英语最常用单词列表中的内容是基于牛津字典線上版和牛津英语词典对牛津英语语料库中超过10亿的单词所作的分析研究。[1]这一个资源汇集了各种类的文本，包括“从文学小说、专业期刊到每日的报纸杂志，从英国国会议事录到聊天室、电子邮件以及网络博客”，[2]这与其他一些语料库只收集确定来源的文本不同。[3]
需要注意的是下表所列出的项可能代表了不止一个单词，而是词条。例如be就包括了is、was、be和are。[4]另外，下面列出的最常用的100个单词在牛津英语语料库中占到了所有单词的50%。[1]
排名
单词
1
the
2
be
3
to
4
of
5
and
6
a
7
in
8
that
9
have
10
I
11
it
12
for
13
not
14
on
15
with
16
he
17
as
18
you
19
do
20
at
排名
单词
21
this
22
but
23
his
24
by
25
from
26
they
27
we
28
say
29
her
30
she
31
or
32
an
33
will
34
my
35
one
36
all
37
would
38
there
39
their
40
what
排名
单词
41
so
42
up
43
out
44
if
45
about
46
who
47
get
48
which
49
go
50
me
51
when
52
make
53
can
54
like
55
time
56
no
57
just
58
him
59
know
60
take
排名
单词
61
people
62
into
63
year
64
your
65
good
66
some
67
could
68
them
69
see
70
other
71
than
72
then
73
now
74
look
75
only
76
come
77
its
78
over
79
think
80
also
排名
单词
81
back
82
after
83
use
84
two
85
how
86
our
87
work
88
first
89
well
90
way
91
even
92
new
93
want
94
because
95
any
96
these
97
give
98
day
99
most
100
us
目录
1 词类
1.1 名词
1.2 动词
1.3 形容词
1.4 介词
1.5 其他
2 相关条目
3 参考