“PELOST. TS *90130135* THE (INS TEACHER’S WORD BOOK OF 30,000 WORDS By EDWARD \. THORNDIKE and IRVING LORGE BUREAU OF PUBLICATIONS TEACHERS COLLEGE - COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NEW YORK - 1944 JAN. 3.0 1987copyricur, 1944, BY TEACHERS COLLEGE COLUMBIA UNIVERSETYPREFACE ‘Tms book is a greatly improved extension cof the Thorndike Teacker's Word Book, pub- fished in 1921, and of the extension of it to include 20,000 words published in 1931. It includes the data of these two counts and also of three other counts of over 4}4 million words each. It enables. teacher to know not only the general importance of each word so far as frequency of occurrence measures that, ‘but also its importance in current popular reading for adults, as shown by the Lorge ‘magazine count, and its importance in such juvenile reading as schools and libraries: approve. This extension would not have been pos- sible except for the work of Dr. Irving Lorge on the Lorge-Thordike semantic count and the Lorge magazine count, and for his gener- osity in permitting me to use the results. I hhave also had the benefit of his advice on the general plan. But he is not responsible for the execution of it, or for any errors in the copying of records or the computations. Cer- tain exercises of judgment have been neces- We acknowledge the generous aid of the Rockefeller Foundation and of the W.P.A. 2 February, 1943 Cab lishe bao sary because the recorders of the magazine count began all words with capital letters, and because the recorders of the semantic ‘count did not record contractions like ésn't, and did not separate different forms of words Tike be, come, and do, and because the count of juvenile books did not include the top 2,800 of the Thorndike general count. The original Thorndike count failed to record abbreviations adequately, and itis likely the recorders in the other counts skipped many. ‘This book is not final asa frequency count of English reading. New words will become important. Scientific and other erudite read- ing matter deserves a separate columa, though it has its fair proportion of weight in the original Thorndike count and in the se- mantic count. .A column for the vocabulary of modem fiction, or for new war terms, might be useful, Tt will be easy for future workers to extend and amend this book by adding counts of 234, or 434, or 634, or 9 million words of any sort. Epwagp L. THORNDIKE without which the semantic count and the magazine count could not have been made.INTRODUCTION Part I of this book is alist of words, each followed by a record of the frequency of oc- currence of the word in general, and in four different sets of reading matter. LY, the fiat column after the word is @ ‘number stating the occurrences per milion words. 1 = at least one occurrence per mil- Jion and not so many as two per million; 2 = atleast two per million and not so many as three per million; and similarly up to 49; ‘A= at least 50 per million and not so many as 100 per million; AA = 100 or over per milion. In the other four columns are numbers siving the number of occurrences in approxi- mately 43% million words of (T) the Thom- dike general count of 1931, (L) the Lorge ‘magazine count, (J) the Thorndike count of 120 juvenile books, and (S) the Lorge- ‘Thomdike semantic count. The numbers ; under T are computations from the Thorn- dike 1931 data, made as described on page 251. An M in the T column means that the Word was one of the 500 commonest by the ‘Thorndike count, and occurred from 800 to 100,000 or more times per 434 million words. ‘An M in the L column means that the word ‘occurred 1,000 times or more in the Lorge magazine count. ‘The exact number of oc- ‘currences is given in Part IV. An M in the Jcoluma means that the word occurred 1,000 times or more in the count of 120 juvenile books; an M* means that it probably did, M and M* in the S column mean that the word had 1,000 or more occurrences in the semantic count, surely (M) or by estimate (M"). ‘The exact number when known is given in Part IV. ‘The starred numbers in the J column are estimates made as described on page 253. (Other starred numbers are also estimates. In some cases where the number of occur- rrences per million depends very largely upon the extremely frequent use of the word in Li] ‘one of the counts, itis followed by a question ‘mark or replaced by a question mark, as in the cases of Adrian, Aesir, and Agatha. A question mark in the T, L, J, or $ column means that for some special reason no reli- able estimate could be made for the count in question. Regular plurals, comparatives and super- latives, verb forms in s, d, ed, and ing, past participles formed by adding x, adverbs in Jy that occur less than once in a million words, and equally rare adjectives formed by adding m to names of places are ordinarily counted in under the main word. So are words which have special meanings when capitalized and words usually capitalized which have special meanings when not cap- italized. In cases where it seems desirable, a reminder of such inclusion is given by a letter in parenthesis after the word. For ex ample, we have acropolis (A), Bolshevik (b), and Albania (1). Some adjectives in ing or ed and some nouns in ing are entered sep- arately, the word being followed by (adi.) oo (n.). For example, we have the main entry abandon 38 119 150 130 285 and the entry sbandoned (adj.) 3 11 14 12 27 We have acting (a. adj.) 16 75 78 75* 73: But in general participial adjectives and verbal substantives are included under the main word. The general principles followed fare: Beery occurrence is counted somewhere, No occurrence is counted twice, Certain facts about the inclusion of vari- ‘ant forms and spellings are reported by let- ters or words in parenthesis. All these will be self-explanatory. Examples are: ‘bscess (ed) to show that abscessed is included, ‘accouterments (re) to show that ac- coulrements is included,Introduction adviser (or) to show that advisor is included. ‘The list of Part I includes all words with a total of 18 or more occurrences in the four columns, i.e., of 1 or more occurrences per million words, except that certain rare con- tractions, proper names, foreign words, and slang words are not entered in the list unless ‘they occur in at east three of the four counts. ‘This avoids cluttering up the list with words of almost no importance and of questionable frequeney which happened to be used 18 times or more in some one or two sources Such words are Adah, which occurred 52 times, Adlerstein, which occurred 240 times, Adrienne, which occurred 52 times, Alain, which occurred 36 times, obs'lulely, and ooin. ‘There are 1,069 AA words occurring 160 for more times per million. There are 952 A words occurring $0 to 99 times per milion. ‘The number of words occurring 49, 48, 47, etc., times per million is as shown belo 49360 37 5025 8513231 48°35 36 62 24 72 12 294 47 33 35 53-23 9811 516 4o 38 34 Gf «22 110 10 340 Coe ea) 4438 32 65 «20 131 8 522 43°39 31 S419 1327 593 230 30 Th «18 1456 (08k 4140 2 4 «17 «1725 890 40-45 (28 77 «16 188) 4 1068 39 4127 88 15 189 3 1442 38 47 26 76 «14 200-2 2508 1 5200 ‘The total number occurring once or more per million is thus 19,440. ‘There are 9,202 ‘words that occurred less than once per mil- on words but oftener than four times in 18 million words. These are listed in Part IT (pages 211 to 242). On pages 242 to 247 are listed 1,358 words from those that occurred four times per 18 million words, making 30,000 in all. ‘The spelling used for a word that has vari- ant spellings is usually that which is now commonest i American usage, but ocea- sionally, where the counts have been kept separate for two variant spellings, these have been entered separately. No attempt has been made to conform to the spelling of one dictionary, nor are all variant spellings Tisted. “The words marie AA are approximately the fist thowsand for frequency. ‘The words marked Aare approximately the second thousand. ‘The words maried 49 to 30 are approximately the third thousand. ‘Those marked 29 to 19 are approximately the fourth thousand. ‘Those marked 18 to 14 are approximately the fifth thousand those marked 13 to 10 the sith thousand; and those marked 9 or 8 the seventh thousand, bringing the total for AA down through 8 to 7,085. Those marked 7, 6, 5, oF 4 bring the total somewhat past 10,000 (to 10,288). Tt is convenient for certain purposes to have a separate lst of the 500 words oocur- ring most frequently and ofthe $00 oceurring next most frequently. Such lists ae printed in Part V. HOW TO USE THE LIST ‘The list tells anyone who wishes to know whether to use a word in writing, speaking, or ‘teaching how common the word is in standard English reading matter. ‘The first number, which is a summary from all four counts, is the most important and is usually decisive. The numbers in the TL, J, and S columns may, however, be of great value in certain eases. The T counts emphasized frequency in readers, textbooks, the Bible, and the English classics. The L counts included only recent and popular magazines. ‘The J counts included only books recommended for boys and girls in grades 3 to 8 The S counts used a miscel- any of juvenile and adult reading—of old ‘and recent, and of matter-of-fact and im- aginative—but omitted school readers and textbooks, ‘The most important use of the list by a Ix]Introduction teacher is in guiding his or her treatment of words that occur in the readers, supplemen- tary readers, textbooks, and other material to be read by a class. A teacher should de- cide, concerning many words which occur in ‘books or articles to be read by the class, whether to have the class learn the word well ‘enough so that the ability to know the sound and the important meaning or meanings of the word when they see it will be a perma- rent part of their stock of word knowledge ‘or merely inform them of its meaning tem- porarily so that they can understand and enjoy the reading matter in which it occurs. ‘This book will answer the question wisely for most words for most classes. The word should be taught for permanent knowledge according to the following rules and prin- ciples: In grades 1 and 2. (1) If it is an AA word (except for a few words of interest mainly to adults or too hard for a child in grade I or 2 to understand—such as accord- ing); of (2) if it is a word of great practical service—such as poison; or (3) if itis a word ‘well understood by the class when heard and specially useful for learning the phonic equiv- alent of certain combinations of letters— such as Block. In grade 3.The same rule applies here as for grades 1 and 2 except that “if it san AA word" is replaced by ‘if it is an AA or A word. In grade 4, If it is an AA or A word or 1 word marked 49, 48, etc., down to 20 (ex- cept for a few words of interest only to adults ‘or too hard to understand—such as adminis- tration) or if it is marked 100 or higher in the J columa, In grades § and 6. (1) Any word from ‘AA down to 10, or that is marked 60 or higher in the J column; or (2) any word that is important for local reasons—such as sub- way in or near New York; or (3) any word that concems important but recent affairs or inventions—such as Nasi or airport. Words of interest only to adults or too hard for pupils in grades 5 and 6 are, however, as in grades 1 to 4, to be explained only, not taught for permanent possession. Teach ers in grades 5 and 6 may check their judg- ment about the adultness of a word by comparing its frequency in the L count with its frequency in the J count. For example, abolish has 50 in Land 16 in J; accent has 117 in L and 23 in J; adeguate has 95 in L and only 3 in J. In grades 7 and 8. The same rule ap- plies here as for grades $ and 6, except that, “from AA down to 10" is replaced by “from AA down to 6." ‘The procedures described above do not ‘mean that the pupils in a class should learn permanently all the words specified. If a word never occurs in any book or article read by a class, in a given grade, it may be left tuntaught until it doss so occue. TE the course of study has a word list pre- seribed for a given grade, the presumption is that the words will occur fairly often in the books and articles read in that grade. If they do not, either the list or the reading ‘matter used in the grade should be changed. In grades 9 to 12, The value set upon widening a pupil's vocabulary versus im- proving his taste, improving his effectiveness in speech and writing, and various other achievements of the high school teaching of English varies from city to city and from ‘teacher to teacher. Moreover, the method ‘used to widen vocabulary ‘varies. from ‘thorough learning of many words to relying mainly upon learning enough on each occa- sion from context, dictionary, and explana- tion to serve the needs of that occasion. So wwe offer no rules like those for grades 1 to 8. ‘Those responsible for the teaching of English should set whatever standards they think best for word knowledge. The responsibility of attaining these standards may, if so de- sired, be put upon the pupils themselves. Standards may best be set in terms of our list. For example, pupils may be told that ‘they should know the meaning (or the com- ‘mon meanings in the case of words having more than one meaning) of the wordsdown [xi]Introduction through 5 by the end of grade 9, through 4 by the end of grade 10, and through 3 by the end of Grade 11; and graduation from senior high school may be made conditional upon knowledge of at least 15,000 words. One or more copies of the word book should be available in each classroom, so that each pupil ean find out just how common any ‘word is. In classes for adults. For adults learn- {ng English, who know few or no English words when they see them or when they hear them, use the words in the textbooks of Faucett, West, or others who have used the Thorndike Teacher's Word Book of 1921 or later editions. For adults learning to read, who know the ‘meaning of thousands of words when they hear them, favor those words from AA down to 15 which will facilitate learning the me- chanies of reading. For adults who are improving their know!- edge of English for some special purpose, the important thing is to economize time and effort by requiting thorough and permanent knowledge only insofar as it is needed for that special purpose. For example, it may bbe more important fora soldier whose know!- edge of English is being increased in order to make him a better soldier to know the names of parts of a machine-gun or other rare military words than to know certain very common literary words. He ought to understand (1) the words of his trade, (2) the so-called “Yormal” words like the prepo- sitions, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliary ‘verbs, and adverbs of time and’ place, and (G) the names of things, qualities, acts, proc- esses, and events that are part of life in an army or almost anywhere else. In making a list of words of class 2 and class 3, a sound procedure is to take AA words as frst choice and A words as second choice, omitting a few that are especially literary. Among the words beginning with o, probably the only omissions would be affec, ancient, arose, artist, assume, assure, ailitude, aunt, and ox thor. And there would be some gain from learning the words affect, assume, assure, and attitudes ‘Much could be said about the use of the list by lawyers (especially in examining wit- nesses), preachers, lecturers, writers of text- ‘books, writers of propaganda and advertise- meats, and others, But to all such the list may be left to speak for itself.PART I List of Words Occurring at Least Once per 1,000,000 Wordsabandon 5 38 ‘abandoned (adj.) 3 abandonment 3 abase 1 abash 3 abate 7 abatement 1 abbé 3 abbess 1 abbey 1 abbot 10 Abbott 3 abbreviate 1 abbreviation 1 abdicate * 1 abdication 1 abdomen 7 ‘abdominal 2 Abe 8 abed 1 Aberdeen, 1 abet 1 abeyance 1 abhor 7 abhorrence 1 abhorrent 1 abide 2 ability 9 abject 4 abjure 1 ablaze 2 able AA able-bodied 1 ablution 1 ably 1 abnormal Gj aboard a abode 16 abolish 18 7 1 6 2 2 ‘abomination aboriginal 130 115 130 50 it 28 i BonauanaSSSenne 16 2 9 5 a to acacia 150 aborigines abortive abound about above Abraham, Abram abreast abridge abridgment abroad abrogate abrupt abruptly Absalom abscess (ed) absence absent absentee absently absent-minded absolute absolutely absolution absolve * absorb absorbed (adj.) absorbent absorbing (adj.) absorption abstain abstinence abstract abstracted (adj) abstractedly abstraction abstruse absurd absurdity. absurdly abundance abundant abuse abusive abyss Abyssinia acacia i) BBESALO mma Bi BwatewnnonewoneRan Shaw Se 123 122 “4 37 45° or 4 o 37 3T 16 40° 8 » 18 26 101 314 5 6 ane 24 19 2s 20 2 3 10 ra 16 7 4 134 37 3 33 50 a 7 5 2 4 a3" tor 10" euBaSSeaSiwonguad 213 1 234 234 2 150 18" 18 9 4 59 20 80 6 124 126 135 16 2PART IT List of Words Occurring at Least Once per 4,000,000 Words But Not So Often as Once per 1,000,000 WordsPART IT ‘Words occurring less than once per million but more than once per four million are listed on pp. 211 to 242. Bach is followed by a num- ber (from 5 to 17) reporting the number of ‘occurrences pet eighteen million words. Thi number is the number per 4) milion es mated from the Thorndike count of approxi- mately ten million words, plus the actual number of occurrences in the Lorge maga- ine count, the Thorndike count of juvenile books, and the semantic count.* 1,358 words comprising about 99 per cent of those occur- ring four times per eighteen million words are listed on pages 242 to 247. These bring ‘the total list to 30,000. ‘*Bxcept that for certain proper names, words having only one meaning, and words ‘not in the Oxford Dictionary for which the se- ‘mantic count comprised only 214 million words, the actual number of occurrences was doubled and except also that in the case of a very few ‘such words for which records were incomplete, special estimates had to be made.Part II: abaft to anise WORDS OCCURRING AT LEAST ONCE PER 4,000,000 abaft 6, abasement 17, abatis 13, abduct 14, abduction 11, abeam 6, Abel 16, Abelard §, aberration 15, abettor 7, abiding (adj.) 15, abigail (A) 16, abjuration 6, ablative 7, abloom 9, abnegation 7, abnormality 14, abortion 17, above-board S, abrade 6, ‘abrasion 14, absoond 12, ‘absolutism 8, absorptive 8, abstemious 16, ab- stention 7, abut 13, abutment 13, abysm 6, academe (A) 13, | Acadia (a) 13, acan- thus 12, ‘accentuation 5, acceptability 11, acceptation 13, accessibility 9, acclima- tize 5, accompt 7, accordant 6, accountancy 7, accounting (n.) 14, accouter (re) 14, accretion 10, accumulator 16, acstanilid 5, ‘acetate 10, acetic 15, Achacan 6, ‘Achaia (x) 17, Acheron 5, achromatic 5, acidosis 11, acidulate 6, acolyte 6, acous- fie {1, acoustics 7, acquaintanceship 5," acquiescent 10, acquirement 15, acquisitive 11, acrimonious 13, acrimony 10, acrobatic 9 (acrobatics 4), acrostic 6, Actaeon 12, actinic 5, Actium 14, activate 7, acumen 15, acuteness 16, addle 11, adductor 7, ‘Aden 5,’ adipose 13, adjuration 7, adjustable 13, adjutant 17, adjutani-general 15, admissible 11, admonitory 3, adoptive 12, Adrianople 8, adroitness 10, adulterer 9, adulteress 7,” adulterous 9, adventuress 5, adverb 16, advert 14, advisability 17, advisedly 16, advisement 5, adz (e) 16, cdile 7, Aegina 14, acgis 12, Acgisthus 8, Aeneid 12, Acolian 5, acolian herp S, acon 10, aerate 10, acrie (y) 11, aeronaut 15, aeronautical 14, aeronautics 13, Aeschylus 14, Aesculapius 15, Aesop 14, aether 9, Actna 14, afferent 11, affiance 16, afflatus 6, Afghan (a) 15, aforementioned 7, afoul 5, Aftic 7, afterdeck 10, aftereffet §, afterglow 10, afterlife 3, agar-agar agave 7, agglomerate 6, agglomeration 11, aggrandize 7, aggrandizement 15, aggra- vation 16, Agincourt 13, agitatedly 6, agnostic 7, agog 8, agoing 11, agone 10, Agra 10, agriculturalist 11, agriculturist 16, Agrippa 16, Ahab9, ahem 12, ahoy 15, aigeette 10, aileron 11, air-conditioned 6, airless 6, airman 15, air-minded 6, air- way 17, Aix6, Ajax 1, akimbo 15, Akron 14, alackaday 5, Alameda 8, Alamo 5, Alaric6, alarmingly 14, "alarmist 10,” alarum 15," Alberta 16, albinism 7, albumen 12, albumin 8, slbuminous 5, Alcatraz 8, alchemy 17, Alcibiades 17, Alcides 12, aloo- holism 12, Alden 16, aldermanic 9, Aldrich 10, alehouse &, Aleppo 10, Aleutian 5, Alexandrian 13, Alexandrine 11, Alfonso 5, algebraic 5, ‘Alhambra 7, alienist 6, ‘liment 8, alkalinity $, all-American (A) 9, ' Allenby 9, Allentown 7, alleviation 11, allimportant 11, Allison 17, alliteration 13, allocate 12, allocation 6, allover 9, all-round 17, allspice 8, almoner 10, aloha 14, alp 15, alpaca 14, alphabetic 6, ‘Alpheus 9, ‘Alphonso 15, Alsace 16, altimeter 17, Alton 11, alum 13, alumina 11, alumnus 13 (se also alumni in Part 1), alway 5, alyssum 11, amalgam 14, amalgama: tion 17, amanveusis 10, amaranth 11, amaranthine 11, amateurish 9, amatory 11, amazedly 8, ambassadorial 7, ambergris 10, ambient 6, Ambrose 14, “ambulatory 5, amelioration 14, amiability 16, amir 7, ammoniac 6, ammonite 6, amnesia 5, amoeba 15 (see also ameba in Part 1), amortization 9, amortize (6) 6, ampere 17, Amphibia 8, Amphitrite 9, amplification 13, amputation 16, Amritsar 17, amuck 11, amulet 13, Amundsen 9, ‘Anabeptist 7, anachronism 13, anaconda (A) 7, Anacreon 9, anaemia 7, anaemic 7, anaesthesia 8," anaesthetist 5, anaesthetize 5 (ee also anemic, ete), anal 12, analgesia 8 analyse 15, analyst 13," Ananias 5, anarch 9, anar cal 8, anarchistic 8, anathematize 8, ‘Anatolia 14, anatomize 10, anchoret 6, an- chorite 13, Ancona 8, Andros {1, anemia 16, anent 6, anesthesia 7, angelical 11, ‘Angelus 5, Angevine 16, Angles 8, angleworm 13, Anglo-American 6, Angora 14, angularity 6, animadverson 14, animadvert 6, animalcule 5, animus'7, anise 10, (att)