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Paul JJ Payack
&Stevie Ray Vaughn

Methodology:  The Global Language Monitor has attempted to pinpoint the precise number of words in the English Language at a given point in time. To do so, it first established a base number of words in the language using the generally accepted unabridged dictionaries (the O.E.D., Merriam-Webster's*, Macquarie's, etc.), that contain the historic 'core' of the English language: every word found in the works of Shakespeare, the King James Bible, Chaucer, and the other 'classics'. 

GLM then created a proprietary algorithm, the Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) that attempts to measure  the language as currently found in print (including technical and scientific journals), the electronic media (transcripts from radio and television), on the Internet and, increasingly, in web logs (blogs).

The Global Language Monitor's proprietary algorithm, the Predictive Quantities Indicator tracks the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere, as well as accessing proprietary databases (Factiva, Lexis-Nexis, etc.).  For more information on the PQI, go here.

GLM then assigned a number to the rate of creation of new words and the adoption and absorption of foreign vocabulary into the language. The result, though an estimate, has been found to be quite useful as a starting point of the discussion for lay persons, students, and scholars the world over.

*Note on the Million Word March:  The Global Language Monitor's estimate of the Number of Words in the English Language, is taking a relatively conservative approach.   For example, it should be noted that the Introduction to Merriam-Webster's 3rd International claims it has about 450,000 words listed in that dictionary.  The Introduction goes on to state that, "the number of words available is always far in excess of and for a single volume dictionary many times the number that can possibly be included".   Many times the 450,000 included words, results in a number far in excess of 1,000,000. 

  Essay:  There are many things in the Universe that can never be precisely measured but that doesn't stop Humankind from attempting to take their measure.

o  And then there are 10 raised to the power of 72 atomic particles in the universe; that is, precisely: 

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,

000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,

000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

atomic particles;

o  There are fewer than 100,000 words in the French language;

o  There are some some 6.5 billion folks on the planet; (and about 20 billion that have ever walked upon the Earth);

o  Fewer than 20,000 different words in the Bible, (actually, 12,143 in the English, 783,137 total in the King James Version, 8,674 in the Hebrew Old Testament, and 5,624 in the Greek New Testament);

o  And 24,000 differing words to be found in the complete works of Shakespeare, about 1,700 of which he invented.

Finally, if you emptied all the water out of Lake Tahoe and spread it evenly over all of California it would be about 14 inches deep,  Not that anyone would ever attempt to do so. Or actually care.

Which brings us to the number of words in English.

The central idea of writing is, of course, the idea. Ideas by their very nature are wispy sorts of things. This being so, you can't grab an idea and do with it what you will.  Rather the best for which one can hope is to encapsulate the idea and preserve it for time immemorial in some sort of ethereal amber. We call this amber, language; the basic building block of which is, of course, the word. (We are speaking now as poets and not as linguists.)

As such, writers of English have the good fortune of having hundreds of thousands of words from which to choose. When you think of it, the English language writer always has at least three words for any idea, each rooted in the Latin, the Germanic or Saxon tongues, and the Greek. Think of a word for human habitation: city, town, metropolis, and so on. And that's just the start. In the English-speaking world we also owe a heavy debt to Algonquin, and Hebrew, and Malay (ketchup anyone?) and Maori, and Zulu and Hmong among a multitude of others. I think you can spot the beginnings of a trend here.

And then there is the entire realm of ''jargon,'' scientific and otherwise, those specialized patois or vocabularies known only to those in specific fields. Computer-related jargon is multiplying at an extraordinary rate. And since English has become the lingua Franca of the Internet, English words are being created and non-English words co-opted at an ever-quickening pace.

By the way, neurologists estimate that there are some 10 billion neurons in a typical human brain. Or so they say. Each of these neurons can theoretically interconnect with all the rest. This being so, the number of interconnects within a single human brain is greater than the entire number of atomic particles in the universe. If you equate these interconnects to ideas, or even thoughts, the number of potential words needed to express them is, indeed, staggering on the order of billions of trillions.

This all being said, I now unequivocally state that as of 1:16 pm (Pacific) on the 22nd day of March in the year 2008 AD (or CE, whatever your preference), there were approximately 995,112 words in the English Language, plus or minus a handful.

Choose well among them.