The ever-growing English language reached the milestone of 1 million words or phrases Wednesday and, appropriately enough in our technology-obsessed world, "Web 2.0" was the millionth word.
English contains more words than any other language in the world, according to the Austin, Texas-based Global Language Monitor, which made the declaration about Web 2.0.
The Global Language Monitor uses a mathematical formula to track the frequency of words and scans millions of Web sites, including those of 5,000 major print and electronic media outlets, to monitor word usage. The organization declares a word or phrase to be legitimate once it appears 25,000 times in searches.
Web 2.0, of course, is a term that refers to the next generation of Internet technologies, such as social networking applications and Ajax development techniques, which largely appeared after the dot-com crash in 2001.
Other words and phrases that were admitted to the not-so-exclusive English language club on Wednesday were "slumdog," a derisive term for a child that lives in a slum; "cloud computing," which refers to services delivered through the Internet; and "n00b" (yes, it's spelled with two zeros) which refers to someone who is new and inexperienced, particularly with technology.
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