am
I knew 60.
I could guess the root of some correctly.
I am not a native speaker of English, so I don’t think I’m that bad.
But some are focused on scientific subjects or business related words which not all students take.
posted by Nada on 6-15-2007 at 4:57 am
Why should every high school graduate know these words? Many of them are quite useless outside of very specific circumstances yet many important words are absent.
posted by John on 6-15-2007 at 5:38 pm
I knew 90 of them…
As a recent graduate (20 days ago), I think that’s pretty damn good.
posted by Alexandra on 6-15-2007 at 8:55 pm
Dutch born and raised, english is my second language, I have a PhD in medicine and occasionally do professional translation work. I knew 96 (not inculcate, abrogate, feckless, en jejune).
posted by Bart on 6-19-2007 at 6:53 am
I just want to read a short story with all the words in the list used. Anyone up for it?
posted by Buffy on 6-19-2007 at 7:36 am
i knew about 36 of these words and i am only 13 so :P
posted by joe on 6-19-2007 at 2:52 pm
Kate said, “Wow. I just graduated with an honors BA in English, and don’t know about 25% of those words (maybe less)”
That should be ‘fewer’, not ‘less’.
posted by Markzz on 6-23-2007 at 12:16 pm
I feel that some of these words are representative of an elitest, snobby subculture.
I propose two additions: quantum & epicentre. They should be included because they are so much misused in the press.
A good craftsman knows how to use his tools properly. Words are part of the scholar’s toolbox.
posted by Jim Field on 6-23-2007 at 12:19 pm
I didn’t know three of these words (I’m 18, and just finished Sixth Form, so roughly equivelant to a high-school graduate)
abrogate
abstemious
&
jejune
I half-remembered the meanings of abrogate and abstemious, but jejune is a word I have never seen before.
I used to read a lot, but I suspect there is a reason I never encountered “jejune”: Jejune has many many synonyms that would cover almost any use, and don’t force the reader to reach for a dictionary (ie. hollow, shallow, worthless, illusory, empty etc.). Thus, unlike “abstemious” (the closest word to which [abstinent] has a rather major secondary meaning attached) it has no real purpose in anything other than poetry (where absolute precision of meaning, and words that fit rhyme rhythm and tone, are often more important than ease of understanding)
Well, it has two uses, poetry and trying to pretend you’re saying something far deeper than you actually are.
posted by Kingreaper on 7-4-2007 at 3:11 pm