Need to Know

Sometimes you don't know whether something's worth doing 'til you've already done it.

In teaching (or learning) a language, it's always a puzzle which words you should tackle first, and which can wait for later. English has around 200 prepositions, of which half are so rare and specialised you can avoid them altogether unless you work in the relavent field. Here are the bottom ten prepositions in a frequency-ordered list I did:

astride
afore
apropos
neath
athwart
agin
modulo
anent
frae
aslant

I don't even know what 'agin' and 'frae' mean, and I'm pretty sure the only one I've used in the last decade is 'modulo'.

But simple frequency might not be always the best guide. So I thought, what about the number of senses? Excluding words with more 'structural' meanings, like conjunctions and pronouns, isn't it true that the most useful words are also those with the most uses?

Which would mean, if I can come up with an automatable procedure to transcribe a software dictionary, count the number of 'meanings' that each entry has, and order them by how many meanings each word has...I can get a guide to the most useful words for students to know.

So I did it. And then I did it again because the data was corrupted. And then I did it again because the processing wasn't quite right.

And now I have a list of 450 nouns, all with ten or more dictionary senses - though not generally ten noun senses, because they're also adjectives, verbs etc.

Column 1 is the word, 2 is the number of senses, then 3, 4 and 5 are whether the words has senses as noun, verb and adjective respectively.

Word	Senses	Noun	Verb	Adj
blood	21	N	V
fair	20	N	V	A
tongue	20	N	V
bit	19	N
cold	19	N		A
green	19	N	V	A
heel	19	N	V
rise	19	N	V
snap	19	N	V	A
bang	18	N	V
bone	18	N	V
death	18	N
life	18	N
name	18	N	V	A
wear	18	N	V
wipe	18	N	V
card	17	N	V
care	17	N	V
course	17	N	V
cousin	17	N
job	17	N	V
over	17	N
peg	17	N	V
quarter	17	N	V
radical	17	N		A
shell	17	N	V
shift	17	N	V
slack	17	N	V	A
warm	17	N	V	A
wind	17	N	V
act	16	N	V
bed	16	N	V
blank	16	N	V	A
control	16	N	V
face	16	N	V
fill	16	N	V
horn	16	N	V
question	16	N	V
seed	16	N	V
view	16	N	V
arm	15	N
board	15	N	V
bottom	15	N	V	A
common	15	N		A
force	15	N	V
forward	15	N	V	A
grain	15	N	V
kiss	15	N	V
mount	15	N	V
rail	15	N	V
range	15	N	V
reverse	15	N	V	A
rule	15	N	V
shade	15	N	V
shape	15	N	V
sick	15	N	V	A
silver	15	N	V
stack	15	N	V
state	15	N	V
storm	15	N	V
think	15	N	V
waste	15	N	V	A
wheel	15	N	V
wrap	15	N	V
ball	14	N	V
belt	14	N	V
bend	14	N	V
blast	14	N	V
bomb	14	N	V
boot	14	N	V
bright	14	N		A
by	14	N
chip	14	N	V
corner	14	N	V
deal	14	N	V
edge	14	N	V
fat	14	N	V	A
flame	14	N	V
flesh	14	N	V
flight	14	N	V
God	14	N
issue	14	N	V
last	14	N		A
late	14	N		A
no	14	N
past	14	N		A
perfect	14	N	V	A
reach	14	N	V
repeat	14	N	V
reserve	14	N	V
ring	14	N	V
ship	14	N	V
smart	14	N	V	A
speed	14	N	V
steam	14	N	V
stiff	14	N	V	A
sweat	14	N	V
sweep	14	N	V
tap	14	N	V
trail	14	N	V
transfer	14	N	V
wall	14	N	V
beam	13	N	V
breath	13	N
brief	13	N	V	A
button	13	N	V
cloud	13	N	V
credit	13	N	V
doubt	13	N	V
fault	13	N	V
fish	13	N	V
grass	13	N	V
grip	13	N	V
handle	13	N	V
hole	13	N	V
kind	13	N
laugh	13	N	V
liberal	13	N		A
love	13	N	V
map	13	N	V
mess	13	N	V
nail	13	N	V
natural	13	N		A
note	13	N	V
nut	13	N	V
offer	13	N	V
pan	13	N	V
pay	13	N	V
pin	13	N	V
plug	13	N	V
position	13	N	V
record	13	N	V
register	13	N	V
report	13	N	V
resolve	13	N	V
rock	13	N
saddle	13	N	V
save	13	N	V
seal1	13	N	V
shadow	13	N	V
shoe	13	N	V
small	13	N		A
spare	13	N	V	A
spill1	13	N	V
stay	13	N	V
stem	13	N	V
subject	13	N	V	A
suit	13	N	V
trace1	13	N	V
trip	13	N	V
weight	13	N	V
whistle	13	N	V
wide	13	N		A
wire	13	N	V
wonder	13	N	V
world	13	N
balloon	12	N	V
brush	12	N	V
chance	12	N	V
clip	12	N	V
close	12	N	V
crown	12	N	V
deep	12	N		A
dust	12	N	V
earth	12	N	V
fear	12	N	V
fiddle	12	N	V
float	12	N	V
grant	12	N	V
guard	12	N	V
gun	12	N	V
gut	12	N	V
hair	12	N
hammer	12	N	V
hog	12	N	V
ice	12	N	V
inside	12	N		A
interest	12	N	V
length	12	N
liberty	12	N
lick	12	N	V
lip	12	N	V
load	12	N	V
low1	12	N		A
ordinary	12	N		A
paint	12	N	V
picture	12	N	V
plot	12	N	V
positive	12	N		A
puff	12	N	V
rally	12	N	V
rap	12	N	V
rib	12	N	V
road	12	N
rush	12	N	V
sack	12	N	V
say	12	N	V
section	12	N	V
serve	12	N	V
sock	12	N	V
spit	12	N	V
spout	12	N	V
spread	12	N	V
star	12	N	V
sting	12	N	V
stone	12	N	V
stump	12	N	V
style	12	N	V
sun	12	N	V
sweet	12	N		A
tooth	12	N
tread	12	N	V
tube	12	N	V
warrant	12	N	V
yellow	12	N	V	A
abstract	11	N	V	A
acid	11	N		A
associate	11	N	V	A
bank	11	N	V
bell	11	N	V
best	11	N	V	A
bind	11	N	V
bird	11	N
bond	11	N	V
clerk	11	N	V
clock	11	N	V
cock	11	N	V
colour	11	N	V
crush	11	N	V
cry	11	N	V
dance	11	N	V
dig	11	N	V
dish	11	N	V
drink	11	N	V
drum	11	N	V
ear	11	N
flow	11	N	V
flutter	11	N	V
fold	11	N	V
gas	11	N	V
grade	11	N	V
grind	11	N	V
hack	11	N	V
hop	11	N	V
index	11	N	V
joint	11	N	V	A
leaf	11	N	V
loose	11	N	V	A
major	11	N	V	A
mantle	11	N	V
market	11	N	V
meet	11	N	V
model	11	N	V
mother	11	N	V
motion	11	N	V
needle	11	N	V
neutral	11	N		A
nod	11	N	V
offset	11	N	V
pad	11	N	V
period	11	N		A
profile	11	N	V
programme	11	N	V
quick	11	N		A
rate1	11	N	V
rattle	11	N	V
ray	11	N	V
reason	11	N	V
recall	11	N	V
relative	11	N		A
release	11	N	V
ring	11	N	V
riot	11	N	V
rod	11	N
savage	11	N	V	A
secular	11	N		A
service	11	N	V
sleep	11	N	V
slick	11	N	V	A
soak	11	N	V
solid	11	N		A
sort	11	N	V
sound	11	N	V
sponge	11	N	V
spur	11	N	V
stamp	11	N	V
standing	11	N		A
store	11	N	V
surprise	11	N	V
terminal	11	N		A
tool	11	N	V
tramp	11	N	V
traverse	11	N	V
treat	11	N	V
tumble	11	N	V
tune	11	N	V
upset	11	N	V	A
value	11	N	V
voice	11	N	V
wolf	11	N	V
woman	11	N
worm	11	N	V
worse	11	N		A
wrong	11	N	V	A
ace	10	N	V	A
address	10	N	V
advance	10	N	V	A
answer	10	N	V
appeal	10	N	V
band	10	N	V
bead	10	N	V
bill1	10	N	V
body	10	N	V
bridge	10	N	V
broad	10	N		A
brown	10	N	V	A
bulk	10	N	V
bundle	10	N	V
business	10	N
cat	10	N	V
charm	10	N	V
chill	10	N	V	A
climb	10	N	V
conjugate	10	N	V	A
cool	10	N	V	A
crib	10	N	V
crisp	10	N	V	A
crop	10	N	V
cup	10	N	V
dash	10	N	V
dip	10	N	V
distress	10	N	V
doctor	10	N	V
dope	10	N	V	A
dream	10	N	V
dress	10	N	V
drift	10	N	V
due	10	N		A
early	10	N		A
escape	10	N	V
evolution	10	N
fancy	10	N	V	A
father	10	N	V
favour	10	N	V
feather	10	N	V
feel	10	N	V
fence	10	N	V
fetch	10	N	V
flag1	10	N	V
flare	10	N	V
fur	10	N	V
glass	10	N	V
Gothic	10	N		A
great	10	N		A
gripe	10	N	V
groove	10	N	V
gross	10	N	V	A
hat	10	N
heaven	10	N
horse	10	N	V
hump	10	N	V
if	10	N
indent	10	N	V
iron	10	N	V
jam	10	N	V
juice	10	N	V
king	10	N	V
label	10	N	V
lash	10	N	V
left	10	N		A
lustre1	10	N
marshal	10	N	V
mask	10	N	V
mask	10	N	V
match	10	N	V
medium	10	N		A
mill	10	N	V
minor	10	N	V	A
monkey	10	N	V
mould	10	N	V
murder	10	N	V
mute	10	N	V	A
native	10	N		A
nature	10	N
net	10	N	V
objective	10	N		A
oblique	10	N		A
occult	10	N	V	A
pace	10	N	V
package	10	N	V
palm	10	N	V
phase	10	N	V
physical	10	N		A
powder	10	N	V
prime	10	N		A
project	10	N	V
race	10	N	V
rake	10	N	V
ram	10	N	V
ramp	10	N	V
regard	10	N	V
rope	10	N	V
safe	10	N		A
sail	10	N	V
scrape	10	N	V
sense	10	N	V
shaft	10	N	V
shock	10	N	V
shoulder	10	N	V
shout	10	N	V
sin	10	N	V
sing	10	N	V
size1	10	N	V
skew	10	N	V	A
skid	10	N	V
sling	10	N	V
snow	10	N	V
sour	10	N	V	A
space	10	N	V
spike	10	N	V
spirit	10	N	V
stagger	10	N	V
stall	10	N	V
steady	10	N	V	A
steal	10	N	V
stitch	10	N	V
straw	10	N
streak	10	N	V
stream	10	N	V
street	10	N
surface	10	N	V	A
swell	10	N	V	A
tear	10	N	V
thing	10	N
thread	10	N	V
tick	10	N	V
ticket	10	N	V
toe	10	N	V
ton	10	N
tough	10	N		A
town	10	N
type	10	N	V
vein	10	N
void	10	N	V	A
ward	10	N	V
warp	10	N	V
weather	10	N	V
welcome	10	N	V	A
will	10	N	V
window	10	N

I don't know whether I can do anything with this, and similar tables, after two weeks work. But if you're not prepared to invent something useless, you can't be an inventor.