Skip to content
Surprising Science

Collie Knows 1000 Nouns

A border collie in South Carolina has the largest vocabulary of any known dog. She knows 1,022 nouns, a record that may help explain how children acquire language.
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Chaser, a border collie who lives in South Carolina, has the largest vocabulary of any known dog. She knows 1,022 nouns, a record that displays unexpected depths of the canine mind and may help explain how children acquire language. Children pick up about 10 new words a day until, by the time they leave high school, they know around 60,000 words. Chaser learned words more slowly but faced a harder task: Each sound was new and she had nothing to relate it to, whereas children learn words in a context that makes them easier to remember.

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Related

Up Next