Study: 'Time' Is Most Often Used Noun (2024)

For those who think the world is obsessed with "time," an Oxford dictionary added support to the theory Thursday 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 with "year" in third place, "day" in fifth and "week" at 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.

Study: 'Time' Is Most Often Used Noun (2024)

FAQs

Is time the most used noun? ›

"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 with "year" in third place, "day" in fifth and "week" at No. 17.

What is the most used noun? ›

Time is the most common noun, but is far down the list. After be, do & have (all have a grammatical use), the most common verb is say. Other is the most common adjective.

What type of noun is time? ›

The word ''time'' on its own is a common noun. This means that it is general and need not be capitalized (unless it begins a sentence).

What is noun with 10 examples? ›

Nouns are a part of speech in the English language used to name people, places, things, ideas, and concepts. They are used to identify and describe objects, people, places, animals, and other things. For example, “apple”, “chair”, “table”, “house”, “dog”, “teacher”, “city”, and “idea” are all examples of nouns.

What are 20 examples of a noun? ›

Top 1500 Nouns
people372(noun)
shopping20(noun)
student20(noun)
wood20(noun)
competition19(noun)
158 more rows

What are 5 proper nouns? ›

Proper Noun List of Words: Cow, Facebook, Robert, Oreo, Grammar, Empire State, Philips, Canon, Audi, Buttons, Tokyo, Black, Tesla, Asia.

What noun is used for? ›

A noun is a word that represents a person, thing, concept, or place (e.g., “John,” “house,” “affinity,” “river”). Most sentences contain at least one noun or pronoun. Nouns are often, but not always, preceded by an article (“the,” “a,” or “an”) and/or another determiner such as an adjective.

What is common noun used? ›

A common noun is a non-specific person, place, or thing. For example, dog, girl, and country are examples of common nouns. In contrast, proper nouns name a specific person, place, or thing. Common nouns are typically not capitalized, but there are two exceptions to this rule.

What is an example of a noun? ›

A noun is a word that refers to a thing (book), a person (Noah Webster), an animal (cat), a place (Omaha), a quality (softness), an idea (justice), or an action (yodeling). It's usually a single word, but not always: cake, shoes, school bus, and time and a half are all nouns.

How do you use time as a noun? ›

Examples of time in a Sentence

Noun The two events were separated by time and space. The poem is a reflection on the passage of time. What was happening at that particular moment in time?

How do we use time? ›

Time is used to quantify, measure, or compare the duration of events or the intervals between them, and even, sequence events.

What is task example? ›

A task is an activity or piece of work which you have to do, usually as part of a larger project. Walker had the unenviable task of breaking the bad news to Hill. She used the day to catch up with administrative tasks. Synonyms: job, duty, assignment, work More Synonyms of task.

What is a person in English grammar? ›

In grammar, a person is the way of referring to someone taking part in an event, such as the person talking, the person being talked to, the person being talked about. Grammatical persons are accomplished by pronouns, words used to take the place of a noun, in order to make speech easier.

Do you need a noun in a sentence? ›

Every sentence must have a subject, and that subject will always be a noun or pronoun. The subject of a sentence is the person, place, or thing that is doing or being or experiencing whatever is described by the verb of the sentence.

Is time a common or abstract noun? ›

Words like love, time, beauty, and science are all abstract nouns because you can't touch them or see them.

What is the common noun? ›

A common noun is a non-specific person, place, or thing. For example, dog, girl, and country are examples of common nouns. In contrast, proper nouns name a specific person, place, or thing. Common nouns are typically not capitalized, but there are two exceptions to this rule.

What are 7 common nouns? ›

Examples of a Common Noun
  • People: mother, father, baby, child, toddler, teenager, grandmother, student, teacher, minister, businessperson, salesclerk, woman, man.
  • Animals: lion, tiger, bear, dog, cat, alligator, cricket, bird, wolf.
  • Things: table, truck, book, pencil, iPad, computer, coat, boots,

What is the longest noun word? ›

The longest English word is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which is forty-five letters long and refers to a type of lung disease.

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