diff --git a/spacy/vocab.pyx b/spacy/vocab.pyx
index f65c81da1..bf7fb6903 100644
--- a/spacy/vocab.pyx
+++ b/spacy/vocab.pyx
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ from __future__ import unicode_literals
 import bz2
 import ujson
 import re
+import numpy
 
 from libc.string cimport memset, memcpy
 from libc.stdint cimport int32_t
@@ -244,7 +245,7 @@ cdef class Vocab:
 
     @property
     def vectors_length(self):
-        return self.vectors.data.shape[0]
+        return self.vectors.data.shape[1]
 
     def clear_vectors(self, new_dim=None):
         """Drop the current vector table. Because all vectors must be the same
@@ -268,7 +269,10 @@ cdef class Vocab:
         """
         if isinstance(orth, basestring_):
             orth = self.strings.add(orth)
-        return self.vectors[orth]
+        if orth in self.vectors.key2row:
+            return self.vectors[orth]
+        else:
+            return numpy.zeros((self.vectors_length,), dtype='f')
 
     def set_vector(self, orth, vector):
         """Set a vector for a word in the vocabulary.