Table Of ContentTS
COPYRIGHT, 1944,
BY TEACHERS COLLEGE
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
SECOND PRINTING, 1952
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PREFACE
This book is a greatly improved extension sary because the recorders of the magazine
ofthe Thomdike Teacher's Word Book, pub count began all words with capital letters,
lished in 1921, and of the extension of it to and because the recorders of the semantic
include 20,000 words published in 1931. It count did not record contractions like isn't,
includes the data of these two counts and and did not separate different forms ofwords
also ofthree other counts of over 4И million like be, come, and do, and because the count
words each. It enables ateacher to know not of juvenile books did not include the top
only the general importance of each word so 2,500 of the Thorndike general count. The
farasfrequency of occurrence measures that, original Thorndike count failed to record
but also its importance in current popular abbreviations adequately, and it is likely the
reading for adults, as shown by the Lorge recorders in the other counts skipped many.
magazine count, and its importance in such This book is not final as afrequency count
juvenile reading as schools and libraries of English reading New words will become
approve. important. Scientific and other erudite read
This extension would not have been pos ing matter deserves a separate column,
sible except for the work of Dr. Irving Lorge though it has its fair proportion of weight in
on the Lorge-Thorndike semantic count and the original Thorndike count and in the se
the Lorge magazine count, and for his gener mantic count. A column for the vocabulary
osity in permitting me to use the results. I of modern fiction, or for new war terms,
have also had the benefit ofhisadvice on the might be useful. It will be easy for future
general plan. But he is not responsible for workers to extend and amend this book by
the execution of it, or for any errors in the adding counts of 2\i, or 4J/¿, or 6%, or 9
copyingofrecords orthe computations. Cer million words of any sort.
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97 tain exercises of judgment have been neces- Edward L. Thokndike
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p.3#o Rockefeller Foundation and of the W.P.A. magazine count could not have been made.
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ix
PART I. List of Words Occurring at Least Once per 1,000,000 Words . . 1
PART II. List of Words Occurring at Least Once per 4,000,000 Words But
Not So Often as Once per 1,000,000 Words 211
III.
PART Explanatory Notes, Descriptions, and References to Descriptions,
of the Four Word Counts 249
PART IV. The Number ofOccurrences {in the Lorge Magazine Count and the
Lorge-Thorndike Semantic Count) of Words Occurring 1,000 or More
Times in Either of These Counts 259
PART V. List of the 500 Words Occurring Most Frequently and of the 500
Words Occurring Next Most Frequently 267
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INTRODUCTION
Part I of this book is a list of words, each one of the counts, it is followed by a question
followed by a record of the frequency of oc mark or replaced by a question mark, as in
currence of the word in general, and in four the cases of Adrian, Aesir, and Agatha. A{-
different sets of reading matter. question mark in the T, L, J, or S column
In the first column after the word is a means that for some special reason no reli
number stating the occurrences per million able estimate could be made for the count
words. 1 = at least one occurrence per mil in question.
lion and not so many as two per million; Regular plurals, comparatives and super
2 = at least two per million and not so many latives, verb forms in s, d, ed, and ing, past
as three per million; and similarly up to 49; participles formed by adding n, adverbs in
A = at least 50 per million and not so many ly that occur less than once in a million
as 100 per million; AA = 100 or over per words, and equally rare adjectives formed
million. by adding n to names ofplaces are ordinarily
In the other four columns are numbers counted in under the main word. So are
giving the number of occurrences in approxi words which have special meanings when
mately million words of (T) the Thorn- capitalized and words usually capitalized
dike general count of 1931, (L) the Lorge which have special meanings when not cap
magazine count, (J) the Thorndike count of italized. In cases where it seems desirable,
120 juvenile books, and (S) the Lorge- a reminder of such inclusion is given by a
Thorndike semantic count. The numbers letter in parenthesis after the word. For ex
under T are computations from the Thorn- ample, we have acropolis {A), Bolshevik (b),
dike 1931 data, made as described on page and Albania (и). Some adjectives in ing or
251. An M in the T column means that the ed and some nouns in ing are entered sep
word was one of the 500 commonest by the arately, the word being followed by (adj.)
Thorndike count, and occurred from 800 to or (п.). For example, we have the main entry
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597 lûûJD00 or more times per \y2 million words. abandon 38 119 150 130 285
00497gle AocncuMrreidn t1h,e00L0 ctiomluemsnormemaonrsethinatththeeLwoorgrde and the entry
p.39015#oa-goo mcuargreanzcinees icsoguinvte.nV*inhePaerxtacitv)nuAmnbMer ionf tohce We haabvaendoned (adj.) 3 11 14 12 27*
mdse Jcolumn means that the wordoccurred 1,000 acting (n. adj.) 16 75 78 75* 73
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ndle.st.or word had 1,000 or more occurrences in the are: Every occurrence is counted somewhere.
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Introduction
adviser (or) to show that advisor is ant spellings is usually that which is no»
included. commonest in American usage, but occa
I sionally, where the counts have been kept
The list of Part includes all words with
separate for two variant spellings, these have
a total of 18 or more occurrences in the four
been entered separately. No attempt has
columns, i.e., of 1 or more occurrences per
been made to conform to the spelling of
million words, except that certain rare con
one dictionary, nor are all variant spellings
tractions, proper names, foreign words, and
listed.
slang words are not entered in the list unless
The words marked AA are approximately
they occur in at least three ofthe fourcounts.
the first thousand for frequency. The words
This avoids cluttering up the list with words
marked A are approximately the second
of almost no importance and of questionable
thousand. The words marked 49 to 30 are
frequency which happened to be used 18
approximately the third thousand. Those
times or more in some one or two sources.
marked 29 to 19 are approximately the
Such words are Adah, which occurred 52
fourth thousand. Those marked 18 to 14 are
times, Adlerstein, which occurred 240 times,
approximately the fifth thousand; those
Adrienne, which occurred 52 times, Alain,
marked 13 to 10 the sixth thousand; and
which occurred 36 times, abs'lutely, and
those marked 9 or 8 the seventh thousand,
agoin.
bringing the total for AA down through 8
There are 1,069 AA words occurring 100
to 7,055. Those marked 7, 6, 5, or 4 bring
or more times per million. ,There are 952
the total somewhat past 10,000 (to 10,285).
A words occurring 50to 99 times per million.
It is convenient for certain purposes to
The number of words occurring 49, 48, 47,
have a separate list of the 500 words occur
etc., times per million is as shown below:
ringmost frequentlyand ofthe 500occurring
49 36 37 50 25 85 13 231 next most frequently. Such lists are printed
48 35 36 62 24 72 12 294 in Part V.
47 33 35 53 23 98 11 316 f, HOW TO USE THE LIST
4« 38 34 64 22 110 10 340
45 42 33 55 21 112 9 441 _The list tells anyone who wishes to know
78 44 38 32 65 20 131 8 522 whether to use a word in writing, speaking,
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75 43 39 31 54 19 132 7 593 or teaching how common the word is in
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027/mess_us 38 47 26 76 14 200 21 52250093 Tgr,eaLt, Jv,alaunedinS ccoelrutmainns cmasaesy., hTohweevTer,cobuentosf
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andle.ust.or Tpehremtoilltiaolnniusmtbheurs 1o9c,c4u4r0r.ingThoenrceeaorer 9m,2o0re2 tchoeunBtsiblein,claunddedtheonElynglrieschenctlasasnicds. poTphuelarL
hdl.hathitr words that occurred less than once per mil magazines. The J counts included only
p://w.h lion words but oftener than four times in 18 books recommended for boys and girls in
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07-12 e-digiti The spelling used for a word that has vari The most important use of the list by a
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Introduction
гасher is in guiding his or her treatment of as in grades 1 to 4, to be explained only,
rords that occur in the readers, supplemen- not-tamzht for permanent possession. Teach
ary readers, textbooks, and other material ers in grades 5 and 6 may check their judg
o be read by a class. A teacher should de- ment about the adultness of a word by
ide, concerning many words which occur in comparing its frequency in the L count with
,ooks or articles to be read rçy the class, its frequency in the J count. For example,
rhether to have the class learn the word well abolish has 50 in L and 16 in J; accent has
mough so that the ability to know the sound 117 in L and 23 in J; adequate has 95 in L
ind the important meaning or meanings of and only 3 in J.
he word when they see it will be a perma- In grades 7 and 8. The same rule ap
îent part of their stock of word knowledge, plies here as for grades 5 and 6, except that
ir merely inform them of its meaning tem- "from AA down to 10" is replaced by "from
jorarily so that they can understand and AA down to 6."
mjoy the reading matter in which it occurs. The procedures described above do not
This book will answer the question wisely mean that the pupils in a class should learn
ror most words for most classes. The word permanently all the words specified. If a
should be taught for permanent knowledge word never occurs in any bookorarticle read
iccording to the following rules and prin- by a class, in a given grade, it may be left
riples: untaught until it does so occur.
In grades 1 and 2. (1) If it is an AA If the course of study has a word list pre
word (except for a few words of interest scribed for a given grade, the presumption
mainly to adults or too hard for a child in is that the words will occur fairly often in
grade 1 or 2 to understand—such as accord the books and articles read in that grade. If
ing); or (2) if it is a word of great practical they do not, either the list or the reading
service—such as poison; or (3) if it is a word matter used in the grade should be changed.
well understood by the class when heard and 'Tn grades 9 to 12. The value set upon
specially useful forlearningthe phonicequiv widening a pupil's vocabulary versus im
—
alent of certain combinations of letters proving his taste, improving hiseffectiveness
such as block. in speech and writing, and various other
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97 In grade 3.The same rule applies here as achievements of the high school teaching of
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004gle word" is replaced by "if it is an AA or A teacher to teacher. Moreover, the method
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Introduction
through 5 by the end of grade 9, through 4 edge of English is being increased in orda
by the end of grade 10, and through 3 by to make him a better soldier to know th<
the end of Grade 11; and graduation from names of parts of a machine-gun or otha
senior high school may be made conditional rare military words than to know certain
upon knowledge of at least 15,000 words. very common literary words. He ought to
One or more copies of the word book should understand (1) the words of his trade, 2)
(
be available in each classroom, so that each the so-called "formal" words like the prepo
pupil can find out just how common any sitions, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliary
word is. verbs, and adverbs of time and place, and
In classes for adults. For adults learn (3) the names of things, qualities, acts, proc
ing English, who know few or no English esses, and events that are part of life in an
words when théy see them or when they army or almost anywhere else. In making a
hear them, use the words in the textbooks list of words of class 2 and class 3, a sound
of Faucett, West, or others who have used procedure sto take AA words as first choice
i
the Thorndike Teacher's Word Book of 1921 and Awords as second choice, omitting a
or later editions. few that are especially literary. Among the
For adults learning to read, who know the words beginning with a, probably the only
meaning of thousands of words when they omissions would be ajject, ancient, arose,
hear them, favor those words from AA down artist, assume, assure, attitude, aunt, and au
to 15 which will facilitate learning the me thor. And there would be some gain from
chanics of reading. learning the words ajject, assume, assure,
For adults who are improving their knowl and attitude.
edge of English for some special purpose, the Much could be said about the use of the
important thing is to economize time and /list by lawyers (especially in examining wit
effort by requiring thorough and permanent nesses), preachers, lecturers, writers of text
knowledge only insofar as it is needed for books, writers of propaganda and advertise
that special purpose. For example, it may ments, and others. But to all such the list
be more important for a,Soldlgt3vhose knowl- may be left to speak for itself.
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