There are more than 170,000 words currently used in the English language - so it’s almost impossible to know them all. And while we all like to impress our friends, family and teachers with our knowledge of words, there are words you almost certainly won’t have heard of.
These are the words in what the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) calls ‘Band 1’ that are so rare, obsolete and obscure that they are unlikely to ever appear in modern text. The OED says that these words “may be obscure technical terms or terms restricted to occasional historical use”.
But do you know their meaning? Take our BBC Bitesize quiz below to test your knowledge and find out - good luck!
This article was published in February 2020 and updated in May 2026
