English word frequencies (general)
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Below are various basic word frequency lists for English, which can be helpful for beginning and intermediate learners of English, or for teachers.
Contents
1 Top 100s
These lists are based on the Oxford English Corpus.
1.1 Top 100 words altogether
- the
- be
- to
- of
- and
- a
- in
- that
- have
- I
- it
- for
- not
- on
- with
- he
- as
- you
- do
- at
- this
- but
- his
- by
- from
- they
- we
- say
- her
- she
- or
- an
- will
- my
- one
- all
- would
- there
- their
- what
- so
- up
- out
- if
- about
- who
- get
- which
- go
- me
- when
- make
- can
- like
- time
- no
- just
- him
- know
- take
- people
- into
- year
- your
- good
- some
- could
- them
- see
- other
- than
- then
- now
- look
- only
- come
- its
- over
- think
- also
- back
- after
- use
- two
- how
- our
- work
- first
- well
- way
- even
- new
- want
- because
- any
- these
- give
- day
- most
- us
1.2 100 Most common verbs
- be
- have
- do
- say
- go
- can
- get
- would
- make
- know
- will
- think
- take
- see
- come
- could
- want
- look
- use
- find
- give
- tell
- work
- may
- should
- call
- try
- ask
- need
- feel
- become
- leave
- put
- mean
- keep
- let
- begin
- seem
- help
- talk
- turn
- start
- might
- show
- hear
- play
- run
- move
- like
- live
- believe
- hold
- bring
- happen
- must
- write
- provide
- sit
- stand
- lose
- pay
- meet
- include
- continue
- set
- learn
- change
- lead
- understand
- watch
- follow
- stop
- create
- speak
- read
- allow
- add
- spend
- grow
- open
- walk
- win
- offer
- remember
- love
- consider
- appear
- buy
- wait
- serve
- die
- send
- expect
- build
- stay
- fall
- cut
- reach
- kill
- remain
1.3 100 Most common nouns
- time
- year
- people
- way
- day
- man
- thing
- woman
- life
- child
- world
- school
- state
- family
- student
- group
- country
- problem
- hand
- part
- place
- case
- week
- company
- system
- program
- question
- work
- government
- number
- night
- point
- home
- water
- room
- mother
- area
- money
- story
- fact
- month
- lot
- right
- study
- book
- eye
- job
- word
- business
- issue
- side
- kind
- head
- house
- service
- friend
- father
- power
- hour
- game
- line
- end
- member
- law
- car
- city
- community
- name
- president
- team
- minute
- idea
- kid
- body
- information
- back
- parent
- face
- others
- level
- office
- door
- health
- person
- art
- war
- history
- party
- result
- change
- morning
- reason
- research
- girl
- guy
- moment
- air
- teacher
- force
- education
1.4 100 Most common adjectives
- other
- new
- good
- high
- old
- great
- big
- American
- small
- large
- national
- young
- different
- black
- long
- little
- important
- political
- bad
- white
- real
- best
- right
- social
- only
- public
- sure
- low
- early
- able
- human
- local
- late
- hard
- major
- better
- economic
- strong
- possible
- whole
- free
- military
- true
- federal
- international
- full
- special
- easy
- clear
- recent
- certain
- personal
- open
- red
- difficult
- available
- likely
- short
- single
- medical
- current
- wrong
- private
- past
- foreign
- fine
- common
- poor
- natural
- significant
- similar
- hot
- dead
- central
- happy
- serious
- ready
- simple
- left
- physical
- general
- environmental
- financial
- blue
- democratic
- dark
- various
- entire
- close
- legal
- religious
- cold
- final
- main
- green
- nice
- huge
- popular
- traditional
- cultural
1.5 Top 100 function words
Function words include minor lexical categories like prepositions, conjunctions, minor adverbs, copular and auxiliary verbs, determiners, and other minor words. The following list is drawn from data from the British National Corpus, and includes some morphemes as well.
| Rank | Word | Word class |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | the | Det |
| 2 | of* | Prep |
| 3 | and | Conj |
| 4 | a | Det |
| 5 | in | Prep |
| 6 | to | Inf |
| 7 | to | Prep |
| 8 | was | Verb |
| 9 | it | Pron |
| 10 | for | Prep |
| 11 | with | Prep |
| 12 | he | Pron |
| 13 | be | Verb |
| 14 | on | Prep |
| 15 | I | Pron |
| 16 | by | Prep |
| 17 | 's | Gen |
| 18 | at | Prep |
| 19 | you | Pron |
| 20 | had | Verb |
| 21 | his | Det |
| 22 | this | DetP |
| 23 | have* | Verb |
| 24 | but | Conj |
| 25 | from | Prep |
| 26 | which | DetP |
| 27 | she | Pron |
| 28 | they | Pron |
| 29 | or | Conj |
| 30 | an | Det |
| 31 | were | Verb |
| 32 | as | Conj |
| 33 | we | Pron |
| 34 | their | Det |
| 35 | been | Verb |
| 36 | has | Verb |
| 37 | that | DetP |
| 38 | will | VMod |
| 39 | would | VMod |
| 40 | her* | Det |
| 41 | there | Ex |
| 42 | n't | Neg |
| 43 | all | DetP |
| 44 | can | VMod |
| 45 | if | Conj |
| 46 | who | Pron |
| 47 | what | DetP |
| 48 | as | Prep |
| 49 | 's | Verb |
| 50 | one | Num |
| 51 | its | Det |
| 52 | into | Prep |
| 53 | him | Pron |
| 54 | some | DetP |
| 55 | up | Adv |
| 56 | could | VMod |
| 57 | when | Conj |
| 58 | them | Pron |
| 59 | so | Adv |
| 60 | out | Adv |
| 61 | my | Det |
| 62 | two | Num |
| 63 | about | Prep |
| 64 | then | Adv |
| 65 | no | Det |
| 66 | more | Adv |
| 67 | also | Adv |
| 68 | only | Adv |
| 69 | me | Pron |
| 70 | first | Ord |
| 71 | your | Det |
| 72 | may | VMod |
| 73 | now | Adv |
| 74 | new | Adj |
| 75 | any | DetP |
| 76 | her | Pron |
| 77 | than | Conj |
| 78 | like | Prep |
| 79 | just | Adv |
| 80 | after | Prep |
| 81 | between | Prep |
| 82 | many | DetP |
| 83 | how | Adv |
| 84 | our | Det |
| 85 | being | Verb |
| 86 | those | DetP |
| 87 | such | DetP |
| 88 | down | Adv |
| 89 | one | Pron |
| 90 | through | Prep |
| 91 | over | Prep |
| 92 | even | Adv |
| 93 | must | VMod |
| 94 | own | DetP |
| 95 | because* | Conj |
| 96 | three | Num |
| 97 | last | Ord |
| 98 | more | DetP |
| 99 | however | Adv |
| 100 | on | Adv |
2 Academic word list
These are the most frequent, general academic words that all university students should know. This table contains the top 570 academic words in use across various fields. This is actually a list for word groups, not just the words themselves. For example, the term abstract would include derived words that one should also know, such as abstraction, abstractly; for access, one should know, e.g., accessibility, accessible, accessing, inaccessible, etc. This list is from http://www.lextutor.ca (where other word list files are also available, including a list of the 3000 top academic words in the 570 word groups).
- abandon
- abstract
- academy
- access
- accommodate
- accompany
- accumulate
- accurate
- achieve
- acknowledge
- acquire
- adapt
- adequate
- adjacent
- adjust
- administrate
- adult
- advocate
- affect
- aggregate
- aid
- albeit
- allocate
- alter
- alternative
- ambiguous
- amend
- analogy
- analyze
- annual
- anticipate
- apparent
- append
- appreciate
- approach
- appropriate
- approximate
- arbitrary
- area
- aspect
- assemble
- assess
- assign
- assist
- assume
- assure
- attach
- attain
- attitude
- attribute
- author
- authority
- automate
- available
- aware
- behalf
- benefit
- bias
- bond
- brief
- bulk
- capable
- capacity
- category
- cease
- challenge
- channel
- chapter
- chart
- chemical
- circumstance
- cite
- civil
- clarify
- classic
- clause
- code
- coherent
- coincide
- collapse
- colleague
- commence
- comment
- commission
- commit
- commodity
- communicate
- community
- compatible
- compensate
- compile
- complement
- complex
- component
- compound
- comprehensive
- comprise
- compute
- conceive
- concentrate
- concept
- conclude
- concurrent
- conduct
- confer
- confine
- confirm
- conflict
- conform
- consent
- consequent
- considerable
- consist
- constant
- constitute
- constrain
- construct
- consult
- consume
- contact
- contemporary
- context
- contract
- contradict
- contrary
- contrast
- contribute
- controversy
- convene
- converse
- convert
- convince
- cooperate
- coordinate
- core
- corporate
- correspond
- couple
- create
- credit
- criteria
- crucial
- culture
- currency
- cycle
- data
- debate
- decade
- decline
- deduce
- define
- definite
- demonstrate
- denote
- deny
- depress
- derive
- design
- despite
- detect
- deviate
- device
- devote
- differentiate
- dimension
- diminish
- discrete
- discriminate
- displace
- display
- dispose
- distinct
- distort
- distribute
- diverse
- document
- domain
- domestic
- dominate
- draft
- drama
- duration
- dynamic
- economy
- edit
- element
- eliminate
- emerge
- emphasis
- empirical
- enable
- encounter
- energy
- enforce
- enhance
- enormous
- ensure
- entity
- environment
- equate
- equip
- equivalent
- erode
- error
- establish
- estate
- estimate
- ethic
- ethnic
- evaluate
- eventual
- evident
- evolve
- exceed
- exclude
- exhibit
- expand
- expert
- explicit
- exploit
- export
- expose
- external
- extract
- facilitate
- factor
- feature
- federal
- fee
- file
- final
- finance
- finite
- flexible
- fluctuate
- focus
- format
- formula
- forthcoming
- foundation
- founded
- framework
- function
- fund
- fundamental
- furthermore
- gender
- generate
- generation
- globe
- goal
- grade
- grant
- guarantee
- guideline
- hence
- hierarchy
- highlight
- hypothesis
- identical
- identify
- ideology
- ignorant
- illustrate
- image
- immigrate
- impact
- implement
- implicate
- implicit
- imply
- impose
- incentive
- incidence
- incline
- income
- incorporate
- index
- indicate
- individual
- induce
- inevitable
- infer
- infrastructure
- inherent
- inhibit
- initial
- initiate
- injure
- innovate
- input
- insert
- insight
- inspect
- instance
- institute
- instruct
- integral
- integrate
- integrity
- intelligence
- intense
- interact
- intermediate
- internal
- interpret
- interval
- intervene
- intrinsic
- invest
- investigate
- invoke
- involve
- isolate
- issue
- item
- job
- journal
- justify
- label
- labor
- layer
- lecture
- legal
- legislate
- levy
- liberal
- licence
- likewise
- link
- locate
- logic
- maintain
- major
- manipulate
- manual
- margin
- mature
- maximize
- mechanism
- media
- mediate
- medical
- medium
- mental
- method
- migrate
- military
- minimal
- minimize
- minimum
- ministry
- minor
- mode
- modify
- monitor
- motive
- mutual
- negate
- network
- neutral
- nevertheless
- nonetheless
- norm
- normal
- notion
- notwithstanding
- nuclear
- objective
- obtain
- obvious
- occupy
- occur
- odd
- offset
- ongoing
- option
- orient
- outcome
- output
- overall
- overlap
- overseas
- panel
- paradigm
- paragraph
- parallel
- parameter
- participate
- partner
- passive
- perceive
- percent
- period
- persist
- perspective
- phase
- phenomenon
- philosophy
- physical
- plus
- policy
- portion
- pose
- positive
- potential
- practitioner
- precede
- precise
- predict
- predominant
- preliminary
- presume
- previous
- primary
- prime
- principal
- principle
- prior
- priority
- proceed
- process
- professional
- prohibit
- project
- promote
- proportion
- prospect
- protocol
- psychology
- publication
- publish
- purchase
- pursue
- qualitative
- quote
- radical
- random
- range
- ratio
- rational
- react
- recover
- refine
- regime
- region
- register
- regulate
- reinforce
- reject
- relax
- release
- relevant
- reluctance
- rely
- remove
- require
- research
- reside
- resolve
- resource
- respond
- restore
- restrain
- restrict
- retain
- reveal
- revenue
- reverse
- revise
- revolution
- rigid
- role
- route
- scenario
- schedule
- scheme
- scope
- section
- sector
- secure
- seek
- select
- sequence
- series
- sex
- shift
- significant
- similar
- simulate
- site
- so-called
- sole
- somewhat
- source
- specific
- specify
- sphere
- stable
- statistic
- status
- straightforward
- strategy
- stress
- structure
- style
- submit
- subordinate
- subsequent
- subsidy
- substitute
- successor
- sufficient
- sum
- summary
- supplement
- survey
- survive
- suspend
- sustain
- symbol
- tape
- target
- task
- team
- technical
- technique
- technology
- temporary
- tense
- terminate
- text
- theme
- theory
- thereby
- thesis
- topic
- trace
- tradition
- transfer
- transform
- transit
- transmit
- transport
- trend
- trigger
- ultimate
- undergo
- underlie
- undertake
- uniform
- unify
- unique
- utilize
- valid
- vary
- vehicle
- version
- via
- violate
- virtual
- visible
- vision
- visual
- volume
- voluntary
- welfare
- whereas
- whereby
- widespread
