Vocabulary

Vocabulary

I once read that the English language has more than 800,000 different words, and that the average person's normal vocabulary is barely 100,000 words.  That means most people who speak, write, and read English are only using and aware of one eighth of the words that make up their language.

I have an Internet site I have signed up with that sends me a different English word every day.

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/

Please check them out.  Even if you are not trying to become a writer, if you speak the language and read the more words you become familiar with the more you will understand and be able to use them.  This sight gives you the definition of the word.  Examples of how it has actually been used in writing and the origins of the word.  Each day I get a new word with the definition and examples of how it is used.  Of course they are not all completely new to me but most are.

I actually copy and paste them into a word document and then run the spell check feature and add the words that Microsoft Word does not recognize, which is quite a few of them.  So slowly but surely as my knowledge increases so does the word processor I use to write with.

What word has the most definitions?

"Set" has 464 definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary. "Run" runs a distant second, with 396. Rounding out the top ten are "go" with 368, "take" with 343, "stand" with 334, "get" with 289, "turn" with 288, "put" with 268, "fall" with 264, and "strike" with 250.