How Many Words Are There In English

Another way to count words is with an algorithm. The second edition of the 20 volume oxford english dictionary published in 1989 contains full entries for 171 476 words in current use and 47 156 obsolete words. In a 2011 interview with the bbc lexicographer susie dent estimated that while an english speaker may know around 40 000 words they only actively use about 20 000 of them.

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First let s look at how many words are in the dictionary.

How many words are there in english. That tally includes the myriad names of chemicals and other scientific entities. Today english language has the largest number of speakers somewhere around two billion on earth. No you won t find a single dictionary that includes anywhere close to the total million words that can be considered part of english. The short answer is.

More than a million total words about 170 000 words in current use and 20 000 30 000 words used by each individual person. The oxford english dictionary widely considered the most authoritative record of the english language adds anywhere between 500 and 1 500 new words or phrases and sometimes even more every. One of the reasons for this is the fact that general usage. For 1 400 years english language joined other european languages.

It has been estimated that the vocabulary of english includes roughly 1 million words although most linguists would take that estimate with a chunk of salt and some have said they wouldn t be surprised if it is off the mark by a quarter million. According the oed blog these numbers add up to about a quarter of a million distinct english words. Add to these about 9 500 derivative words that are included as subentries. The oxford english dictionary contains entries for 171 476 words in current use and 47 156 obsolete words.

There could be as much as 1 2 million words in english language. How many words are there in the english language. Webster s third new international dictionary unabridged together with its 1993 addenda section includes some 470 000 entries. To this may be added around 9 500 derivative words included as subentries.

Doubt you know anything even close to a million words. If we want to talk about how many words there are in english there are three key numbers to remember. Interestingly enough english language is the third by native speakers after the standard chinese and spanish. That answer is similarly murky but according to at least one study the average 20 year old native english speaker knows an average of 42 000 words.

The second edition of the 20 volume oxford english dictionary contains full entries for 171 476 words in current use and 47 156 obsolete words.