What C2 vocabulary means
C2 learners understand virtually everything they read or hear, summarise information from different sources and express themselves precisely, distinguishing finer shades of meaning. C2 vocabulary includes literary, formal and specialised words such as meticulous, ephemeral, paramount and disseminate.
C2 words are rare even for native readers; many appear only a few times in a whole novel. Knowing them is what makes literary fiction, academic writing and specialist texts feel effortless.
The 100 most common C2 words
These are the words on the C2 list you will meet most often in real English texts. Start with them.
- standing
- echo
- tactic
- induce
- utilize
- merit
- regulatory
- integration
- counsel
- parameter
- ore
- scroll
- cognitive
- bout
- commodity
- hull
- provincial
- diminish
- rebound
- herald
- practitioner
- tactical
- legion
- subsidy
- hypothesis
- prolong
- corpse
- rhetoric
- secular
- prone
- correlation
- proposition
- accountability
- methodology
- artifact
- encompass
- incumbent
- adhere
- synthesis
- autonomous
- annex
- denote
- wholly
- stabilize / stabilise
- mesh
- denounce
- ironic
- vicinity
- cosmic
- disperse
- apostle
- spatial
- embody
- moor
- mediate
- hinder
- helm
- reconcile
- paramount
- solitary
- reconciliation
- residue
- beneficiary
- transmitter
- locomotive
- rift
- collide
- gale
- mariner
- hamper
- fabricate
- lament
- malicious
- proprietary
- curator
- slab
- corpus
- vocational
- curate
- electrode
- interrogation
- clinch
- perch
- blitz
- hypothetical
- equilibrium
- nostalgia
- hitch
- banish
- proliferation
- turret
- emulate
- authenticity
- proportional
- scholarly
- additive
- grievance
- menace
- maverick
- subsidize
C2 words by part of speech
| Part of speech | Most common examples |
|---|---|
| Nouns | standing, echo, tactic, merit, integration, counsel, parameter, ore, scroll, bout |
| Verbs | echo, induce, utilize, merit, diminish, rebound, herald, prolong, encompass, adhere |
| Adjectives | regulatory, cognitive, provincial, tactical, secular, prone, incumbent, autonomous, ironic, cosmic |
| Adverbs | wholly, notoriously, ostensibly, nigh, hitherto, diligently, abundantly, meticulously, verbatim, intrinsically |
How many words do you need for C2?
This list has 869 words. Together, the lists from A1 to C2 contain 8,498 words. The CEFR itself does not define word counts; these figures are the size of the CEFR-J and Octanove lists. Your real vocabulary also includes names, new words and specialist words that no list covers.
To measure your overall vocabulary, take the English vocabulary size test; it also estimates your CEFR level.
How to learn C2 words
Nobody learns C2 vocabulary from a list alone. Read demanding books, note the words that surprise you and review them with the sentence and source where you found them.
- Use the self-test above to see what share of the C2 words you already know.
- Pick one of the free C2 English books and start reading.
- Tap any word you don't know in Okuzeka to see its meaning in that sentence, in your language.
- Save useful words as flashcards with their sentences and review them over the next few days.
- Keep reading: C2 words are best consolidated through demanding books.
Where this list comes from
The C1 and C2 words come from the Octanove Vocabulary Profile by Octanove Labs, which extends the CEFR-J approach to advanced levels. The list is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Okuzeka kept the single-word headwords and sorted them by word frequency. Other lists, such as the Cambridge English Vocabulary Profile or the Oxford 3000/5000, may give some words a different level, and a word's level can depend on the meaning being taught.
