What language has more words (entries), English, Spanish or Chinese? What's the average of each one?

Answer 1

The largest dictionary of any language is the Oxford English Dictionary. It contains over 1.5 million entries. No other dictionary of any other language even comes close to this. There are a few reasons for this.

First, English covers a larger area of the globe and thus regional vocabulary differences are multiplied as Australian English borrows from aboriginal languages, as American English borrows from Spanish and Native American languages, as South African English borrows from Dutch and Bantu languages, as Indian English borrows from Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages, as Irish English borrows from Irish Gaelic, etc. No other language is used in so many different parts of the globe.

Second, languages take different strategies for lexical complexity. Some languages make new shades of meaning by compounding or using adjectives or adverbs with the word (this is the strategy of Chinese). English tends to borrow a new word from somewhere or add various derivational affixes whenever it needs a new shade of meaning to an old word. In addition, English has borrowed so many derivational affixes from Latin and Greek that it can create several new words with the same meaning--one using a Greek suffix, one using a Latin suffix, and one using an inherited Germanic suffix. This makes for great lexical complexity.

But, ultimately, no dictionary of any language is ever complete. No dictionary lists all the words of that language used by every speaker. It is an impossible task. The Oxford English Dictionary is based only on written English, so words that haven't yet been written down or read by one of the Dictionary's editors are missing.

Answer 2

Chinese is a pictorial language and therefore no alphabet in which to make words. I would go with english as there are so many different tenses of one word plus suffixs and prefixes wouldn't take this as a definite answer just guessing but a pretty good guess all the same. U might want to check with sum others

Answer 3

I'm currently learning Chinese, but I would say English has more words.

Answer 4

Chinese

Answer 5

english is the most complicated language....we have 18 words that mean the same thing and 1 word that means 18 different things.....