How many words of shakespeare do people use today?

Answer 1

An answerer said "Only one because the others are all stupid and rather pathetic!"

"If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine." (Midsummer Night's Dream)

"I am one, my liege, who the vile blows and buffets of the world have so incensed that I am reckless what I do despite the world." (Macbeth)

"But, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the rather, gentle princess, because I love thee cruelly." (Henry V)

"It is the east and Juliet is the sun" (Romeo and Juliet)

"Or fly to others that we know not of" (Hamlet)

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on" (The Tempest)

"All the world's a stage" (As You Like It)

"Is he not stupid with age and altering rheums?" (The Winter's Tale)

"And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house in the deep bosom of the ocean buried." (Richard III)

"Would rather bear those ills we have than fly to others we know not of" (Hamlet)

"Sweet invocation of a child; most pretty and pathetic!" (Love's Labour's Lost)

Basically, every word used by the answerer to say that he did not use any of Shakespeare's words was a word used by Shakespeare. It might be easier to ask which words we use that were not used by Shakespeare.

Answer 2

Shakespeare, believe it or not, wrote in the form of English known as "Modern English", which is the same form of the language as we use now. So the vast majority of his words are still in use today.

Shakespeare uses 17, 677 words. Of these, it has been claimed that Shakespeare "invented" at least 1, 700. However it must be remembered that this number could simply be the number of words that have not been recorded before appearing in a Shakespeare text. It would be wrong to assume that he invented them. On the other hand, the period when Shakespeare was writing saw the introduction of around 30,000 new words into the English language, so it is not impossible that Shakespeare coined some.
i dont know but i have the exact same sheet :)

Answer 3

It's always a hotly-debated issue. The problem is, first, that it is hard to decide what is a word. (Is mouse the same word as mice? Is phobia the same word as phobic? Is was the same word as am?) Also, what counts as "using" a word? Does it have to be a word you use every day? A word you might use once a year? A word you understand, but never use? A word you recognize in print but have never heard? As well, people's vocabularies grow as they grow older (then shrink as they become more forgetful). Because of these uncertainties, estimates of vocabularies are all over the map. It's just impossible to be accurate.

Answer 4

A ridiculous number that is nearly impossible to count, is the short answer to your question. For a slightly longer answer...

During the Renaissance, there was an explosion of new words and expressions, especially within the English language. It wasn't just Shakespeare inventing them, either--in fact, Ben Jonson (one of Shakespeare's contemporaries) wrote a play called "Poetaster" which featured a poet throwing up ridiculous new words and phrases. Some scholars believe that the sudden increase in words was a reaction to the dramatically changing times, and the old words were insufficient to describe it properly. While many of the words coined are no longer in use (like "smillets" and "bubukles"), many common phrases ("pound of flesh" or "tongue-tied") stick around today.

Answer 5

Most of the words Shakespeare used are still being used by you and me today. That's because he wrote in the same language I am writing in, namely English. He is credited with having been the first to use a number of words which are in common use nowadays, such as assassination, eyeball, and puking. Some people say he created 1700 such words.

Shakespeare had an extraordinarily large vocabulary either for his own day or nowadays, estimated at about 30,000 words. Since the average person has a vocabulary of about 10,000 words, most people use less than a third of the words Shakespeare used.

Answer 6

Loads! He contributed to over half of the English language.

Answer 7

An estimate of 171,476 (common current use) and 47,156 (obsolete words)! :D

Answer 8

Most people have a vocabulary of between 5000 and 10,000 words. The King James version of The Bible uses 8000. Shakespeare uses 17,000. It's not surprising that he teaches us new words.