How Many Words Are There In The English Language In Total

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.

How many words are there in the english language in total. 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. The short answer is. 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. Webster s third new international dictionary unabridged together with its 1993 addenda section includes some 470 000 entries.

If we want to talk about how many words there are in english there are three key numbers to remember. That tally includes the myriad names of chemicals and other scientific entities. Doubt you know anything even close to a million words. More than a million total words about 170 000 words in current use and 20 000 30 000 words used by each individual person.

To this may be added around 9 500 derivative words included as subentries. How many words are there in the english language. Many people estimate that there are more than a million words in the english language.