Meanings
- A concept that (someone) would normally consider.
Failure, however, was not in his vocabulary.
2018, Egerton Ryerson Young, Three Boys in the Wild North Land, page 713 more examples
Sin is a word which occurs scantily in his vocabulary. Crime was what horrified him, an offence against God because it was an offence against man and especially against children.
1964, Ivor John Carnegie Brown, Dickens in His Time, page 178It was back-breaking work, but “unemployment” wasn't in my vocabulary, and as long as I could work, I would.
2019, Jim Sacia, Not in my Wildest Dreams: Memoirs of a Veteran FBI AgentBlack would soon learn that the word "impossible" was not in Gillie's vocabulary".
2022, Lindsey Fitzharris, The Facemaker, page 67 - Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, vocabulary.
Although John has equivalent terms in French and English for some items, he knows some words only in English, and other words only in French, with no equivalent English word in his vocabulary.
2016, Janet L. Patterson, “Child Language Disorders Across Languages, Cultural Contexts and Syndromes”, in Janet L. Patterson, Barbara L. Rodríguez, editors, Multilingual Perspectives on Child Language Disorders
Translations
Finnish ei kuulua jonkun sanavarastoon
- ei kuulua jonkun sanavarastoona concept that (someone) would normally consider
Hungarian a szótárában
- a szótárábana concept that (someone) would normally consider
Polish w słowniku
- w słownikua concept that (someone) would normally consider
Cite this entry
in someone's vocabulary. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20someone's%20vocabulary
“in someone's vocabulary.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20someone's%20vocabulary. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “in someone's vocabulary,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20someone's%20vocabulary.
Source: in someone's vocabulary on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.