HOW MANY WORDS ARE THERE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE?

THERE IS NO SINGLE SENSIBLE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO COUNT THE NUMBER OF
WORDS IN A LANGUAGE, BECAUSE IT'S SO HARD TO DECIDE WHAT ACTUALLY 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

(E.G.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 IT MIGHT ALSO BE WRITTEN AS HOT-DOG OR EVEN HOTDOG?

IT'S 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 DO YOU COUNT SCOTS DIALECT?

ACADEMIC WRITING,

JAPANESE

WORDS USED IN MARTIAL ARTS?

TEENAGE AS
PER

SLANG?

ABBREVIATIONS?

OED THERE ARE

AROUND

500,000 WORDS.

APOCALYPSE
Word of the Day
The Global Language Monitor has announced that Apocalypse is the Top Word used in 2012

DEFINITION OF APOCALYPSE

Something viewed as a prophetic revelation

ARMAGEDDON

a great disaster <an environmental apocalypse>

ORIGIN OF APOCALYPSE
Middle English, revelation, Revelation, from AngloFrench apocalipse, from Late Latin apocalypsis, from Greek apokalypsis, from apokalyptein to uncover, from apo- +kalyptein to cover more at HELL

First Known Use: 13th century

disaster, calamity, cataclysm,

Synonyms

catastrophe, debacle, Tragedy

EXAMPLES OF INTEGRITY

His book tells of an environmental apocalypse. the fear that the next global pandemic could be an apocalypse of biblical proportions