How Many Words in Shakespeare?
Posted by: Josef EssbergerSeveral sources claim that Shakespeare used nearly 30,000 different words in his works. However, we need to ask what we mean by “different words”. Is it reasonable to count go and going and gone as three different words? If we count go and going and gone as one word (GO), then Shakespeare used fewer than 20,000 “different words”.
Posted by Josef Essberger March 2008
Josef founded EnglishClub for learners and teachers of English in 1997
3 comments
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hanane says:
hello Dear Sir,
I think there are tree words in Shakespeare: shake+spear. Spear is a weapon consisting of a pole with a sharp, usually metal, point at one end, which is either thrown or held in the hand. and Shakespeare shakes his pen and produces poetry and drama that made litterature. -
Musicman says:
If this is food for thought, prepare for mental indigestion!
Does it really matter? Surely the artistic and creative inspiration and effect are what we should be interested in.
Some people obviously do not have enough to fill their time!
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kootvela says:
That’s food for thought. I personally would consider the words with the same root as one word when counting them in fiction.