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How many words are in the English language? | Almanac.com

How many words are in the English language?

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How many words are in the English language?
Answer
English consists of about 600,000 words (though the number keeps growing). The good news is that experts consider a person fluent if he or she knows only about 2,000 of them. Most of us use more than that in everyday conversation, but the norm is still only a few thousand. Even professional writers are said to use only about 50,000 words, leaving a lot of words unsaid. Perhaps that’s for the best.