Our vocabulary is the set of words and their meanings that we have and are able to use. It is an instrument of verbal communication used to acquire knowledge through language, both written and spoken. Our vocabulary allows us to disseminate information and communicate it not only to others but to ourselves. As a powerful tool that we often use to share and gain knowledge, vocabulary, or the lack of it, will have an effect on our knowledge, but to what extent? According to the title's claim, our vocabulary to a large extent affects our capacity to know and is capable of shaping, or in other words, confining and influencing, our knowledge and its scope. This essay will explore the validity of this statement by examining the roles and limitations of vocabulary in knowledge acquisition for different knowledge domains, as well as the extent of these roles and limitations. Although vocabulary is a useful means of communication, it does not always communicate knowledge. effectively. A single word can have many different meanings, but no two different words are the same. Even synonyms differ in their secondary meanings and connotations. This characteristic of vocabulary causes confusion in communicating and receiving information, and has the power to distort and shape what we can know. Consider the framing effect in psychology, in which people change their decisions when the presentation of identical options is manipulated in different ways, such as word choice. This phenomenon has been observed in numerous surveys. In a study of public opinion of synthetic biology, participants showed more opposition to the field when “create” was used to describe it rather than “build” (Pearson). . middle of paper ......College London - UCL., August 18, 2008. Web. 3 September 2011. .Butterworth, B. “Digital thinking with and without words: evidence from Australian indigenous children.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105.35 (2008): 13179-3184. Internet. September 2, 2011. .Matson, John. “The origin of zero”. Scientific American. August 21, 2009. The web. September 1, 2009. Pearson, Brianna, Sam Snell, Kyri Bye-Nagel, Scott Tonidandel, Laurie J. Heyer, and A. Malcolm Campbell. “Word selection affects perceptions of synthetic biology.” » Journal of Biological Engineering 5.1 (2011): 9. Web. Woolman, Michael. Ways of knowing: an introduction to the theory of knowledge. Melton, Vic. : IBID, 2006. Print.