WAY OFFPlay today's →
Way Off facts · 🔤 Words & Language

How many words does the average 20-year-old native English speaker know?

42,000
words
By age 20 you know an estimated 42,000 words — roughly one new word learned every single day since birth.SOURCEBrysbaert et al., Frontiers in Psychology (2016)
Scale check: 42,000 is roughly a lower-league football crowd.
Would you have guessed? You'll be way off.

Way Off is a game which asks questions like this every day. Guess by order of magnitude, watch the truth be revealed, and beat your friends by being the least wrong.

Play today's Way Off — free

More Words & Language numbers you'll get wrong

The Rotokas language of Papua New Guinea has the world's shortest alphabet. How many letters does it have?the answer will annoy you How many words are in the complete works of Shakespeare?the answer will annoy you When Oxford lexicographers finished revising the verb "run", how many distinct meanings did they record for it?the answer will annoy you How many kanji characters are Japanese students officially required to learn by the end of high school?the answer will annoy you All 314 facts →