There are about 470,000 words in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary combined, though it’s estimated that only about 170,000 are used frequently. And while the average American adult is said to speak a total of between 7,000 and 20,000 words a day, the typical number of unique words spoken – which may be as few as 1,000 a day – varies from city to city. (Here are 32 words people misuse all the time.)
To compile a list of U.S. cities where residents have the biggest vocabulary, 24/7 Tempo reviewed a report by LetterSolver, a site that helps people find commonly used words in word games. They analyzed millions of geotagged English-language tweets. After that they selected tweets written in English, reduced the different forms of a word to a single form, and divided all words into samples of 1,000. After that, the number of unique words was obtained and the mean number of unique words for each city was calculated. Only cities with at least 250,000 residents were included for consideration.
The 35 U.S. cities where residents have the biggest vocabulary are represented in 22 states. Many of the cities are in the West and the South. California – the nation’s populous state, and also among America’s most ethnically diverse – has the most, with seven cities, three of them in the top 10. And the city that has the largest vocabulary of all is San Francisco.
LetterSolver reported that a linguistic team attempted to “co-create a new lexicon for a time of climate change, biodiversity collapse and other transformations in the natural world” based on the San Francisco area’s experience of coastal erosion and rising tides. They coined the words sandulate (“to understand that the coast is alive, and we can’t just build the solid structures that we have”) and mientierra (“a false sense of solid ground beneath us”). (Here are some old words we use today but with completely new meanings.)
35. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 457.8
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 33.2%
> Median household income: $59,214
> Population: 687,691
34. Nashville, Tennessee
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 458.1
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 46.1%
> Median household income: $64,857
> Population: 678,845
33. Phoenix, Arizona
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 458.6
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 32.8%
> Median household income: $68,435
> Population: 1,624,539
32. Santa Ana, California
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 458.8
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 18.5%
> Median household income: $80,265
> Population: 309,468
31. Plano, Texas
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 459.4
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 59.1%
> Median household income: $95,002
> Population: 287,037
30. Los Angeles, California
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 459.7
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 37.3%
> Median household income: $70,372
> Population: 3,849,306
29. Denver, Colorado
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 459.7
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 55.0%
> Median household income: $81,630
> Population: 711,463
28. Reno, Nevada
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 459.9
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 35.9%
> Median household income: $67,478
> Population: 268,843
27. Colorado Springs, Colorado
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 460.3
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 42.8%
> Median household income: $74,579
> Population: 483,969
26. Indianapolis, Indiana
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 460.7
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 34.7%
> Median household income: $58,479
> Population: 882,327
25. Anchorage, Alaska
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 461.1
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 38.3%
> Median household income: $86,654
> Population: 288,121
24. Chandler, Arizona
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 461.2
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 47.3%
> Median household income: $94,613
> Population: 279,445
23. St. Louis, Missouri
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 461.3
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 38.9%
> Median household income: $49,965
> Population: 293,310
22. Tulsa, Oklahoma
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 462.3
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 35.3%
> Median household income: $51,008
> Population: 411,905
21. San Diego, California
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 462.6
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 48.8%
> Median household income: $93,042
> Population: 1,381,600
20. Oakland, California
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 464.9
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 46.8%
> Median household income: $82,236
> Population: 433,797
19. Tucson, Arizona
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 465.3
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 29.1%
> Median household income: $50,306
> Population: 543,215
18. Honolulu, Hawaii
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 466.0
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 39.9%
> Median household income: $73,434
> Population: 345,532
17. Albuquerque, New Mexico
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 466.0
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 38.5%
> Median household income: $58,512
> Population: 562,591
16. Austin, Texas
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 466.3
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 59.9%
> Median household income: $79,542
> Population: 964,000
15. Lincoln, Nebraska
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 466.5
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 43.0%
> Median household income: $62,294
> Population: 292,648
14. St. Petersburg, Florida
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 466.6
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 40.7%
> Median household income: $64,141
> Population: 258,214
13. Portland, Oregon
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 466.9
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 54.3%
> Median household income: $79,057
> Population: 642,218
12. Madison, Wisconsin
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 467.4
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 58.9%
> Median household income: $67,270
> Population: 269,162
11. Boston, Massachusetts
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 467.9
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 52.5%
> Median household income: $79,283
> Population: 654,281
10. Seattle, Washington
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 469.2
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 46.8%
> Median household income: $101,721
> Population: 4,011,553
9. St. Paul, Minnesota
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 469.4
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 42.0%
> Median household income: $66,098
> Population: 307,176
8. San Jose, California
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 469.8
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 45.8%
> Median household income: $126,377
> Population: 983,530
7. Irvine, California
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 470.9
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 68.3%
> Median household income: $105,774
> Population: 309,014
6. Durham, North Carolina
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 471.1
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 56.9%
> Median household income: $71,343
> Population: 285,439
5. Raleigh, North Carolina
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 472.4
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 53.9%
> Median household income: $74,612
> Population: 469,502
4. Mesa, Arizona
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 472.8
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 32.3%
> Median household income: $69,266
> Population: 509,492
3. Washington, DC
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 474.7
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 63.0%
> Median household income: $90,088
> Population: 670,050
2. New York, New York
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 476.1
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 41.0%
> Median household income: $67,997
> Population: 8,467,513
1. San Francisco, California
> Unique words for every 1,000 spoken: 477.1
> Adults with at least a Bachelor’s degree: 60.9%
> Median household income: $121,826
> Population: 815,201