HOW MANY WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE?

Of all the languages, English has the largest and most varied vocabulary--at least 600,000 words. Many of these words are technical terms used by scientists, doctors, lawyers and other specialists. Countless others, now part of the English language, have been borrowed from other languages, such as "patio" from Spanish, "piano" from Italian, "igloo" from Eskimo and "a la mode" from French.

English is spoken by more people--around 400 million-than any other language, except Chinese. For about 250 million persons, English is the native tongue, and several hundred million more speak English as well as their native language, or at least well enough for basic communication.

The number of words in the English language will always be a fluctuating figure. New words are born as rapidly as technology advances, and every year more words are "borrowed" from other languages.

Of course, no one person knows all 600,000 words. In fact, it is safe to estimate that few people know half the nontechnical words, and no one uses even a fourth of these in everyday speech.

Surprisingly, our vocabulary develops very rapidly during our childhood years, tapering off drastically the older we get. The average adult has a vocabulary barely one and a half times as large as a child of 10. Typical children of this age know the meanings of about 35,000 different terms, having learned about 5,000 each year since age 6. Adults, however, generally increase their vocabulary by only about 50 words a year.

Everyone has two kinds of vocabulary. The words we use in speaking or writing form our "active" or "use" vocabulary. The words we understand upon hearing them or reading them form our "passive" or "recognition" vocabulary. Generally speaking, Americans have an active vocabulary between6,000 and 10,000 words, whereas their passive vocabulary is around four times this number.

Of course, these figures vary tremendously, depending on such factors as education and reading and writing habits. Another all-important factor is how actively a person tries to build his vocabulary. True students of the language constantly consult dictionaries and encyclopedias, as well as books specifically designed to increase word power. Crossword puzzles, Scrabble and other word games are also helpful vocabulary builders.

Many people are bilingual--that is, they speak and read two languages. Still others are multilingual, able to read and speak several languages. In the United States, most people speak English, although very few--even the most highly educated and articulate--know half the 600,000 words of the language.