What's the minimum number of words you'd need to define all other words? (2012)
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary has a “Defining vocabulary” that they claim is used to write almost all definitions (I used the Fifth edition, where it is appendix 10). It’s about 8½ pages, with 5 columns of about 63 lines, so about 2,700 words.<p>It doesn’t list inflections, proper names, adjectives for colors such as yellowish and words used in an entry that derive from that entry (the dictionary mentions <i>blearily</i> and <i>bleary-eyed</i> being used in the definition of <i>bleary</i>)<p>They also say they <i>occassionally</i> had to use a word not in the list, but don’t say how often they had to. Those words _are_ defined in the dictionary, so it is possible that the reference graph does not have any cycles.<p>So, I guess 3,000 is a good first guess.