diff --git a/basis/tools/vocabs/vocabs-docs.factor b/basis/tools/vocabs/vocabs-docs.factor
index 33f197d0ea..98902f8fe6 100644
--- a/basis/tools/vocabs/vocabs-docs.factor
+++ b/basis/tools/vocabs/vocabs-docs.factor
@@ -73,3 +73,11 @@ HELP: set-vocab-tags
 HELP: all-vocabs
 { $values { "assoc" "an association list mapping vocabulary roots to sequences of vocabulary specifiers" } }
 { $description "Outputs an association list of all vocabularies which have been loaded or are available for loading." } ;
+
+HELP: load-all-under
+{ $values { "prefix" string } }
+{ $description "Load all vocabularies that match the provided prefix." } ;
+
+HELP: all-vocabs-under
+{ $values { "prefix" string } }
+{ $description "Return a sequence of vocab or vocab-links for each vocab matching the provided prefix. Unlike " { $link all-child-vocabs } " this word will return both loaded and unloaded vocabularies." } ;
diff --git a/basis/tools/vocabs/vocabs-tests.factor b/basis/tools/vocabs/vocabs-tests.factor
index 04e628d080..a4430c07bc 100644
--- a/basis/tools/vocabs/vocabs-tests.factor
+++ b/basis/tools/vocabs/vocabs-tests.factor
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 IN: tools.vocabs.tests
-USING: tools.test tools.vocabs namespaces continuations ;
+USING: continuations namespaces tools.test tools.vocabs tools.vocabs.private ;
 
 [ ] [
     changed-vocabs get-global
@@ -7,3 +7,6 @@ USING: tools.test tools.vocabs namespaces continuations ;
     [ t ] [ "kernel" changed-vocab? ] unit-test
     [ "kernel" changed-vocab ] [ changed-vocabs set-global ] [ ] cleanup
 ] unit-test
+
+[ t ] [ "some-vocab" valid-vocab-dirname ] unit-test
+[ f ] [ ".git" valid-vocab-dirname ] unit-test
diff --git a/basis/tools/vocabs/vocabs.factor b/basis/tools/vocabs/vocabs.factor
index 4b9a72a443..7cd94827db 100644
--- a/basis/tools/vocabs/vocabs.factor
+++ b/basis/tools/vocabs/vocabs.factor
@@ -205,15 +205,21 @@ M: vocab-link summary vocab-summary ;
 : set-vocab-authors ( authors vocab -- )
     dup vocab-authors-path set-vocab-file-contents ;
 
-: subdirs ( dir -- dirs )
+
+<PRIVATE
+: valid-vocab-dirname ( dirname -- ? )
+    dup empty? [ drop f ] [ first CHAR: . = not ] if ;
+PRIVATE>
+
+: vocab-subdirs ( dir -- dirs )
     [
-        [ link-info directory? ] filter
+        [ [ link-info directory? ] [ valid-vocab-dirname ] bi and ] filter
     ] with-directory-files natural-sort ;
 
 : (all-child-vocabs) ( root name -- vocabs )
     [
         vocab-dir append-path dup exists?
-        [ subdirs ] [ drop { } ] if
+        [ vocab-subdirs ] [ drop { } ] if
     ] keep [
         swap [ "." glue ] with map
     ] unless-empty ;
@@ -235,6 +241,11 @@ M: vocab-link summary vocab-summary ;
         dup [ "" vocabs-in-dir ] { } make
     ] { } map>assoc ;
 
+: all-vocabs-under ( prefix -- vocabs )
+    [
+        vocab-roots get [ over vocabs-in-dir ] each drop
+    ] { } make ;
+
 MEMO: all-vocabs-seq ( -- seq )
     all-vocabs values concat ;
 
@@ -252,6 +263,9 @@ MEMO: all-vocabs-seq ( -- seq )
 : load-everything ( -- )
     try-everything load-failures. ;
 
+: load-all-under ( prefix -- )
+    all-vocabs-under filter-unportable require-all load-failures. ;
+
 : unrooted-child-vocabs ( prefix -- seq )
     dup empty? [ CHAR: . suffix ] unless
     vocabs