How to play Which Word Is More Common?
- 1
Press Start.
- 2
Two words appear. Tap the one that is more common in English.
- 3
After each answer you see how common each word is. Fifteen pairs per round.
Not all words are equal
The 2,000 most frequent English words cover the large majority of what you read in everyday texts. Knowing which words are frequent helps you decide what to learn first and what you can safely skip for now.
How we compare words
Each pair is at least ten times apart in typical usage, based on frequency estimates from large collections of English text. Common does not mean easy, and rare does not mean useless: literary and academic texts love rare words.
Which Word Is More Common?: questions and answers
Where does the frequency data come from?
From approximate frequency bands based on large English text collections. Pairs are always far apart, so small differences between sources never change the answer.
Why learn frequent words first?
They appear on almost every page, so each one you learn makes many texts easier to read.
Is a rare word a bad word to learn?
Not at all. Rare words are common in novels, journalism and exams. Frequent words simply pay off sooner.