语言文化博大精深，在英语的学习中，最让人头疼的就是英语里边那庞大的词汇量了。我们常说书山词海，那数不尽的英语单词仿佛像真的海一样，往往让人无措下手，甚至望而却步。
虽说记忆单词的方法有很多，但相对于海量庞大的英文单词来说，方法再好也难免需要很多精力和时间。每每想到这，我都会很好奇：英语里一共有多少个英文单词呢，为什么总感觉背不完？你是否也曾有过我这样的好奇？
不过，好奇心这个东西，往往会影响人的实际行为，要不怎么会有好奇害死猫的说法呢？所以，怀揣着无比强烈的好奇心，我特地做了一番调查整理，下面咱们就一起来看看英语中一共有多少个英文单词吧。
How many words are there in the English language?
英语里一共有多少单词？
There is no single sensible answer to this question. It's impossible to count the number of words in alanguage, because it's so hard to decide what actually counts as a word.
这个问题并没有一个简单而合理的答案。想要计算一种语言里有多少单词是不可能做到的，因为很难定义究竟什么才是一个单词。
For example,Is dog one word,or two(a noun meaning 'a kind of animal', and a verbmeaning 'to follow persistently')?
例如，Dog究竟算一个单词还是两个？dog的名词指一种动物，dog动词指长期跟随。
If we count it astwo,then do we count inflections separately too (e.g. dogs = plural noun, dogs = present tense of theverb).
如果算作两个，那么我们是否也要把它的变型也单独计算（eg：复数名词dogs，第三人称单数现在时dogs）？
Is dog-tired a word,or just two other wordsjoined together?Is hot dog really two words,since it might also be written as hot-dog or evenhotdog?
Dog-tired(筋疲力尽)算一个单词还是两个连在一起的单词?既然Hot dog(热狗)可以被写成hot-dog甚至hotdog，它真的算两个单词吗?
The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words.
长达20卷的《牛津英语词典》第二版中有171476个仍在使用的单词词条，还有47156个废弃单词词条。
To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries.
此外还要加上约9500个派生词作为词条下面的分项。
Over half of these words are nouns,about a quarteradjectives,and about a seventh verbs;the rest is made up of exclamations,conjunctions,prepositions, suffixes,etc.
这些单词中，超过半数是名词，约四分之一的单词是形容词，七分之一左右的词是动词，剩下的是感叹词、连词、介词和词缀等。
And these figures don't take account of entries with senses fordifferent word classes (such as noun and adjective).
这一数字并未把单词的不同词性(例如名词和形容词)分别计算。
This suggests that there are,at the very least, a quarter of a million distinct English words,excluding inflections,and words from technical and regional vocabulary not covered by the OED,or words not yet added to the published dictionary, of which perhaps 20 per cent are nolonger in current use.
这表明，英语中有至少25万单词，其中的20%可能已经不再使用。这25万单词中不包括变型、《牛津英语词典》中不收录的专业术语和地方方言、以及尚未被已出版词典收录的单词。
If distinct senses were counted, the total would probably approach three quarters（接近四分之三） of a million.
如果要把同一单词的不同含义分别计算，英语单词的总数可能会接近75万。
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