LONDON – For those who think the world is obsessed with “time,” an Oxford dictionary added support to the theory Thursday in announcing that the word is the most often used noun in the English language.
“The” is the most commonly used word overall, followed by “be,” “to,” “of,” and, “a,” “in,” “that,” “have,” and “I,” according to the “Concise Oxford English Dictionary.”
On the list of top 25 nouns, time is followed by other movement indicators, with “year” in third place, “day” in fifth and “week” at No. 17.
The dictionary used the Oxford English Corpus – a research project on English in the 21st century – to come up with the lists.
Among nouns, “person” is ranked No. 2, with “man” at No. 7 and “woman” at No. 14. “Child” appears at No. 12.
“Government” appears at No. 20 while “war,” at No. 49, trumps “peace,” which did not make the top 100.
The list of top 25 nouns include: time, person, year, way, day, thing, man, world, life, hand, part, child, eye, woman, place, work, week, case, point, government, company, number, group, problem, fact.
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