sanasto

Sanasto is a Finnish term meaning vocabulary or lexicon. It refers to the set of words and often fixed expressions that are known or used by a language user, a community, or within a particular domain. The concept is central to language learning, lexicography, and terminology work. The word comes from sana meaning “word” with the suffix -sto, indicating a collection or inventory.

In everyday use, sanasto can refer to a general Finnish vocabulary or to an ordered list used in education, such as a course sanasto, a glossary of field terms, or a bilingual list of terms with translations. Domain-specific sanastot are specialized vocabularies for fields like medicine, technology, or finance, and are often standardized in glossaries or nomenclatures.

Sanasto and dictionaries differ in scope. A sanasto is typically a curated list of terms, sometimes with brief definitions or translations, whereas a dictionary provides more extensive information such as pronunciation, etymology, and full inflectional data. In linguistic and educational contexts, building a sanasto involves selecting relevant terms, defining them, and organizing them by topic or usefulness.

In practice, managing a sanasto—sanaston hallinta—involves compiling term lists, assigning concise definitions or translations, and organizing items by theme or frequency. Digital tools and corpora are commonly used to develop and prioritize vocabulary lists for language learning, professional terminology projects, and linguistic research. Sanastotyö supports learning, cross-language communication, and specialized knowledge within communities.