Can your word choice determine your gender? A new online study suggests that women use different words than men do; men are familiar with engineering and programming jargon whereas women are more familiar with words associated with cooking, gardening, crafts, and the arts.

A Ghent University study run by the Centre of Reading Research conducted an online 4-minute test in which a series English words were presented to the test takers. Some words were actual English words, and some were nonsense ones.

After half a million people took the test, the University released 24 words most known to men and 24 words most known to women. The results suggest women are more likely to know words like these:

Peony

Tresses

Decoupage

Wisteria

Progesterone

Men, on the other hand, are highly likely to recognize the following words that women weren’t as familiar with:

Paladin

Biped

Claymore

Humvee

Essentially, this study reveals gendered vocabulary. Theoretically the 48 words on the two lists could help you identify with relative accuracy the gender of someone you’re chatting with on line – even if you can’t see them.

While the question of whether vocabulary knowledge is influenced by gender has often been dismissed as a stereotype that’s too simplistic and oversimplifying, it turns out this theory holds water; women are more keen to discuss current matters in fashion, dining, pop culture and the arts, where men are the most likely to discuss cars, science, video games and other conventionally male matters.

The biggest recognition gap between men and women for particular words was rather astonishing and statistically significant. 88% of male respondents knew the word “codec” as opposed to only 48% of the female respondents. “Paladin” is a word recognized by 93% of the male participants, where only a mere 66% of the female respondents recognize it as a proper English word.

The same gap occurs for female-dominated issues.  “Taupe” (the word for a dark grayish brown) was recognized by 93% of women, but only 66% of men. “Taffeta” (a fine-woven silk fabric) was recognized by a whopping 87% of the female respondents but only 47% of their male counterparts.

Of course, it’s hardly news that our culture informs our vocabulary knowledge. If a girl grows up reading Jane Austen while her younger brother plays FPS (first-person-shooter) games, then one could expect the former to know the word “bodice” and the latter to know the word “Kevlar.”

Cultural immersion affects our language and our language fortifies our cultural identity. In this case, it even affects the words used by each gender. While there are many other parameters that need to be considered when evaluating the findings of this survey, like socioeconomic status, profession, education, location and age, it is beyond doubt that gender does manifest itself through our word choice and vocabulary knowledge.

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