RT:‘It is called rich for good reason:’ Russian language experts compare vocabulary sizes across lexical systems’
Source: https://english.spbu.ru/news-events/university-media/it-called-rich-good-reason-russian-language-experts-compare-vocabulary Parent: https://english.spbu.ru/
12 March 2026
University in Media
RT: ‘It is called rich for good reason:’ Russian language experts compare vocabulary sizes across lexical systems’
The Russian language contains approximately half a million words — comparable to Chinese. French, by contrast, has around 150,000 words, while English features nearly a million diverse lexical units. In an interview with RT, experts analysed the reasons behind these differences. Some languages are more receptive to borrowing, whereas others, like French, tend to be more conservative. Additionally, the development of science and culture within a country significantly influences vocabulary growth. However, experts emphasise that determining the exact number of words in any language is impossible, and these figures are only approximate.
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Pavel Katyshev, Head of the Department of General and Russian Linguistics at the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, told RIA Novosti news agency that modern Russian comprises about 500,000 words.
According to experts speaking with RT, pinpointing the precise number of words in any language is unfeasible, since certain vocabulary — such as slang and neologisms — often goes unrecorded in dictionaries.
In her remarks to RT, Ekaterina Zorina, Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor in the Department of Russian at St. Petersburg State University, and Director of the Linguistic Clinic at St. Petersburg State University, posed several questions: ‘Were obsolete words and neologisms included in the count? Which borrowings were included? How were functional parts of speech accounted for? Were jargon and slang included?’
According to Ekaterina Zorina, the stylistic diversity of Russian vocabulary and the sheer number of words in modern Russian stem from a long historical process.
‘The Russian language is called rich for good reason. It essentially evolved from two languages: Old Church Slavonic and Old Russian. Words of high style — for example, those beginning with blago-, such as blagovolenie (goodwill) and blagodarnost (gratitude) — originate from Old Church Slavonic,’ Ekaterina Zorina noted.
English contains around 600,000 words
The Oxford English Dictionary estimates that it contains roughly 600,000 words, including obsolete and rare forms. Yet, some researchers argue that, when scientific, technical, and professional terminology are factored in, the total vocabulary of English may surpass 1 million lexical units. This vast number reflects the language’s history, as English has borrowed extensively from French, Latin, German, and other languages.
Furthermore, the language continues to evolve, embracing borrowings and slang while actively generating new words, Ekaterina Zorina explained.
‘There is also an issue with counting: many words carry multiple meanings that shift depending on context,’ Ekaterina Zorina added.
French comprises around 150,000 words
The French vocabulary is generally estimated at around 150,000 words. When dialects, terminology, slang, and archaisms are included, French encompasses approximately 200,000–300,000 lexemes. The French Academy prioritises preserving national linguistic norms and standardising the language, which directly shapes the vocabulary’s development. According to Ekaterina Zorina, linguistic conservatism and resistance to language change act as a barrier to the acquisition of new vocabulary.
‘As a result, French expands its vocabulary through borrowings more slowly than other languages,’ Ekaterina Zorina explained.
German consists of nearly 500,000 words
The Duden dictionary estimates that spoken German consists of between 300,000 and 500,000 words, though an exact count remains elusive due to the language’s highly developed word-formation system. A defining feature of German is its capacity to create lengthy compound words by merging multiple stems. Since the potential combinations are virtually unlimited, we are talking of millions of lexical units. Furthermore, German lexicon is constantly growing and evolving.
Chinese encompasses around 500,000 words
The Chinese language represents a complex linguistic system where the concept of ‘words’ differs from that of European languages. Counting is further complicated by dialectal diversity and the intricacies of its writing system, in which a single character can appear in multiple words.
Nevertheless, the total vocabulary is typically estimated at approximately 500,000 lexical units.
‘Pǔtōnghuà, commonly known as Mandarin Chinese, serves as the official, standardised national language of mainland China and enables communication among speakers of different dialects. When used as a lingua franca, Mandarin relies on a more limited set of words,’ noted Ekaterina Zorina.
‘The level of scientific and technological development, cultural and natural aspects’
Several factors account for the wide variation in the number of lexemes across languages. Beyond openness to borrowing, the environment in which a language evolves also plays a critical role.
‘The level of scientific and technological development, as well as cultural and natural aspects also matter — words reflect real phenomena that people encounter daily. For instance, an advanced industrial nation with extensive technical documentation will naturally develop a language rich in technical terminology. The reverse is also true,’ explained linguist Ilya Mishchenko, Board Member of the Union of Translators of Russia, in an interview with RT.
However, a language’s extensive vocabulary does not automatically mean that every speaker possesses a similarly rich personal lexicon.
‘You can be a native speaker; yet still have a very limited vocabulary — it is highly individual. At the same time, there is likely no one who knows every word in their native language,’ Ilya Mishchenko emphasised.
As Ekaterina Zorina explained, a person’s vocabulary evolves throughout their life, expanding as they read new books and grow professionally.
‘Research suggests that the average native Russian speaker knows around 10,000 words but actively uses only about 2,000,’ Ekaterina Zorina concluded.
Source
https://russian.rt.com/science/article/1594014-kolichestvo-slov-v-yazykah