Important words used in daily life
This list of important words was drawn up by British rhetorician I.A. Richards, author of several books including "Basic English and Its Uses" (1943). However, these 100 words are not a part of the simplified version of the language that he and C.K. Ogden called Basic English
Also, we're not talking about the 100 most frequently used words in English (a list that contains far more prepositions than nouns).
And unlike the 100 words chosen by David Crystal to tell "The Story of English," Richards' words are primarily significant for their meanings, not their etymologies.
Richards introduced his list of words in the book "How to Read a Page: A Course in Effective Reading" (1942), and he called them "the most important words" for two reasons:
They cover the ideas we can least avoid using, those which are concerned in all that we do as thinking beings.
They are words we are forced to use in explaining other words because it is in terms of the ideas they cover that the meanings of other words must be given.
Here are those 100 important words:
Amount
Argument
Art
Be
Beautiful
Belief
Cause
Certain
Chance
Change
Clear
Common
Comparison
Condition
Connection
Copy
Decision
Degree
Desire
Development
Different
Do
Education
End
Event
Examples
Existence
Experience
Fact
Fear
Feeling
Fiction
Force
Form
Free
General
Get
Give
Good
Government
Happy
Have
History
Idea
Important
Interest
Knowledge
Law
Let
Level
Living
Love
Make
Material
Measure
Mind
Motion
Name
Nation
Natural
Necessary
Normal
Number
Observation
Opposite
Order
Organization
Part
Place
Pleasure
Possible
Power
Probable
Property
Purpose
Quality
Question
Reason
Relation
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The 100 Most Important Words in English
From 'How to Read a Page' by I.A. Richards
Share
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Love written across two hands
Jonathan Knowles / Getty Images
By Richard Nordquist
Updated July 18, 2019
This list of important words was drawn up by British rhetorician I.A. Richards, author of several books including "Basic English and Its Uses" (1943). However, these 100 words are not a part of the simplified version of the language that he and C.K. Ogden called Basic English.
Also, we're not talking about the 100 most frequently used words in English (a list that contains far more prepositions than nouns).
And unlike the 100 words chosen by David Crystal to tell "The Story of English," Richards' words are primarily significant for their meanings, not their etymologies.
Richards introduced his list of words in the book "How to Read a Page: A Course in Effective Reading" (1942), and he called them "the most important words" for two reasons:
They cover the ideas we can least avoid using, those which are concerned in all that we do as thinking beings.
They are words we are forced to use in explaining other words because it is in terms of the ideas they cover that the meanings of other words must be given.
Here are those 100 importan words.
Existence
Experience
Fact
Fear
Feeling
Fiction
Force
Form
Free
General
Get
Give
Good
Government
Happy
Have
History
Idea
Important
Interest
Knowledge
Law
Let
Level
Living
Love
Make
Material
Measure
Mind
Motion
Name
Nation
Natural
Necessary
Normal
Number
Observation
Opposite
Order
Organization
Part
Place
Pleasure
Possible
Power
Probable
Property
Purpose
Quality
Question
Reason
Relation
Representative
Respect
Responsible
Right
Same
Say
Science
See
Seem
Sense
Sign
Simple
Society
Sort
Special
Substance
Thing
Thoug
All these words carry multiple meanings, and they can say quite different things to different readers. For that reason, Richards' list could just as well have been labeled "The 100 Most Ambiguous Words:"
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Humanities › English
The 100 Most Important Words in English
From 'How to Read a Page' by I.A. Richards
Share
Flipboard
Email
Love written across two hands
Jonathan Knowles / Getty Images
By Richard Nordquist
Updated July 18, 2019
This list of important words was drawn up by British rhetorician I.A. Richards, author of several books including "Basic English and Its Uses" (1943). However, these 100 words are not a part of the simplified version of the language that he and C.K. Ogden called Basic English.
Also, we're not talking about the 100 most frequently used words in English (a list that contains far more prepositions than nouns).
And unlike the 100 words chosen by David Crystal to tell "The Story of English," Richards' words are primarily significant for their meanings, not their etymologies.
Richards introduced his list of words in the book "How to Read a Page: A Course in Effective Reading" (1942), and he called them "the most important words" for two reasons:
They cover the ideas we can least avoid using, those which are concerned in all that we do as thinking beings.
They are words we are forced to use in explaining other words because it is in terms of the ideas they cover that the meanings of other words must be given.
Here are those 100 important words:
Amount
Argument
Art
Be
Beautiful
Belief
Cause
Certain
Chance
Change
Clear
Common
Comparison
Condition
Connection
Copy
Decision
Degree
Desire
Development
Different
Do
Education
End
Event
Examples
Existence
Experience
Fact
Fear
Feeling
Fiction
Force
Form
Free
General
Get
Give
Good
Government
Happy
Have
History
Idea
Important
Interest
Knowledge
Law
Let
Level
Living
Love
Make
Material
Measure
Mind
Motion
Name
Nation
Natural
Necessary
Normal
Number
Observation
Opposite
Order
Organization
Part
Place
Pleasure
Possible
Power
Probable
Property
Purpose
Quality
Question
Reason
Relation
Representative
Respect
Responsible
Right
Same
Say
Science
See
Seem
Sense
Sign
Simple
Society
Sort
Special
Substance
Thing
Thought
True
Use
Way
Wise
Word
Work
All these words carry multiple meanings, and they can say quite different things to different readers. For that reason, Richards'
ist could just as well have been labeled "The 100 Most Ambiguous Words:"
The very usefulness which gives them their importance explains their ambiguity. They are the servants of too many interests to keep to single, clearly defined jobs. Technical words in the sciences are like adzes, planes, gimlets, or razors. A word like "experience," or "feeling," or "true" is like a pocketknife. In good hands it will do most things—not very well. In general we will find that the more important a word is, and the more central and necessary its meanings are in our pictures of ourselves and the world, the more ambiguous and possibly deceiving the word will be.Important words used in daily life.Maths formula
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