Ever wondered what "the 86,800 most frequently used English words" are? The above screen snapshot reveals where "write" (#930), "page" (#931), "playing" (#932) and "independent" (#933) rank. The folks behind WordCount have put this information together in an accessible, fun format, making it easy to see the order of how often words are used:
WordCount™ is an artistic experiment in the way we use language....Each word is scaled to reflect its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving a visual barometer of relevance. The larger the word, the more we use it. The smaller the word, the more uncommon it is...
After plugging in a set of random words (which included "rabbit" (#5498), "chocolate" (#4204), and "astronaut" (#29,914), I typed in opposites: love/hate, peace/war, day/night. I won't reveal their ranks; in each pair, which do you think ranked higher? Go to the site and see if you guessed them correctly.
To learn more about WordCount, click here.
I'm a big fan of Jonathan Harris' work. I featured him in a Wired article back in the day: http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2005/02/66612
Keep on rocking Kristin
Posted by: Digidave | June 15, 2008 at 02:14 PM
Hey Dave — Thanks for the link to your article. I will definitely check it out!
You keep rocking, too. :) Congrats on winning the Knight News Challenge grant and on Spot.us. I cannot wait to see the waves it will make.
Posted by: KG | June 15, 2008 at 11:52 PM