The study aimed to assess the Turkish vocabulary knowledge of first-year international students. The sample consisted of 80 international first-year students. Data were collected using the “Vocabulary Test for First-Year International Students”, which included 140 words: 100 real words and 40 pseudo-words. The real words were randomly selected from the frequency dictionary of Aksan et al. (2017). The test was administered at the beginning of the 2024-2025 academic year. The results showed that students knew approximately 70 of the 100 Turkish words in the test, while the false alarm rate for pseudo-words was 6.5%. Students in the field of social sciences knew more words than those in the sciences and health sciences. Test results were also analysed according to students’ native languages. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on vocabulary teaching in Turkish as a foreign language.

Vocabulary, frequency dictionary, vocabulary test, Turkish as a foreign language.