The present study investigates the use of vocabulary learning strategies used by 124 Moroccan university students of English as a foreign language, 60 males and 64 females with a consideration of gender and proficiency. Strategy use is assessed through the SILL*(Oxford, 1990), and proficiency is determined by the subjects' study level. The findings are that the reported frequency of strategy use is moderate overall, with the students reporting most frequent use of compensation strategies and least of affective strategies. Female students show more frequent use of all six categories than male students, and fourth year university students employ compensation and memory strategies more often, whereas first year students employ metacognitive, cognitive, affective and social strategies more often. Cognitive strategies show the highest correlation with metacognitive and memory strategies. It is revealed that the students' gender and proficiency have a significant relationship with their use of learning strategies. Some implications of the findings are discussed along with suggestions for further research.