We Analysed 18,745 English Words: Here Is What Our Word List Looks Like
We built RandomWordMaker on 18,745 English words in their dictionary form. Before we let a single random word loose, we counted them every way we could. Six in ten are nouns. Common words are shorter, have fewer syllables and carry far more meanings than rare ones. And almost half of the rarest words have exactly one meaning.
Key facts
- 60.4% of the words are nouns, 22.3% adjectives, 12.1% verbs and 5.3% adverbs.
- Easy words average 6.3 letters; hard words average 8.0.
- An easy word has 7.0 meanings on average in WordNet. A hard word has 2.0.
- 48% of hard words have only one meaning, compared with 8.9% of easy words.
What is in the list
Every word is a real dictionary word with at least one meaning in WordNet, Princeton University’s English database, and also appears in the public-domain ENABLE word list used by word games. We keep each word once, in the form a dictionary uses: “run” is in the list, “ran” and “running” are not counted again, and plurals are left out. We also removed grammar words such as “the” and “of”, and anything unsuitable for a classroom.
Nouns rule, verbs punch above their weight
Each word is counted by its main type, the one used most often. Nouns dominate at every level, but verbs are much more common among everyday words than among rare ones.
| Word type | All words | Easy words | Hard words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nouns | 60.4% | 56.2% | 61.2% |
| Adjectives | 22.3% | 20.1% | 23.7% |
| Verbs | 12.1% | 17.4% | 10.0% |
| Adverbs | 5.3% | 6.3% | 5.1% |
That fits how language works. Everyday talk is full of a small set of hard-working verbs (make, take, give, go), while the long tail of rare words is mostly names for specific things: sturgeon, atherosclerosis, wainscot.
Easy, medium and hard
We grade each word by how often it appears in modern English, using the open wordfreq data, which mixes books, news, film subtitles and the web.
| Level | Words | Average letters | Average syllables | Average meanings | Words with one meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 2,510 | 6.3 | 2.0 | 7.0 | 8.9% |
| Medium | 5,856 | 7.4 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 25.3% |
| Hard | 10,379 | 8.0 | 2.8 | 2.0 | 48.0% |
The pattern is striking. The more often a word is used, the shorter it is and the more jobs it does. “Break” alone has 75 meanings in WordNet. Rare words are long and precise.
Why this matters for a random word generator
Most random word generators pull from a huge list and serve up whatever comes out, which is why you get quinquagenarian when you wanted a word for Pictionary. Because we know each word’s level, the random word generator defaults to Common (easy plus medium, 8,366 words), and you can switch to hard words when you actually want a challenge.
Sources
- Our own analysis of 18,745 words. Meanings and word types: WordNet 3.0, Princeton University.
- Word frequency: wordfreq by Robyn Speer. Syllables: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary.
