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Time beats money in popularity index

Oxford Dictionary's latest edition slots "time" as the most common noun in English followed by "day" and "week".

Updated on: Jun 22, 2006, 18:59:00 IST
None | By , London
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The "Common words" section in the latest revised Oxford Dictionary has revealed that ‘time’ is the most common noun in English, with ‘day’ and ‘week’ coming in close.

HT Image
HT Image

The word "time" topped a list of the most common nouns in the English language, with "year" close behind in third position, "day" in fifth place and "week" at 17th.

The word "work", appears at No 16 in the list, while "play" and "rest" do not even make the top 100.

"Money" appears to be less important than we might think, since it comes in at 65, although researchers believe this could be because of other versions of the same word, such as "cash".

"Person" is ranked at No 2 but it is still a man's world, with the word "man" reaching No7, "child" at No 12 and "woman" behind at No14.

"Government" makes a strong showing in the list at No20, but we talk about "war" - at No49 - more than "peace", which does not even make the top 100.

The common nouns supplement forms part of the revised 11th edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary - viewed as the definitive guide to our evolving language, reports the Scotsman.

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