2-Syllable Words Are The Most Common

Our rhyming dictionary incorporates several different datasets. Using two of these datasets, we calculated statistics on word syllable length. Below is a summary of our findings:

• 2-syllable words are the most common.
• 0.63% of words have 6 or more syllables.
• 2.37 syllables is the average length for all words.
• 1-syllable words make up a majority of the most common words, but they drop off rapidly.

The overall percentages of English words having 1-6 syllables is shown in the bar-chart above. However, the percentages change depending on the size of the dictionary (the number of most-common words) being considered. The effect of dictionary size is shown in the fill-plot below.

The two datasets provided us with word frequency counts and word pronunciations. We considered up to 50,000 of the most common words. We ignored both capitalization and words that have no known pronunciation.

Syllable statistics have applications for language modeling. Our rhyming dictionary performs multi-word search queries, produces one-word and two-word search results, and perform multi-syllabic rhyme ranking. Such statistics have provided us with insight while designing search algorithms.