What Are the Hardest Words in the World That Could Stump 35 Year Old Language Arts Teachers

English is a beautiful, complicated, fun and infuriating language all at once.

But that's what makes learning English language such a rewarding experience!

From hard spelling to words that describe the intense feeling you get when you see a cute kitten, every aspect of English has its own story.

Below are 35 interesting facts about English that'll both surprise y'all and help you better understand the beautiful language you're learning!

Contents

• Remarkable English History Facts
• • i. Shakespeare added over 1,000 words to the English language.
  • 2. About English words come from French or Old English (utilize this to your advantage!).
  • 3. The Usa doesn't have an official language.
  • 4. English used to have grammatical gender.
  • v. English uses the Latin alphabet.
  • 6. The British Empire and the iPhone are some of the biggest reasons English is so widespread today.
  • 7. English language used to have 29 messages instead of the current 26.
  • viii. English is the official language of the air.
  • ix. You can blame confusing English spelling on a guy named William Caxton.
• Did You Know There'due south a Word for That?
• • 10. Beautiful Aggression
  • eleven. Ze/Hir
  • 12. Genderlect
  • 13. Heuristic
  • fourteen. Bardolatry
  • 15. Boffola
  • 16. Mouse Tater
  • 17. Snollygoster
  • 18. Petrichor
• Surprising Statistics You Can Count On
• • xix. A new English language word is added to the dictionary every two hours.
  • 20. At that place are approximately 1.5 billion English language speakers in the world.
  • 21. English language has more words than most languages.
  • 22. The average English speaker only knows betwixt 20,000 and xxx,000 words.
  • 23. The most commonly used letter of the alphabet in English language is "E."
  • 24. The longest English word is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
  • 25. The shortest, not-elliptical judgement is "I am."
  • 26. Some of the oldest words in the English language are still very mutual today.
  • 27. The most commonly used describing word is good.
  • 28. The nigh commonly used substantive is time.
  • 29. The closest living linguistic communication to English today is Frisian.
• Amusing Alphabet Tricks and Their Names
• • xxx. Two English words can combine into one.
  • 31. You can fit every letter of the alphabet into a single sentence.
  • 32. Some English language words look the aforementioned astern or forrad.
  • 33. Some English language words look the same upside down.
  • 34. At that place'due south a name for words and phrases where each letter of the alphabet is used the same number of times.
  • 35. Some English language words repeat to make a new word.

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Remarkable English History Facts

1. Shakespeare added over 1,000 words to the English language language.

Nearly everyone in the world has heard of the slap-up William Shakespeare, the famous English poet and playwright of the 16th century. From love sonnets to plays like "Romeo and Juliet" and "Village," Shakespeare has greatly influenced English literature.

Simply did you know that the English language itself wouldn't be the same without Shakespeare?

Shakespeare invented over ane,000 words, which he incorporated into his writing. Today, native English speakers yet use these words in everyday speech.

Merely some of the fantastic words and phrases invented by this famous poet include:

Addiction — Existence psychologically or physically dependent on something, usually a drug.

Bedazzled — Blinded by something incredibly wonderful.

Cold-blooded — Either an beast with cold blood (like a reptile) or a fashion to depict someone who's cruel and indifferent to emotion.

Swagger — To walk in a fashion that shows yous're boasting or disrespectful.

Break the water ice — To relieve the tension or silence in a conversation by talking.

To see some of the other interesting sayings and words Shakespeare invented, cheque out these manufactures from Mental Floss and The Intrepid Guide, equally well equally this great article from Open up Culture.

2. Almost English words come from French or Old English language (apply this to your reward!).

Following the Norman Conquest in 1066, French became the language used by the nobility in United kingdom. Meanwhile, the peasants and lower classes continued to use Old English, which was fabricated upward of Germanic vocabulary.

Eventually, inter-union brought about a mixing of the two languages, and Middle English—which is much closer to today'due south English language—was born.

Why'southward this matter to English learners?

Well, this history can help you figure out when to employ certain words. The words that came from French are often considered more than formal or sophisticated, while words that came from Quondam English are more informal.

Take the words commenceand begin , which both mean "to first." Embark is a much fancier discussion. Native English speakers would only use information technology in more than formal settings.

For example, you could employ it while discussing business affairs: "The marketing team commenced work on the project."

On the other hand, begin is a more casual give-and-take that native speakers employ frequently.

Can you judge which word comes from French and which one comes from Old English?

Commence is basically the aforementioned word that the French currently use:commencer(to start). The discussion brainstorm comes from the (now unused) Germanic wordbeginnan, which also meant "to start."

3. The United States doesn't have an official language.

Technically, the U.S. doesn't have an official language at the federal level, though some states take declared English their official linguistic communication.

While English is the most mutual language spoken in the U.S., information technology's by no means the only one. America is made upwards of people from many diverse backgrounds who speak lots of wonderful languages!

That means if you visit or move to the U.South., yous can discovermany other non-native speakers just like yourself.

4. English language used to take grammatical gender.

Many languages have "grammatical gender." For case, Spanish speakers use the gender articles el and la (the) depending on whether a noun is masculine or feminine.

English used to take grammatical gender, but doesn't anymore. The volume "Gender Shifts in the History of English language" explains how English lost its grammatical gender system over fourth dimension.

Information technology actually may get in easier for learners that the English language doesn't have these gender rules today. You only have to memorize a word's meaning, not its gender!

5. English uses the Latin alphabet.

The Latin alphabet originally comes from the Etruscan alphabet. It happens to exist the most widely used alphabet in the world, which is a great help to many English learners!

six. The British Empire and the iPhone are some of the biggest reasons English language is so widespread today.

Some of you may wonder why English language is such a popular language worldwide today. While there are many reasons, here are some of the biggest.

The British Empire refers to the period between roughly the tardily 15th to 17th century and the 1960s, when England had vast territories and colonies all over the earth. Essentially, this was when England controlled large portions of Europe, N America, Africa and the West Indies.

You can imagine how English language would've spread globally with such an enormous empire.

The second large English language heave occurred with the ascension of the U.S. in the 20th century, when the land became ane of the biggest international players in social, economic and political affairs.

Lastly, many of the recent technological and scientific advancements accept come up from English-speaking countries. Just consider international words like internet and iPhone.

7. English used to have 29 letters instead of the current 26.

The English alphabet has actually gotten smaller over the years!

To discover out which letters were added and omitted, take a look at this New York Post article.

viii. English is the official language of the air.

This ways that English is the official linguistic communication of airplane travel.

Ever noticed that no thing where y'all're flight in the earth, your pilot and flight attendants always know English language? This is why!

nine. You tin arraign confusing English spelling on a guy named William Caxton.

Well, non just William.

You can't entirely blame weird spelling on merely 1 person—especially non with English'southward long and complicated history—but there are a few folks who made some huge differences.

During the Middle Ages, scribes (people who write documents) tried their best to copy down words as they sounded. Even so, with so many unlike regional dialects, this produced many inconsistencies.

So there's William Caxton, a famous Englishman who started a press press. He hired Flemish workers who merely spelled some words co-ordinate to what they were used to.

Others like Noah Webster had their hands in English spelling likewise. Webster was a lexicon publisher who was largely responsible for American spelling differing from British spelling.

I'm sure you lot've already noticed how some English words are spelled completely differently than they audio. Unfortunately for learners, this convoluted spelling system is something y'all'll just take to find creative ways to master (here are some ideas to get you started).

Did Y'all Know There's a Word for That?

English is a linguistic communication rich in vocabulary, just some words may surprise yous—and may be just what yous were looking for!

10. Cute Aggression

"Cute aggression" is the term for wanting to hug something cute very hard—virtually violently. Always want to just squeeze your kitten considering she'due south so darn adorable?!

Your puppy is and then adorable that I have cute aggression!

xi. Ze/Hir

Ze and hir are gender-neutral pronouns that've slowly been gaining popularity. These are different from the gendered pronouns "he/him" (masculine) and "she/her" (feminine).

My friend is so excited that ze is coming to the party later.

12. Genderlect

Genderlect is a mode or type of speech used by a specific gender.

Whether or not men and women speak different genderlects is a subject area of recent debate.

13. Heuristic

Heuristic is used to depict something that'southward taught or learned from experience.

The professor applied a heuristic teaching method and then that her students would learn by trial and fault.

14. Bardolatry

Here's Shakespeare again! Bardolatry refers to someone who's obsessed with Shakespeare. (Shakespeare is sometimes referred to every bit "The Bard.")

Shakespeare is even so celebrated so much today that Bardolatry is alive and well.

15. Boffola

Boffola is a joke that's met with extremely loud laughter.

That was the comedian's all-time boffola all nighttime!

16. Mouse Potato

Always heard the term burrow white potato (someone who watches a lot of Tv set)? Well,mouse white potato refers to someone who works on the computer a lot.

Ever since Susan started her online visitor, she's been such a mouse potato.

17. Snollygoster

Snollygoster refers to a person without principles.

The politician is a snollygoster who lies and steals to get what he wants.

eighteen. Petrichor

Petrichor is a give-and-take to describe the fashion it smells later information technology rains.

 I love the petrichor of a summer thunderstorm.

Surprising Statistics Yous Can Count On

19. A new English word is added to the dictionary every two hours.

Editors from the Oxford English language Dictionary take estimated that about four,000 new words are added to the dictionary every year.

That ways a new word about every two hours!

20. In that location are approximately 1.5 billion English speakers in the world.

That'southward 20 percent of the world'southward population!

About 600 to 700 1000000 of those are non-native speakers. Find out more at St George International.

21. English has more than words than most languages.

There are currently virtually an estimated one meg words in the English language.

Simply don't let this scare yous, because…

22. The average English speaker merely knows between 20,000 and 30,000 words.

While this statistic from Twinword still seems daunting, information technology should be a condolement to learners that you're not going to have to memorize all of the million English words out at that place.

Yous'll nonetheless be understood!

23. The nigh commonly used alphabetic character in English language is "E."

According to Oxford Dictionaries, "E" is the virtually usually used English language letter, and "Q" is the letter of the alphabet used the least.

To put it in perspective, "E" is 56 times more common than "Q."

24. The longest English word is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

It's a medical term that refers to a lung disease caused by inhaling sand dust or ash.

25. The shortest, non-elliptical sentence is "I am."

A non-elliptical sentence is a judgement that doesn't go out annihilation out.

For example, the command "Become!" may seem like the shortest sentence, but information technology's elliptical. It leaves out the pronoun "yous." Technically, information technology would be "You lot get!" which is two letters longer than "I am."

26. Some of the oldest words in the English language are nonetheless very common today.

They include I, honey, blackness, female parent, fire, hand and hear.

Many of these words date back from before the year 900.

Check out more of the oldest words at Dictionary.com. Some of them might surprise you!

27. The most unremarkably used adjective is good.

Of form, different sources come with different answers for this, but "adept" is usually listed among the nearly mutual adjectives.

Syllable Count gives it the number one spot on their listing, while Word Frequency Data places it below a few adjectives such equallyother andnew.

28. The virtually unremarkably used substantive is time.

The Oxford English Dictionary has identified fourth dimension as the most frequently used noun.

Person received second place, followed by year in the third spot.

29. The closest living language to English today is Western frisian.

Frisian is a linguistic communication currently spoken in merely three minor areas of Germany and the Netherlands.

Amusing Alphabet Tricks and Their Names

30. Two English words tin can combine into 1.

A portmanteau is a word that blends the sounds of two English language words to make a new give-and-take that combines their meanings.

For example, hangry means hungry and angry.

31. You tin can fit every letter of the alphabet into a single judgement.

A pangram is a sentence that contains every letter from the alphabet.

A very famous English pangram is: "The quick dark-brown pull a fast one on jumps over a lazy dog."

32. Some English words wait the same backward or frontward.

A palindrome is a give-and-take or phrase that'south spelled the same whether you read left-to-right (similar normal) or correct-to-left.

An example word is madam.

33. Some English words look the same upside down.

An ambigram is a word that looks the same upside downwards as right-side up.

A great instance is the word "SWIMS" with all capitalized letters.

34. There's a name for words and phrases where each alphabetic character is used the aforementioned number of times.

An isogram is a word or phrase in which each letter appears the same number of times.

For case, the word dialogue uses each letter of the alphabet once.

35. Some English words echo to make a new word.

A tautonym in linguistics is a discussion that consists of the same discussion twice. You might also hear this referred to asreduplication.

The common English language word and then-then is the perfect example of a tautonym. It means "only okay; fine."

At present that yous know all about the English language, it's time to get back to learning the language itself!

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Camille Turner is an experienced freelance author and ESL instructor.

Download: This weblog post is available as a user-friendly and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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