A study of the application forms for Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, public assistance, food stamps, Medicaid, and Medicare was conducted to examine the frequently occurring unfamiliar, specialized vocabulary words. It was found that 76 such words occurred at least ten times in the documents studied. A large number of other unfamiliar words occurred less frequently. It was suggested that literacy programs seeking to develop functional reading skills might incorporate the most frequently found words in their classes, that alternative methods of eliciting required information could be found, and that the application forms might be simplified using plain language. (TJ)