Is Alice in Wonderland hard to read? Its reading level from A1 to C2
How many words in every 100 you will probably not know, at each level from A1 to C2. Estimated over the whole book with Solaread’s own word-difficulty model.
- Author
- Lewis Carroll
- First published
- 1865
- Length
- About 25,500 words
- Copyright
- Public domain
Short answer
Just right from B2: 4.4 new words in every 100. At B1 it is a little hard, 7.1 in 100. It is the second easiest of the 20 English classics we measured.
New words per 100, by level
Estimated over all 25,471 running words. Character names are left out. The labels follow Solaread’s difficulty scale: Easy means knowing 98 of every 100 words, Just right 95, A little hard 90, and below that Too hard.
Alice in Wonderland vocabulary by level
At A2
- herself83×
- rabbit48×
- mouse47×
- begin82×
- tone42×
- cat50×
- reply34×
- caterpillar28×
- remark26×
- hurry23×
- cry26×
- soup18×
The 12 words an A2 reader is most likely to stop at in this book, with how often each appears. Together they are about 10% of the new words at this level.
At B1
- caterpillar28×
- rabbit48×
- remark26×
- hastily16×
- anxiously14×
- lobster14×
- mouse47×
- serpent12×
- interrupt12×
- pigeon12×
- hurry23×
- offend11×
The 12 words a B1 reader is most likely to stop at in this book, with how often each appears. Together they are about 10% of the new words at this level.
At B2
- caterpillar28×
- hastily16×
- anxiously14×
- remark26×
- timidly9×
- hedgehog10×
- serpent12×
- tremble9×
- twinkle9×
- sob9×
- whiting8×
- angrily9×
The 12 words a B2 reader is most likely to stop at in this book, with how often each appears. Together they are about 11% of the new words at this level.
The opening lines
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice “without pictures or conversations?”
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
Open the free EPUB in Solaread and the words it marks follow your own level, with glosses in the language you choose.
Books with a similar level
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz6.9 new words per 100 at B1
- Dracula7.8 at B1
- The Secret Garden8.3 at B1
Questions
Is Alice in Wonderland hard to read?
At B1 it is a little hard, with 7.1 new words in every 100 (about one in 14). It is just right from B2, and easy at C2.
What is the reading level of Alice in Wonderland?
On Solaread’s scale it is just right from B2, and the second easiest of the 20 English classics we measured. At B2, 4.4 in every 100 words are new.
Where can I get Alice in Wonderland for free?
It is in the public domain. Project Gutenberg has a free EPUB you can import into Solaread.
Read it with help only where you need it
Import the free EPUB. Solaread marks the words you probably don’t know, at your level.