Oh dear, confession time. I'm useless on currencies so had to check escudo and had never heard of yuan. But that's perhaps because I don't travel much or read The Financial Times. Chi must be extending my vocabulary.
Long-established players may think it presumptuous of me to give an opinion, so my apologies. However, I can give a list of 10, 12 and 7 words* (some duplicated) that jump out as common for me, but there are lots of others that surely most people would immediately know even if they don't use them (e.g., for me, hogtied might be common, hogtie not, but it's obvious what hogtie means). The fact that I might miss words in a game doesn't mean either that they're uncommon or that I don't know them. Also, e.g. osmotic and trimaran might be unlikely to occur to me this side of desperation, but I'd instantly recognise them.
I'm sure Alan doesn't want hundreds of lists to compare, but the only other way might be a sort of word recognition via a table ... Big job.
*
2015-11-06 51 REGNANT
2015-11-03 52 ROSTRA
2015-08-22 53 HAGGISES
2015-12-02 54 AIRGUN
2015-08-14 54 HEMPEN
2015-09-17 56 SUNHAT
2016-02-26 58 BIRETTA
2015-10-14 58 NUTCASE
2015-09-14 60 MINATORY
2015-12-26 60 IONISER
Challenge puzzles:
2015-12-06 22 MATRICES
2015-12-23 24 TRICEPS
2015-09-02 25 PICADOR
2016-02-07 26 IONISER
2015-09-16 26 CEDILLA
2016-02-26 29 OTIOSE
2015-08-14 29 NEURITIS
2016-02-10 29 URETER
2015-12-15 30 TOECAP
2016-02-13 31 AIRGUN
2015-09-02 32 RAPIDS
2015-08-30 34 NAIVETE
Ten-letter puzzles:
2016-03-22 10 SEGUING
2015-12-05 18 SONATINA
2015-11-24 19 NEURITIS
2016-02-11 19 OTIOSE
2015-08-24 20 SAPIENCE
2016-01-10 21 OCARINA
2015-08-30 21 PROTEAN