World's Most Popular Noun: Time

[SevenSeasJim]

'Time': Its time has come

Word for measuring duration is most popular noun in English

Thursday, June 22, 2006; Posted: 3:30 a.m. EDT (07:30 GMT)

LONDON, England (AP) -- For those who think the world is obsessed with "time," an Oxford dictionary added support to the theory in announcing that the word is the most often used noun in the English language.

"The" is the most commonly used word overall, followed by "be," "to," "of," and, "a," "in," "that," "have," and "I," according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.

On the list of top 25 nouns, "time" is followed by other movement indicators: "year" is in third place; "day" is fifth; and "week" is No. 17.

The dictionary used the Oxford English Corpus -- a research project into English in the 21st century -- to come up with the lists.

Among nouns, "person" is ranked at No. 2, with "man" at No. 7 and "woman" at No. 14. "Child" appears at No. 12.

"Government" appears at No. 20 while "war," at No. 49, trumps "peace," which did not make the top 100.

The list of top 25 nouns: time, person, year, way, day, thing, man, world, life, hand, part, child, eye, woman, place, work, week, case, point, government, company, number, group, problem, fact.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Interesting! Leave it to the anal, Protestant-work-ethic world of Anglo-Saxophones (hey, is that a new word?) to make time so central to the language. I blame Frederick Winslow Taylor (bastard).

I relish having travelled to places where people don't need watches (like, say, the CTMF).

[timouse]

Interesting! Leave it to the anal, Protestant-work-ethic world of Anglo-Saxophones (hey, is that a new word?) to make time so central to the language. I blame Frederick Winslow Taylor (bastard).

I relish having travelled to places where people don't need watches (like, say, the CTMF).

anglo-saxamaphone?