What language has the most words?
There is no clear answer, because languages count words differently. English is often said to have one of the largest vocabularies, with more than 600,000 word forms in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Comparing vocabularies is difficult. Some languages, like German, Finnish and Turkish, form long compound words or add many endings to a root, creating endless possible word forms. Should each count as a new word? Dictionaries in different languages also follow different rules and sizes.
English's large vocabulary comes from its history of borrowing. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, English absorbed thousands of French words, and later many Latin and Greek terms for science and scholarship. This often gave English several words for similar ideas, such as kingly, royal and regal.
Other big dictionaries
Korean's major dictionary lists more than 1 million entries, including many technical and dialect words. Large dictionaries also exist for Japanese, Chinese and Russian. Arabic is known for its rich system of roots that produce many related words.
Did You Know?
The largest single-volume English dictionary, Webster's Third New International Dictionary, contains about 470,000 entries.