Hi native speakers, would you say this is a difficult test?

It really depends on who is taking the test and their English proficiency. If you're asking whether it would be difficult for me as a native English speaker, then no, it wouldn't be.

Not a native speaker but I have a c2 proficiency degree and this test is mostly about whether you have a high level vocabulary,some of these are pretty niche words that you would rarely see used but the process of elimination does help.

I’d say it’s a C1 / C2 level test. It’s not particularly difficult - just a test of vocabulary. The words are low-frequency, formal register - but you either know them or you don’t. All sentences access the main meaning - no figurative or idiomatic language. Just vocabulary, so not challenging to well-read natives with a large lexicon.

Jesus. I’m learning German as a second language, and I would fail this spectacularly. Never mind the overly detailed sentences, but the answer choices are esoteric. If you don’t know the exact definition of each of these SAT (high school exam) words, then you have a worse chance.  What level are you going for? To me this looks like a test for close to fluency.

Where did you find it? I like the type of the task, the words themselves are above my level) I struggle with synonyms

Puissance is insane I’ve never heard that in English but it’s meaning in French makes perfect sense. I’m a native English speaker learning French.

It’s not complicated; there’s only one word that is appropriate in each case - but the vocabulary being used is advanced. I can guarantee you that a not insignificant proportion of native speakers would also struggle with this (unfortunately). 

It depends. Honestly some of them kinda had be stuck because I have never seen some of those words. And this is coming from someone who used to read the dictionary for fun😂

I remember taking similar tests in high school (I was in the honors/advanced English track). Every day, our teacher would give us a new challenge word. Man, I haven't seen "obsequious" in a long, long time... This was easy for me, but I was also that weird kid who read the dictionary for fun.

I’m a native speaker and some of those wete a challenge. Did have to look up obsequious to make sure it meant what I thought it meant…

The words are quite complicated (particularly for a second language), but have spectacularly different definitions. If you speak english fluently, it would probably be easy. But if it's a second/third language, even at a high level, it would probably be difficult.

Any test is easy if you know the answers - and for this it is just a matter of being familiar with the vocabulary in the possible answers. Not at all difficult for me, my 10 year old got two wrong, my 8 year old got three wrong - they both read a lot and are top of their respective classes for English, they didn't know all the definitions of every answer but from context could see which ones "fit" and which didn't.

Pretty advanced vocabulary, in my opinion.

Not really, though I was an English major in college. It's probably late high school or intro college level.

These seem like SAT words. Some of them are easy. Others I have no clue because I've never seen the words before, even after eliminating some. I'd like to think I'm an average native speaker with a bachelors degree.

I'm a native English speaker with a vocabulary I'm proud of which makes me extra embarrassed about the 4 words I don't know.

This comment thread makes me feel stupid

English is literally my first language and I don't know most of these

I would not use these words if I were talking to ESL speakers that I work with. I can do it without issue, have friends who would get by too, but I know native speakers who would struggle and there are absolutely some who would only be able to get one or two. If you can do this then you're probably speaking English better than a lot of English people.

I checked some of the vocabulary. It's at a CEFR C2 or an IELTS 8+ level.

As someone has already mentioned - this is above the level of even the average native speaker. Where did you encounter this?

I would guess somewhere around high school freshman difficulty. Any adult should be able to cruise to 100%, but there a few word that might trip up children.

It *shouldn’t* be that outrageous a level of vocab, but the average native speaker would probably struggle with a lot of these since most people just don’t read enough after high school. This is the sort thing you’d be expected to use in academia really.

Well this has humbled me.

This is not difficult for me, but I was a gifted kid and words like "maudlin" aren't unusual for me. But I do think some of the answers would be tricky for even a native speaker if they didn't have a good vocabulary. This seems to be a very advanced English test. Probably the highest level.

Looks like an SAT level vocab test to me. I think most Americans would struggle with this, considering >A [Gallup analysis](https://www.barbarabush.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BBFoundation_GainsFromEradicatingIlliteracy_9_8.pdf) published in March 2020 looked at data collected by the [U.S. Department of Educatio](https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/state-county-estimates.asp#4)n in 2012, 2014, and 2017. It found that 130 million adults in the country have low literacy skills, meaning that more than half (54%) of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, according to a piece published in 2022 by [APM Research Lab](https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy#:~:text=by%20EMILY%20SCHMIDT%20%7C%20March%2016%2C%202022&text=This%20means%20more%20than%20half,of%20a%20sixth%2Dgrade%20level.). \- [snopes](https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/08/02/us-literacy-rate/) So, imo, this *should* be fairly easy for an adult native speaker but that probably isn't generally true. I certainly couldn't do the equivalent of this in another language besides English and I'd find it impressive for a non-native speaker

Not a native but i'd say i'm rather proficient with english, and this sht was hard lol . Obsequious? Wtf

English is not my first language but I’m fluent. Only one of these stumbled me. I would say it would be hard for someone who hasn’t spoke English most of their life.

If you're asking if I find it difficult to answer - no. I can choose the right answer in about a second. If you're asking if I think it's difficult for ESL students - yes. I think it's only suitable for upper intermediate and advanced students. I'd hope that most / "average" native speakers would get about 7 or 8/10, without difficulty. But maybe that's a bit optimistic. There are a few slightly unusual words, which not every native will be sure about - such as obsequious and preponderance.

A well-read speaker should find almost all of them easy, even if they aren't terribly familiar with the vocabulary (relying instead on context clues.) I would guess however that many speakers, native and non-native alike, might have trouble.

The only thing that makes it difficult is that many of the words are rather uncommon. But if you are familiar with them, as any native speaker who can read at an adult level would be, then it's quite easy. A lot of the potential answers make zero sense if you actually tried to use it in the given sentence. So, if you are at least passingly familiar with all these words, then the answer to each question is quite obvious.

I’d say it’s probably above the heads of 99% of most native English speakers considering the typos I see on the internet.

Why are the words misspelled

I think it is fairly hard.

I’d say an average college-educated native speaker could pass this test easily. But some of these words (both the answer choices and the words used in the rest of the text) aren’t exactly commonly used. This is a fairly advanced test, designed for a speaker who is already fluent and merely trying to improve vocabulary.

absolutely. A material chunk of native english speakers (in the US at least) won’t know about half to two thirds of these words.

Not hard. But it requires a fairly large vocabulary, especially for a foreign speaker. Not all English speakers would find this test easy. I'd expect a college-bound high school senior in the US to ace this.

A well-read, educated native speaker would be able to ace this test. A less educated native speaker would probably get a lot of these wrong. If a non-native speaker aced this test, I would guess that their English vocabulary was large enough to take college-level classes in English without much trouble.

To answer the question, isn’t difficult for me as a native speaker—this feels like maybe middle school to early high school vocabulary—but I’m totally impressed by the quality of this test compared to most of the tests that get posted here. All the sentences are grammatically correct and have one right answer. How refreshing.

most of these words aren’t used by most native speakers, granted i’m not a native either but growing up in a very anglophone environment i think i can say they’re not normal words

It depends on what level of English you’re testing? For a fifth grader, it’s difficult. For a college graduate, it’s not difficult at all.

Native speaker here and I wouldn’t be shocked to find any of those questions on the GRE. They wouldn’t be the hardest ones on it, but they are not so easy that they would be strange to see.

No

No. None of these are the most frequently used words given the context but none of them are extremely obscure or rarely used.

Yes. These are difficult words to memorize because a lot of them are not used regularly throughout daily life.

This is exactly like a SAT vocab prep quiz I had in high school. I'd you're 'well-read', at least familiar with base words and the existence of Latin, I would call it difficult so much as tricky. If I remember correctly it intentionally uses some incredibly obscure words most of the population would never come across organically to force you to resort to educated guesses.

Not really, for a native speaker it's not.

I would say it’s easy for me, but I do think some of these would throw off people who don’t have a vast vocabulary built up. I would say it’s probably in the high c1/c2 knowledge range.

For me, no. Even though I was unfamiliar with a few of the correct answers, I was still able to use process of elimination. I think a test like this is meant to test your knowledge of both the correct answers and the incorrect answers.

I would not categorize this as a "difficult" test because each option has a different meaning, and that meaning is clear in the sentences - there's only one answer that fits, so if you know the meaning of those words, you will score 100% on this test. It's a vocabulary test, basically. If you know those vocabulary words, you can easily pass the test. However some of those words are not very common. People don't typically use words like "preponderance" and "obsequious" in their conversations or books/movies that people are more frequently exposed to. This would be a more college-level vocabulary test. (I am a Native English speaker who has been to college but did not complete a degree)

Simply a test of vocabulary. Even so, with the context included I believe the majority of educated/well-read natives wouldn’t have an issue or at least be able to formulate an estimated guess.

The only word i know there is “grievous” because I’ve watched Star Wars and know its lore a bit 😭

This reminds me a bit of 9th/10th grade advanced English classes (as a native speaker). Not too difficult, but not always the most common words.

As a native speaker, I knew all the words, but I wouldn't use most of them in everyday conversation. In a lot of settings using these words would come across as trying too hard or showing off.

The vocabulary is difficult but the structure of the questions and choices aren’t - the definitions of each choice are different enough that you don’t have to know any nuance, you just kind of have to know what the words at least vaguely mean to get it right. Though there’s a lot of difficult vocab that even native speakers would struggle to define and I wouldn’t expect non natives to know most of them. If it’s a test for ESL purposes, I don’t think it would be that useful, unless it’s for near fluent level vocabulary testing.

I’m not a native speaker and I did not know most of those words, iam sad, now I want an app that make me expand my knowledge in those difficult words, any recommendations?

Reminds me of the SAT/ACT test, which is taken by highschool juniors/seniors (~16yr-18yr) for University entrance 👍

I happen to be at a party so I showed this to a few friends (who not to sound savage, have varying (academic!) intelligence lol) and one found it super easy, I guessed a couple from context clues, a couple got only two right, the rest were mixed So depends who you ask! C2 vocabulary tends to involve a bucket load of words even some natives don't know. C1 I think has fluency, C2 is bragging rights xD

No not really. Questions 3 and 9 are harder than the others but still aren't that bad.

I’m a 40yo native English speaker (US) with a master’s degree and I can fill all the blanks but a couple gave me pause because they just aren’t words that would ever come out of my mouth in normal life. Definitely “advanced” vocabulary. All good words and good to know, sure.

I got 6 out of 10, two of which were kinda educated guesses. I'm C1 and have been living in the US for 3 years

I’m a native speaker and some of these questions are super easy but a couple of them are actually pretty hard. There are definitely like five or six words in here that I’ve never heard before.

Yes

Hi! While I don’t know the levels of language, I do know that this test would seem impossible to anyone below 6th grade/year 7 where I live. Of course it’s different around the world, but unless it’s a vocabulary quiz not many people here would know the words anyway.

Yes but no. Some are easier than others.

Most of the questions aren't difficult. I didn't know the word "Maudlin", but it was easy to tell that that was the right answer based on knowing what the other three words meant. 7 is the only one that's genuinely a little ambiguous: they seem to be driving at "disparate", but "exhaustive" could also work if they mean "covering every field that might conceivably be relevant". Some of the sentences feel a little unnatural, like "yes, I know what they word means, but I wouldn't really use it in that way- I would use a more common or betting fitting word". Basically, reads like a vocabulary test- like someone is trying to use a particular word just for the sake of using it.

It seems like what you'd expect on the SAT (US university entrance standardized test) or an upper-level high school test. The average American adult would probably get <50%; a well-read college educated person should get 100%.

As a native speaker, not particularly difficult, though I imagine there are plenty of native speakers who do not know the meanings of many of these words - even I don't know some of them and (while I've never taken any formal education in language beyond standard schooling) I have a decent memory for words and vocab. So long as you have the vocabulary, it shouldn't be too bad.

Not really, no. Only one answer makes any sense in a given set, the other words aren’t even close!

Yes, these are not words used in everyday normal conversation

For number 8, "preponderance" is the correct answer out of the four, but "prevalence" would have been better and the writer obviously confused the two. So yeah, these are words that educated native speakers struggle to use correctly.

I'd say fairly easy.

Ok in all honesty, the sentences themselves are simple and straight forward, but the vocab? Wow I was reading few the first few questions and I hadn’t heard of half of those words!!

It's not that difficult, it's basically a straight vocab test because basically none of the questions have more then one option that even comes close to the correct meaning the sentence would be looking for

No. But I am a grown adult. It really depends on age, reading comprehension, and vocabulary.

No, but I read a lot and have a dense vocabulary.

Seven of these words I’ve never heard, and I own a collection of dictionaries. Most of these words will not be heard unless you spend a lot of time in a college or university. While I enjoy learning words like this, I often frustrate others if I use many of them in every day speech.

No

As a native speaker, no. I didn't find this difficult.

I found it pretty easy, but the average American will probably get 40-60% of them incorrect. 

I am non-native and I will try to answer without googling: 1.) D (Pretty easy) 2.) B (Subpoena means court summons I think? I read this word in a visual novel) 3.) B (I have no idea what options A and B mean) 4.) D (The other words don't make any sense in the given context) 5.) B 6.) A (Guess by elimination) 7.) B (Vex means to be annoyed) 8.) C (Gut feeling) 9.) C (Obsequious means showing excessive obedience IIRC) 10.) A (Plethora means a greater than needed (or large) amount of something) So, how many marks do I get?

As a reasonably well read native English speaker, this reminds me of vocab tests I took in 10th grade at a fairly highly-rated school. I was sure of all but two, and for the two I wasn’t 100% sure about I was able to make an educated guess. However, difficulty is definitely in the eye of the beholder, as it were, and I know some native speakers who would struggle with this.

I’m a native English speaker, some of these words are pretentious. They would only be said if you were trying to make yourself sound smarter than you really are. It’s not terribly difficult because you can rule things out but I wouldn’t expect the average American to know what quite a few of these words are, some might be more common in Europe though.

It's not a difficult test for me since I happen to know all the vocabulary. I would not be surprised at another native speaker struggling with some of these, and I wouldn't think less of them for it. You either know the words or you don't.

I am not native so I cant tell sorry

3, 8, and 9 I personally don't really know what the answer should be or the answers as a whole are certainly beyond what I'd usually hear. Especially outside of 'corporate' or some specialist fields. To be completely honest, I need a dictionary for 8 and 9 just to check out all the answers lol. And to be nitpicky, it should be Multiple Choice Questions, not just choice questions

I’ll score horribly as I don’t know about half the answers. Questions are straightforward. Seeing everyone saying this is easy, doubting myself hard , so I went and looked up my SAT score(college entrance exam). My reading writing score is 580. Median score according to Google is 530. Half of college students in US would have trouble with this.

Not for a well educated native speaker, no. But the Gen Z young adults in my circle would likely flunk it though. Although the test is designed really such that only one word works. If you know the three words that don’t work, you don’t actually have to really know the word that does.

I found it very easy, but I’m guessing that non-native speakers might have difficulty due to the uncommon vocabulary. Many of these words are rarely encountered in everyday speech or in TV and movies.

I'm an adult native speaker who likes to read. I dropped out of high school but was able to get my GED and went to college for fine arts, so my education level for English is not super high. I know all the answers to this pretty effortlessly but there are two non-answer words I didn't know: expurgate and puissance. Expurgate I was able to figure out from the word "purge" and I had to look up "puissance."

I'm a native speaker and found it easy. The words are fancy, but the wrong answers are all wrong enough that it's usually very obvious to me what the right answer is.

Definitely difficult. I think a good chunk of native speakers would struggle with at least a few of them. Given reading levels...perhaps almost half would get most wrong.

Difficult? No. Does it force you to learn/know $5 words that you are not likely to ever need after this test is over? Yes.

A lot of the words are somewhat or very rarely used words that require a bit of an advanced vocabulary to be familiar with. But none of the wrong answers are even close, so if you know the words at all, it's not super tricky. It's not getting at fine distinctions of meaning.

Yeah I know the meanings of every word, but 'puissance' is more French (meaning power) than English. So that's kind of unfair. I don't think too many English native speakers would know the meaning.

Definitely C2 and above; a person at C1, if not guessing, would get 3/10.

For a native speaker who reads a lot, it's very easy. But these are relatively uncommon words, so I can see how it'd be hard for someone who's learning English as a second language.

As a native speaker, it is all words I use, at least sometimes.

Not native, but its still rather simple of a test.

Do you have other tests like that? To me they seem a good way to improve vocabulary

Yeah it's a difficult test for a non native speaker for sure. Not sure why people have to be all "well for me it is so easy breezy. My brain it is so large." There are some antiquated obscure vocabulary words involved even for native speakers. If a native speaker has to deduce through elimination on some of these, that's a difficult test for a non native speaker in my opinion.

Wtf! As a teacher of English as a second language, I wouldn’t pass this exam

It is extremely easy.

I'm a university educated matice English speaker and there are a couple of words here I couldn't confidently say I know the meanings of. I'd probably be able to work out the correct answers to all these questions by process of elimination even where I'm not sure what every word means, but in answer to the question, YES, I'd say it's a difficult test.

No, although there are some words that most native speakers in the UK would never use e.g maudlin, subpoena (this one in particular isn't particularly common for the UK, being more part of an American-English vocabulary).

Native speaker. Yes, I'd say it's moderately difficult. I knew all the correct answers. I have a pretty good vocabulary, though. There were two words (puissance and expurgate) that I recognized as "not the right answer," but I didn't remember the definitions off the top of my head. There are definitely high school graduates who would have flunked this one. Interestingly, my phone doesn't recognize "expurgate" as a word. Although I'm almost certain it is, and I have some idea what it means, due to sharing parts with "excise" and "purge". I assume it means "to remove from." I know "puissance" is a borrow from French. I remember it means either strong or weak (or maybe strength/weakness). I've seen a similar word used in an organ piece as a musical instruction when it got loud, so I'm gonna go with strong.

As a native English speaker I find this has to be difficult

My question is: Does anybody in real life talk like this?

I'm not a native speaker, but I am certain I'd get at least 8/10. But I work in academia, so I communicate in formal English every day.

As someone with no knowledge of standardized testing outside of what I took myself in Canada in high school, I’d expect the average 16 year old to be able to at least pass this vocabulary test, but I doubt more than 10% would get perfect

These are difficult words but it’s a well written test- generally only the correct word feels appropriate in the context of the sentence.

No. 9 is a bad question, as the only possible answer is “obsequious”, which doesn’t really go with “overly”: saying someone is overly obsequious suggests there’s an acceptable amount of obsequiousness, but obsequious by definition implies an excessive degree of obedience, compliments etc. Otherwise it looks OK.

As a native English speaker I think I have only heard “maudlin” (answer for #3) two times in my entire life, and both of those times were on TV.

I think the demand/expectation to know all of these words is excessive. For an example, if you never watched a law show or had no other exposure to law, you wouldn’t know what ‘subpoena’ means. It’s a vocabulary test, not a basic English test. In some business circles when your audience is the general public, the goal is to write to an 8th grade audience.

Tbh, I'm struggling for 1/3 of the questions, though not a native speaker

IANAT - I am not a teacher For native speakers? It’s vocab that you might study in high school English, but better readers will already know it. I think the sentences are more complex than the vocab itself. For English learners, who might have memorized definitions, I think understanding the sentences will be the bigger challenge. The vocab choices haven’t been arranged to be particularly nuanced. No “look”, “watch”, “see” options, for example. For the native-speaking, poorly educated, non-reader? Just picking the choice they might be mostly likely to recognize? Definitely an ‘F’. Maybe a ‘0’. For ESL people, I think very difficult, unless they regularly read literate native material. News, or most online material, would be inadequate.

I'm cursed by this. I was using this language every day like 12 hours for the last 3 years and I have no idea about those words. I was confident about my vocab but now I understand that I'll have to improve it as well as other parts of my language. Anyhow vocab is the easiest part to learn (but takes a lot of time)

I’m not a native speaker. I could easily answer 8/10 + one point where I suspected the right answer but I wasn’t fully sure. I wouldn’t say it’s hard, but these are words that are infrequently used in every day conversations.

The level of difficulty of this test would be best evaluated by understanding the material that was taught (if any) prior to the test being administered. If it’s a self-assessment vs a test from a class of some kind, then I think the difficulty is very much going to be individual-based. In general, a multiple choice question is a simple format vs an open answer, long answer or essay question test.

I'd say towards the harder end - and not because it's unclear, all of the questions have a clearly correct answer. I'd guess most people would get maybe 8 or 9 / 10 and a sizeable minority will just know all 10.

I don't know half these words. A lot of them sound made up and most of them I would never use 😂😂

I found it easy, but I think that's mostly because I'm a voracious reader (as well as a college-educated, native English speaker). I'd say that I learned the definition/context for the majority of those words via reading many, many books.

I could do most of this, but I genuinely think fewer than 50% of the UK population could.

It's an advanced test for sure, but shouldn't be too hard for well read native speakers.

As a French speaker this test is not that difficult, but it‘s also linked to the fact that most of the words are the same in French :)

its simple

Pick up a “100 words you need for the SAT” and i guarantee you all of these words will pop up in there

No. Not as a native speaker. But some words are not words I would expect a non native speaker to know. Render, maudlin … I know them, but they aren’t commonly used words unless you are in certain fields.

It's alright. A relatively well-educated college student should have no problem with it.

Definitely rather posh words, but still not outside the vernacular of ordinary people who natively speak English and have a high school education other than maybe 8 and 9 here.

I think the test is less about being a difficult English test and more about the words themselves. I could probably name quite a few native English speakers that wouldn’t do too well on this just for having a small vocabulary. In terms of difficulty, id say it’s relatively moderate for someone actually trying to study english. A lot of these words are ones that are rarely uses in common spoken English, at least in modern times. I read a lot of books and generally have a pretty wide understanding of the language as a native speaker and even I’ve never seen a few of these.

This doesn’t seem like a random test. It seems like a test of specific material. Either way, the words are challenging, but not particularly difficult.

I probably would've passed it, but I only truly know about 50% of the words standalone. I think it's easy to figure out mostly which word to pick without knowing their definitions, but a lot of them (the choices) are not common vocabulary words. (I think it's important to remember the sample size of this sub is going to be skewed, as in theory people who are more adept in English will be in this sub). I just get updates for some reason, and kinda feel more on an average level of the common folk.

Not difficult at all, but not too simple. The sentences are all well worded with a clear and unconfusing answer to each. The selection of vocabulary words were just the right degree of challenging, while not too obscure or unclear. I read it quickly, but didn't notice any grammar errors in the sample questions, unlike most test questions in this sub.

Native speaker here....3,5,&7 were the ones where i could eliminate one or two but would then have to make an educated guess. I can tell you a lot of American adults would struggle with this test because you either know the words or you don't ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyone saying this isn't difficult for a non-native speaker is full of it lmao. Of these words, the only ones I would say are frequently used are: Condone, sobriety, agile, versatile, exhaustive, deplete, lurk, defiance, negligent, unscathed, pry, and flop. That's 11 in total, or just over 20% of the words listed. Another 10 of those words you may encounter from time to time, but could easily converse/read without knowing. The remaining 60% are words that are so obscure I can guarantee that you'll almost never hear, or even see printed in most books/web articles. Don't let people discourage you from thinking you know less than you do.

There are a few where I think that a or b could work. C and D are usually ridiculous.

I learned English informally just by living in the US, and I didn’t think these were very difficult. I must add I do read a lot, and I love Tolkien.

9 and 3 are tough. This is usually considered pre college grammar.

I find it very easy to

Some of the word choices are fancy. Some Americans with just a high-school education might not know all the words. All of the questions have a clear answer, however - none of the wrong answers are remotely close to correct.

I honestly hate these type of questions. It’s either you know it or don’t. If you do, not bad, but really difficult if you don’t(You can usually eliminate 1 or 2 words for many questions)

Im finding its more a vocabulary test as most of the words that are an option are completely incorrect given the sentence, however the words that seem correct are more complex

For a native, this is something you’d find in a high school English class. For a learner, it’s definitely advanced. I wouldn’t say it’s difficult though. Most of these aren’t SAT words, per se.

Yeah, this looks like a C2 test. In real life most words I've seen on C2 vocab guides are rarely, if ever, used in real life. You'll mostly find them in novels. If you gave this test to a 100 American native speakers, most of them wouldn't get them all right.

yeah for someone trying to learn the language. i wiuld say most definitely

This is easy for me. I would put this at high school-level English. If you read books regularly, you'll come across all of these. If you don't read regularly, then it'll be harder--sort of a use-it-or-lose-it situation. I wouldn't expect someone learning English to know all of these, but an advanced learner who reads adult books in English should get most of them, possibly more than a native non-reader. These aren't words that come up too often in spoken English, but I've used most of them in the right context. "Vex" is nice because it's really short, and really unambiguous. "Obsequious" is particularly relevant in today's political climate. People don't seem to value reading as they once did. Ultimately they limit themselves by the media they consume. It's almost like there are two languages these days: written English and spoken English. You can be fluent in one without being fluent in the other. And there's always: "Jefe, would you say I have a \_plethora\_ ?"

I never understood why you'd put such low frequency words in a test for non native speakers. Makes zero sense

I am not a native speaker,in fact it is my third language, and so in no way an expert. But I found it easy.

No. There were a few that I wouldn't have been so confident on, but since it's multiple choice, I was able to narrow it down. Overall the words ranged from ones that I use frequently to ones that I've only seen a few times, but there were no words that I haven't seen. 1. Very easy 2. Easy 3. Very hard 4. Easy 5. Average 6. Average 7. Average 8. Hard 9. Hard 10. Average

Relatively tough, they’re using some pretty niche words in some of these

I knew them all, but I make my living with words. My guess is that most native speakers would have to guess several of the answers.

I didn’t find it difficult. I’m a HS grade with some college

No, but not really because of the English, but because multiple choice tests should have some almost correct choices. In 9/10 cases, there wasn't any question what was the right word, even if I skipped the second half of the sentence which gives the clue.

I knew all of them, but I would imagine there would be quite a few people that would not. Many of the words used were more common in literature than in spoken conversation. A pretty large part of the US is illiterate or only functionally literate

Native speaker here. Only got #3 wrong.

as a HS student, I would say it is somewhat difficult (probably would've gotten 6-7/10) as I've never seen a few of these words used until I saw this post

It’s not difficult. I would argue that for question 7, A and B are both viable answers. I would probably say B is more colloquial but A is not completely wrong. Just a bit unusual. The hardest question might be 8 or 9, but even if someone doesn’t know what puissance or obsequious means, they could probably eliminate the obviously wrong answers. They are pretty obscure words even for a well-read native speaker.

native speaker here, i can confidently answer 3 and guess 2, the rest i’ve never heard those words before 😂

Bruh, I'm a native speaker and no idea what soem of these words mean, some I've never even read or heard before...

I had a HS grad take this (no college, well read).​ The only one she didn't know but found by process of elimination was 9, as she wasn't familiar with that word (it's not commonly used.) I knew all the words and answers except the word puissance (not sure I've ever seen it before). And .I probably knew them even in HS (although I'm college grad).

No. All only had one word that could fit and those words are part of any educated adult’s vocabulary. A more-difficult test would contain less-common words, or words that are jargon, or scientific/medical words.

#6 is ambiguous. Could use exhaustive or disparate there, depending on additional context. It's probably exhaustive though. Everything else is pretty clear cut as they almost all include a portion of the correct word's definition in the example. Pretty easy.

I had to use a dictionary for a couple words, but it was mostly fine. The level of vocabulary is a little higher than what I interact with anymore lol

I've never heard the word maudlin in my life, but the others were not too bad.

Difficult even for native speakers.

For natives it’s not a question of if the test is difficult or not, it’s more if it’s good. There’s some rarely used and therefore difficult vocabulary in there, especially for a learner where it would be harder to rule out some options. But also some questions feel forced where there would be ten ways you’d sooner phrase the statement that wouldn’t use the word in the answer.

Yes, I've not seen half of those word before.

For me, a well read, highly educated (advanced degree) native speaker, this is an easy test. There’s one clear correct answer to each question, and for me the vocabulary was not difficult. Only one sentence involved a not quite-correct (in my opinion) usage of its correct word (preponderance), but since none of the other options were even arguably appropriate, that didn’t ultimately matter. It’s mostly a vocabulary test.

Yes

i feel like many native speakers could struggle with this test

I can see 9 giving a lot of regular folks an issue. But otherwise, I feel most people would be fine with these questions as native speakers

Native English speaker here. I recognize and have used every word option at one point in my life. 8/10 questions were easy. Two questions were a toss up between two answers.

Easy as a native speaker, but these words are somewhat advanced vocabulary for a learner

It’s not difficult, but I work with a lot of students on vocabulary and Greek and Latin root words, so maybe that’s why?

native speaker and childhood bookworm; looks like past/sat style vocabulary tests. relatively easy if you a) have the vocabulary already or b) have good testing skills and can use context clues/elimination

Yeah I’m not sure on a few of them… definitely not used a lot today because of slang and easier everyday words.

I would say this is type of test you would give to \~13 years old native english students (coming from native speaker). While you might think thats a low bar... let be honest, a lot of adults are dumber than teenagers.

They aren’t all basic words at all. I think there are plenty of native speakers who (unfortunately) wouldn’t get the answers right. Personally I didn’t really know the word maudlin but chose it by process of elimination. What made it not hard is that there was only 1 choice in each that could be correct

No

Looks like an ordinary high school level vocabulary test that you would find on the SAT or something similar. Maybe difficult if you don't read a lot, but if you do, it's pretty easy.

Not really. Though that depends if I got them right or not. There are a few that could reasonably go more than one way but context implies one choice.

I just had my 11th grade kid take the test and she got about 7/10, and she tends to have a strong vocabulary but doesn’t read too much anymore

I would say that this is at a well-read high school level. I could expect this level of question from a community college's placement exams.

i mean this seems pretty tough ngl lol. im a native speaker fairly well read and these are some pretty deep cut vocabulary in my opinion. i admittedly dont know what the first 2 words on q3 mean lol. and looking at the other questions the vocabulary feels pretty advanced to me edit: someone else mentioned it, these are fairly niche words and very formal. very vocab focused quiz

This vexes me

I guess in order to answer these questions, you need to have a profound vocabulary since most of the choices are advanced.

I’d say this is about a late high school level test. Questions 6 and 8 seem like the hardest ones to me

I got all of them, but I expect that puts me in the extreme minority, even among native speakers. This is what we like to call SAT vocabulary.

It's a bit hard to answer your question definitively because the correct answers are not difficult words, however the incorrect options are quite advanced and more like something we would expect to see on the vocabulary section of an IQ test.

Native speaker: looks fairly easy.

Not native but spoken it for 30+ years. I would say this is difficult. Fair few words I never even heard before.

Native speaker here, found it quite easy, but I was reading at a college level in elementary school. I would put this at a high school level vocabulary tests, but I imagine most would have difficulty. You wouldn't find these words used outside of some pretentious novels or pompously written articles. Testing at this level is why I think many international students speak English better than most Americans, while simultaneously apologizing for their poor English skills. Unfortunately using those words in casual conversation would probably make you appear to be "trying too hard" and leave a poor impression in most cases.

Not difficult, no, but I can see ESL learners of certain levels struggle with some of the items. Just as an observation, the discernible pattern is that in every item, two of the wrong answers are rather well-known words and obviously inapplicable, whereas the third wrong answer is a less commonly used/known word and designed to trip the test-taker up.

Doable I say as someone who reads court decisions for a living, but I also acknowledge this isn't everyday reading for a lot of native English speakers.

For a well-spoken Italian this is not very hard. However I'd put it for c1-c2 students

I don’t think it’s difficult, myself (I hope it doesn’t sound arrogant to say so) but I can certainly see how it could be. The vocabulary is a bit more advanced. I think a native speaker who isn’t very well-read and/or has limited education may find it challenging. For an English learner, I suspect this would be at least C1, if not C2, in terms of difficulty.

Where did you find these kind of tests? I'm willing to learn

I am a student of languages, and a native english speaker....and I'm ashamed to say half of these words are way too advanced to be in my vocabulary 😅

Native speaker: I would rate this as an average high school level test when I was at such a school (more than 40 years ago). However, I do not know what is expected of high school students today.

Nobody says 'maudlin', 'puissance', or 'profligate'. Most of the answers were fairly obvious otherwise.

Sounds like the average „my english is pretty bad“ european could handle most of it.

Piece of piss, but I have the hyperlexic kind of autism, so words are my thing. Ymmv

I am a native speaker and found it not too difficult. However, it would only be suitable for advanced non- native students.

No

Not particularly hard. Only one answer is correct for each one. There are no words that have similar meaning or differ only due to part of speech.

Too damn wordy. 😅

What I notice on here is that everyone types with some of them good vocabulary. I would like to chimerize in here as a native English speaker that is also college level that I have no idea what the hell is going on this test.

native speaker (US) and only hard ones were 8 and 9 .. others i could guess just based on the next word and didn’t need to read the entire sentence

Not a native speaker but this is not hard for an educated adult.

Yes, the answers all seem clear, but the vocabulary is more advanced than I would be comfortable with if I encountered them in my second language. It's definitely something for the advanced learner.

I think these comments are forgetting that half of Americans read below 6th grade level.

This is above CEFR C2 level

Easy for me but I had to do little orange vocabulary books in middle school.

I am a native English speaker with a university education (in a technical field). I am reasonably well-read. I could only define 37/40 of the words given in the options. I was able to figure out the answers to every question, as there was never more than 1 word in a set that I was unsure of.

I am not a native speaker, and I liked the challenge. I think that I got the right answers.

It was easy for me. I was able to choose the answer by reading just the part of the sentence that came before the blank, in almost all the questions.

6. Could be exhaustive or disparate ? I’m not sure. I think it’s exhaustive because disparate would be negative and it’s not really the idea I get here.

No, not for me.

I am not a native speaker, but I am confident I would have passed the test. There are some very seldomly used words in there, but most questions I could simply answer by elemination, even if I didn't know the correct word. Its more a vocabulary test then anything else.

It’s not difficult and I’m not even a native speaker. I did do my research master in English though and scored high on the American university entrance exam (SAT, critical reading and writing).

This is 7th-8th grade material.

I didn't even need to read the full sentence, just as far as the \_\_\_\_\_\_, then the available options, and I was able to know which word was correct. So I found it easy, but it definitely uses some more advanced vocabulary, and I'm sure a not insignificant percentage of native speakers would struggle with it.

As a non-native speaker I don't know all of these words, but this still doesn't seem very difficult even for me.

Yeah, it’s hard. I have no idea what the answer to 3 is. I can answer the rest of the questions but I’ve never heard of some of the words. Ignore anyone who is pretending this is easy, it’s not. Lots of ego stroking in this comment section.

I al a native speaker and have a degree in English. There are three questions where I genuinely don’t know the correct word, but can get to it by knowing that the other options just don’t fit the sentence. Many of the words on this would be considered pretentious to use in conversation honestly.

Not at all.

Question two is interesting, and I had to think about word roots for some others, but I can definitely say most 14/15 year old English speakers would only get like 70/80. Maybe college students or high school but they are so variable I couldn’t know. Basically this is moderately difficulty, especially for someone who is learning English.

It’s not difficult for me because I am interested in language and I read a lot, but I imagine it would be difficult for a significant proportion of native speakers. Native speakers who use this subreddit are likely to have larger vocabularies than the general population.

Not difficult for sure. Im a non native speaker

it's mostly about vocabulary

Fairly easy but I can see many native speakers struggling. I imagine it's quite difficult for a non-native speaker.

There's some vocab on there that I imagine a good proportion of native speakers wouldn't understand, but as a test it's quite clear - there's one unambiguous answer to every question

As a native speaker no, although question 6 could theoretically be two different answers (although the first answer is clearly correct, I could make a case for the second) Oddly enough, I'd think the test would be really easy for a learner who speaks a western language because the more 'difficult' English word do come from Latin or Greek, having passed through French usually, and these words are, for the most part, easy to pick apart. I mean one answer is literally in Latin, for example.

The vocabulary should probably be considered university level, but not challenging at that level. A very literate high-schooler would pass it, but perhaps not an average one. Process of elimination does help.

It's not difficult if you are familiar with these specific words. They are definitely advanced words, but there isn't anything confusing or tricky about the test itself, because the words are mostly unrelated and only one answer makes any sense in context. So, it is definitely just a knowledge test and not an intelligence test (if that makes sense).

I know all the words but I have a PhD in a humanities field, so I am not the average native speaker.

in terms of vocabulary, it's not too bad. but a couple of them are tricky. I can see #2 being both A and B. Diatribe can be shocking and demanding. same for subpoena. they are probably going for subpoena but still... I can see #6 being A and B. A could apply as varied groups of experts, but B could also apply as thorough groups of experts. most likely they were going for A but.... not fan of answer choices of which is more correct.

I don’t even think I can foster my own vocabulary. Words leave my head as quickly as they enter. So, I definitely wouldn’t be able to.

Easy

Difficult? No. But it implies absolute fluency (and a fair degree of education)

Easy, but I'm a native speaker.

2. This is a word a native high-school speaker may or may not know. 3. I don’t know how common it is, as I had to look this one up. I’m a college graduate. 6. To me, A and B work equally well. I don’t see technology developers and medical researchers to be that disparate, since these can be overlapping careers. I had to look up puissance and expurgate, and I refreshed my memory of profligate. Also note that a number of the people who say it "isn't that hard," go on to say it's easy to eliminate obvious wrong answers. That in itself, implies that as native speakers, they don't actually know (use) all the words themselves. In short, if your goal is every day communications this test is over the top. If your goal is conversations with people who are academics, it will prepare you.

It isn't difficult. It is a bit elevated from how the average American would speak. I would posit that the current US president couldn't pass it, based on his daily demonstrations of his linguistic register.

It's pretty easy.

3. [https://www.reddit.com/r/futurama/comments/xd06cb/this\_isnt\_a\_war\_its\_a\_murder/](https://www.reddit.com/r/futurama/comments/xd06cb/this_isnt_a_war_its_a_murder/)

It's pretty straightforward if you graduated from high school and continued to read books regularly afterward.

Easy vocabulary test… for any reader of literary magazines, but pretty unsatisfying as a gauge of real-world competence. “Puissance” is pulled straight out of the English Renaissance, but at least it was a booby-trap for wild guesses and not the correct answer. Q6 is disappointing. They forced me to answer “disparate” where a good editor would have said, “you mean ‘diverse’.”

I design reading and literacy content for K12. This, to me, is about a 10th grade level vocabulary quiz/activity. The words are fairly high level but most of the distractors (incorrect answers) are much different and not focused on the "shades of meaning". Dupe, flop, condone and pry in the first question are of a similar reading level, but not similar in meaning - dupe is to trick, flop is to fail (or flail), condone is to approve and pry is to intrude into. If the first question were to be focusing on the high level "shades of meaning" the distractors would be something more like: pry, inspect, investigate, inquire, where all of those words essentially mean "to look into" but only pry would be correct because of the context of the sentence (a nosy neighbor). This would make it a 12th+ grade level question. So to answer your question, this would be difficult for many American native speakers, as our average reading level is 6th grade, but this is not the Most Difficult in terms of actual English literacy instruction. (and it wasn't difficult for me, but I am an outlier since this is a skill I have gotten 2 degrees in and use in my daily work life).

Easy for me but I’m a professional speech writer and communications expert w 35 year career under my belt.

Native speaker here - some of these words are niche and are rarely used in English. However, the process of elimination for incorrect answers makes it easier to deduce what the word could be. But again, some of these words are so niche that the average English speaker might get confused. This seems to be roughly university level vocab, at the very earliest maybe even 11th or 12th grade English. A lot of these words feel like they'd be used in academia or writing, which imo speaking English and writing in English(at least in an academic level) are two different things and have vocabulary associated with each. I would personally say this exam is for someone who already has some command of the English language, definitely not for beginners.

I am a native speaker and have a PhD in English and have never encountered some of those words before. I can get the right answer by recognizing the right one/eliminating ones I know aren't it, but it's not an easy test. Obsequious and reticence are new words for me.

As a native English speaker, and a C1 Spanish speaker, I would say this is more advanced vocabulary. I rarely hear these words in everyday/average conversations.

As a native speaker this is very easy for me to do. For someone who isn’t a native speaker I would class it as difficult as some of these words are very infrequently used or only in specific contexts that aren’t much talked about.

I’m a native (UK) speaker and had no issues. Fairly well (and widely) read and educated to a secondary school level.

As a native speaker, this brings me back to my school vocabulary days. This test was relatively easy for me scanning over it, but I’m an avid reader, so I’d say I have a more varied vocabulary. I wouldn’t expect most average English speakers to pass this, and that’s ok. You’re not smarter or dumber if you don’t know these words. Some are just more technical terms for things, and most English speakers don’t talk like that. This test is more helpful if you are interested in reading English novels, political statements, or news media.

I'd use a lot of these words, but I think someone who barely passed English would struggle

Not difficult for a native speaker, but it seems like a pretty advanced vocabulary for an English learner. I don't like the choices for number 8. "Preponderance" is OK, but I would probably prefer "ubiquity" if we're using ten dollar words.

Dead simple for me but I read a lot.  It is probably difficult for the majority of Americans.  It is beyond basic vocabulary.

It's not too hard for me, but I also have a Master's. The only word I had to look up was "obsequious," but I was able to infer that it was the only possible correct answer by process of elimination.

those words arent even on the scientific journals i read for college and i study law

There’s no way that’s a C1 level test. It’s C2. Very hard. It would be pretty rare to encounter an ESL student who could ace it, because by that point they wouldn’t be studying in a formal environment anymore.

No

As a learner of English as a second language, these terms are just so unfamiliar. I have a question myself if I may….Where would one be exposed to such vocabulary? Reading what kind of book?

Not particularly - it was only #3 that I struggled with. These words are extremely low-frequency though, and usage in casual speech / writing would probably raise eyebrows more than anything. Nonetheless, it's always good to learn more vocab, even the more "obscure" ones!

Nah, I know all of these words personally. It's simple

I am not a native speaker but I could answer all these without hesitation, not because the test is easy but because I have read hundreds of books in English over three decades. The test is certainly advanced and I would class it as difficult.

Funnily enough, I guess a decently-read French speaker who doesn't speak English would do better than quite a few native English speakers (provided you translate the /sentence/, not the answers obviously). At least half the proposed words are transparent in French, some questions being even quite easy (8, 10), some being "lucky guesses" as the correct answer is transparent and somewhat common in French (5, 7, 9).

Guys where can i find more like those test

It's only challenging insofar as it contains a lot of fairly advanced vocab. I really like that none of the answers are too similar to each other, so you'll get it right pretty easily if you know the words.

I would say this is approximately "university level English," which is to say that the average native-speaker university student should be able to get these questions right. That being said, given the fact that 54% of Americans read at or below a 6th-grade level, there are many adults (at least in the US, buy probably in other English-speaking countries too) who would find this a very difficult test. These aren't words that the average English speaker uses in everyday life, for the most part.

I can honestly say none of these questions are difficult for me, because I have a good vocabulary. For people with only an average or poor vocabulary it would be a different story.

Native speaker, I did not know maudlin or obsequious and only knew they were correct by elimination. So I gather it’d be difficult for a non native.

No this isn't difficult for a native speaker with even a barely average vocabulary.

I’d say it’s just a test of vocabulary, the only one I am unsure of is #3, but the rest were fairly easy. I do read a fair bit of high level writing, and most of these words are on the formal end. I also tend to write more formally, so I’ve used most of these words in my own writing.

All of them were easy for me except for question 3; I don't think I've ever heard the words "maudlin" or "rapacious" before, so I just guessed that the answer was "maudlin," since it sounds like more of a sad word than "rapacious" does. After looking up their definitions, I seem to have been right. For reference, I'm an undergraduate university student.

As a native speaker not really, although more than a few of these are words that if you used them in the same context, would be seen as weird. Because quite a lot of these words are rarely used in every day speech. Some examples 3. Maudlin? No one uses that word. A better example would be "Jack broke down, tearfully...". 6. Disparate isn't that unusual. Although varied would be a better choice. 7. Vex is 50/50. annoy would be better. 8. Preponderance. Amount is better. No one uses preponderance. It's great to learn what these words mean, but if you used them in a sentence, people would think you were being overly serious.

No

It's not too bad. I know most of these words. In a case where I'm not 100% sure I can at least eliminate the ones that don't make sense and make an educated guess.

For me this is not difficult, but I could see how other native speakers could have a hard time of it. Most of these words aren't used much in everyday speech and there are a few I can't recall ever having heard in person.

This seems easy, but the "correct" answers for 6 and 8 aren't great. It would be more common in 6 to see "diverse". You'd see "disparate" more likely to be used like "The conference brought together a group of experts from disparate fields." For 8, "preponderance" isn't a synonym for "quantity" or "mass".

It's C1 or C2 -only hard if you don't know what the words mean. *stares at my Danish B1 level test* -Only hard cuz idk what da words mean.

Not for me. I was able to get the right answer to every question by reading up to the blank and then looking at the answer options without reading the remainder of the question in all except the last one. That said, I have a good vocabulary and some of these words aren’t very common. A lot of native English speakers don’t know the word “maudlin,” for example.

It wasn’t difficult for me, but I could see that a lot of these words might be unfamiliar to someone learning the language.

No

I have an associates degree for English/History, and only 7 tripped me up for a moment.

Semi. I'm not sure a lot of natives would know what subpoena means and I've never heard of puissance.