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Thread: A thesaurus of word frequency in spoken / written English

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    pizza is offline Member
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    Default A thesaurus of word frequency in spoken / written English

    Wouldn't such dictionary be very useful?.

    For example, jaunty, lively and sprightly, all synonyms, but which one is more common in spoken / written English?. This dictionary would answer these sort of questions.

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    Default Re: A thesaurus of word frequency in spoken / written English

    Quote Originally Posted by pizza View Post
    Wouldn't such dictionary be very useful?.

    For example, jaunty, lively and sprightly, all synonyms, but which one is more common in spoken / written English?. This dictionary would answer these sort of questions.
    THIS might be close to what you're looking for as far as frequency of a word goes. It doesn't break it down into written or spoken, as you'll see but you can find the relevant frequency of different words and phrases.

    I can't believe I've beaten 5jj to suggesting COCA!
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    5jj
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    Default Re: A thesaurus of word frequency in spoken / written English

    Quote Originally Posted by emsr2d2 View Post
    I can't believe I've beaten 5jj to suggesting COCA!
    It's time I started taking vitamin pills.
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    Context is always important; labelling is rarely important.


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    Tdol is online now Editor, UsingEnglish.com
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    Default Re: A thesaurus of word frequency in spoken / written English

    How about Google Ngram Viewer

    Frequency can be a useful tool, but limited, and no matter how big and varied the database, it too is limited. With your example, sprightly is sprightly used to describe older people- frequency alone wouldn't indicate that. But the Google tool gives great graphs and shows the clear winner and does it over time (books only):

    Google Ngram Viewer (search for your terms)
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