How many words are in the english languge?

Question

in English

Answer 1

As it says in the article, there really is no sure way to tell, but here is the piece of info:

~~How many words are there in the English language?~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is no single sensible answer to this question. It is impossible to count the number of words in a language, because it is so hard to decide what counts as a word. Is dog one word, or two (a noun meaning 'a kind of animal', and a verb meaning 'to follow persistently')? If we count it as two, then do we count inflections separately too (dogs plural noun, dogs present tense of the verb). Is dog-tired a word, or just two other words joined together? Is hot dog really two words, since we might also find hot-dog or even hotdog?

It is also difficult to decide what counts as 'English'. What about medical and scientific terms? Latin words used in law, French words used in cooking, German words used in academic writing, Japanese words used in martial arts? Do you count Scots dialect? Youth slang? Computing jargon?

The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries. Over half of these words are nouns, about a quarter adjectives, and about a seventh verbs; the rest is made up of interjections, conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes, etc. These figures take no account of entries with senses for different parts of speech (such as noun and adjective).

This suggests that there are, at the very least, a quarter of a million distinct English words, excluding inflections, and words from technical and regional vocabulary not covered by the OED, or words not yet added to the published dictionary, of which perhaps 20 per cent are no longer in current use. If distinct senses were counted, the total would probably approach three quarters of a million.


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Answer 2

1. A head of time: you're accomplishing matters previous than you planned 2. Behind time: you're late, or at the back of agenda three. Maintain a close eye on: to look at closley, keep any one below survellance four. I've had it: so many things have long past incorrect and now I can not manage it anymore 5. How there you: that is no longer even a phrase or a pronouncing in english 6. Do not mess with me: do ot disturb or upset me 7. Car pool: when persons willlingly share transportation to a situation, therfor saving gas and minimizing the discharge of carbon dioxide into the air eight. Freak out: When anybody has a fit, tantrum, or a surprising and in most cases violent free up of emotional anger, stress, or frustration

Answer 3

The Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words; and a further half-million technical and scientific terms remain uncatalogued.

Today, more than 750 million people use the English language. An average educated person knows about 20,000 words and uses only about 2,000 words in a week.

There are only about 350 million people who use it as their mother tongue. It is the official language of the Olympics. More than half of the world's technical and scientific periodicals as well three quarters of the world's mail, and its telexes and cables are in English. About 80% of the information stored in the world's computers (such as this text) are also in English. English is also transmitted to more than 100 million people everyday by 5 of the largest broadcasting companies (CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC, CBC). It seems like English will remain the most widely used language for some time.

Answer 4

one million. A head of time: you're carrying out matters previous than you deliberate two. Behind time: you're past due, or in the back of time table three. Keep a near eye on: to look at closley, preserve any one underneath survellance four. I've had it: such a lot of matters have long gone improper and now I are not able to manage it anymore five. How there you: that is now not even a word or a pronouncing in english 6. do not mess with me: do ot disturb or disillusioned me 7. Car pool: while persons willlingly proportion transportation to a situation, therfor saving fuel and minimizing the discharge of carbon dioxide into the air eight. Freak out: When any one has a are compatible, tantrum, or a surprising and more often than not violent unencumber of emotional anger, pressure, or frustration

Answer 5

Check out the answer at this site I think it is pretty comprehensive. This is the first paragraph:

There is no single sensible answer to this question. It is impossible to count the number of words in a language, because it is so hard to decide what counts as a word. Is dog one word, or two (a noun meaning 'a kind of animal', and a verb meaning 'to follow persistently')? If we count it as two, then do we count inflections separately too (dogs plural noun, dogs present tense of the verb). Is dog-tired a word, or just two other words joined together? Is hot dog really two words, since we might also find hot-dog or even hotdog?

Answer 6

Three. "The English Language" 1-The 2-English 3-Language.
Duh.

Answer 7

Impossible to know! every day is invented a new word that later will be publish on dictionaries, so It`s impossible to count words in English

Answer 8

Nobody knows, and in fact it is unknowable as new words are being coined, or adapted from other languages, all the time. The number is certainly in the hundreds of thousands, and may well be over a million.

Answer 9

Oxford English Dictionary has about 650,000. Once established, even "foreign" words become "English" - kayak, parka, tea, television, pork, beef and so on.

Answer 10

Define the period that the English language was used.

Otherwise. I can come up with new ones, every day....and they would make sense.