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.

WordSensesNounVerbAdj
blood21NV
fair20NVA
tongue20NV
bit19N
cold19NA
green19NVA
heel19NV
rise19NV
snap19NVA
bang18NV
bone18NV
death18N
life18N
name18NVA
wear18NV
wipe18NV
card17NV
care17NV
course17NV
cousin17N
job17NV
over17N
peg17NV
quarter17NV
radical17NA
shell17NV
shift17NV
slack17NVA
warm17NVA
wind17NV
act16NV
bed16NV
blank16NVA
control16NV
face16NV
fill16NV
horn16NV
question16NV
seed16NV
view16NV
arm15N
board15NV
bottom15NVA
common15NA
force15NV
forward15NVA
grain15NV
kiss15NV
mount15NV
rail15NV
range15NV
reverse15NVA
rule15NV
shade15NV
shape15NV
sick15NVA
silver15NV
stack15NV
state15NV
storm15NV
think15NV
waste15NVA
wheel15NV
wrap15NV
ball14NV
belt14NV
bend14NV
blast14NV
bomb14NV
boot14NV
bright14NA
by14N
chip14NV
corner14NV
deal14NV
edge14NV
fat14NVA
flame14NV
flesh14NV
flight14NV
God14N
issue14NV
last14NA
late14NA
no14N
past14NA
perfect14NVA
reach14NV
repeat14NV
reserve14NV
ring14NV
ship14NV
smart14NVA
speed14NV
steam14NV
stiff14NVA
sweat14NV
sweep14NV
tap14NV
trail14NV
transfer14NV
wall14NV
beam13NV
breath13N
brief13NVA
button13NV
cloud13NV
credit13NV
doubt13NV
fault13NV
fish13NV
grass13NV
grip13NV
handle13NV
hole13NV
kind13N
laugh13NV
liberal13NA
love13NV
map13NV
mess13NV
nail13NV
natural13NA
note13NV
nut13NV
offer13NV
pan13NV
pay13NV
pin13NV
plug13NV
position13NV
record13NV
register13NV
report13NV
resolve13NV
rock13N
saddle13NV
save13NV
seal113NV
shadow13NV
shoe13NV
small13NA
spare13NVA
spill113NV
stay13NV
stem13NV
subject13NVA
suit13NV
trace113NV
trip13NV
weight13NV
whistle13NV
wide13NA
wire13NV
wonder13NV
world13N
balloon12NV
brush12NV
chance12NV
clip12NV
close12NV
crown12NV
deep12NA
dust12NV
earth12NV
fear12NV
fiddle12NV
float12NV
grant12NV
guard12NV
gun12NV
gut12NV
hair12N
hammer12NV
hog12NV
ice12NV
inside12NA
interest12NV
length12N
liberty12N
lick12NV
lip12NV
load12NV
low112NA
ordinary12NA
paint12NV
picture12NV
plot12NV
positive12NA
puff12NV
rally12NV
rap12NV
rib12NV
road12N
rush12NV
sack12NV
say12NV
section12NV
serve12NV
sock12NV
spit12NV
spout12NV
spread12NV
star12NV
sting12NV
stone12NV
stump12NV
style12NV
sun12NV
sweet12NA
tooth12N
tread12NV
tube12NV
warrant12NV
yellow12NVA
abstract11NVA
acid11NA
associate11NVA
bank11NV
bell11NV
best11NVA
bind11NV
bird11N
bond11NV
clerk11NV
clock11NV
cock11NV
colour11NV
crush11NV
cry11NV
dance11NV
dig11NV
dish11NV
drink11NV
drum11NV
ear11N
flow11NV
flutter11NV
fold11NV
gas11NV
grade11NV
grind11NV
hack11NV
hop11NV
index11NV
joint11NVA
leaf11NV
loose11NVA
major11NVA
mantle11NV
market11NV
meet11NV
model11NV
mother11NV
motion11NV
needle11NV
neutral11NA
nod11NV
offset11NV
pad11NV
period11NA
profile11NV
programme11NV
quick11NA
rate111NV
rattle11NV
ray11NV
reason11NV
recall11NV
relative11NA
release11NV
ring11NV
riot11NV
rod11N
savage11NVA
secular11NA
service11NV
sleep11NV
slick11NVA
soak11NV
solid11NA
sort11NV
sound11NV
sponge11NV
spur11NV
stamp11NV
standing11NA
store11NV
surprise11NV
terminal11NA
tool11NV
tramp11NV
traverse11NV
treat11NV
tumble11NV
tune11NV
upset11NVA
value11NV
voice11NV
wolf11NV
woman11N
worm11NV
worse11NA
wrong11NVA
ace10NVA
address10NV
advance10NVA
answer10NV
appeal10NV
band10NV
bead10NV
bill110NV
body10NV
bridge10NV
broad10NA
brown10NVA
bulk10NV
bundle10NV
business10N
cat10NV
charm10NV
chill10NVA
climb10NV
conjugate10NVA
cool10NVA
crib10NV
crisp10NVA
crop10NV
cup10NV
dash10NV
dip10NV
distress10NV
doctor10NV
dope10NVA
dream10NV
dress10NV
drift10NV
due10NA
early10NA
escape10NV
evolution10N
fancy10NVA
father10NV
favour10NV
feather10NV
feel10NV
fence10NV
fetch10NV
flag110NV
flare10NV
fur10NV
glass10NV
Gothic10NA
great10NA
gripe10NV
groove10NV
gross10NVA
hat10N
heaven10N
horse10NV
hump10NV
if10N
indent10NV
iron10NV
jam10NV
juice10NV
king10NV
label10NV
lash10NV
left10NA
lustre110N
marshal10NV
mask10NV
mask10NV
match10NV
medium10NA
mill10NV
minor10NVA
monkey10NV
mould10NV
murder10NV
mute10NVA
native10NA
nature10N
net10NV
objective10NA
oblique10NA
occult10NVA
pace10NV
package10NV
palm10NV
phase10NV
physical10NA
powder10NV
prime10NA
project10NV
race10NV
rake10NV
ram10NV
ramp10NV
regard10NV
rope10NV
safe10NA
sail10NV
scrape10NV
sense10NV
shaft10NV
shock10NV
shoulder10NV
shout10NV
sin10NV
sing10NV
size110NV
skew10NVA
skid10NV
sling10NV
snow10NV
sour10NVA
space10NV
spike10NV
spirit10NV
stagger10NV
stall10NV
steady10NVA
steal10NV
stitch10NV
straw10N
streak10NV
stream10NV
street10N
surface10NVA
swell10NVA
tear10NV
thing10N
thread10NV
tick10NV
ticket10NV
toe10NV
ton10N
tough10NA
town10N
type10NV
vein10N
void10NVA
ward10NV
warp10NV
weather10NV
welcome10NVA
will10NV
window10N

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.

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