Most Looked-Up Words on NYTimes, 2009

Philip Corbett, overseer of the Times style guide and deputy news editor, recently announced the top 50 words that readers look up on the Times' website. If you're a reader of the NYTimes website, you know that it contains a helpful feature that allows you to highlight text and look up definitions. It's fun to look at this list of words and see how many you know. Sadly, I could only define roughly ten out of fifty, but I consider this an accomplishment since, as Corbett notes, Times readers are typically well educated. Interestingly, the list contains no overlaps with the top 25 looked-up words on dictionary.com, according to Zachary M. Seward.