Associated Press

London, Jun 22: For those who think the world is obsessed with "time," an Oxford dictionary added support to the theory Thursday in announcing that the word is the most often used noun in the English language.

"The" is the most commonly used word overall, followed by be, to, of, and, a, in, that, have, and I, according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.

On the list of top 25 nouns, "time" is followed by other movement indicators: year is in third place; day is fifth; and week is No 17.

The dictionary used the Oxford English Corpus - a research project into English in the 21st century - to come up with the lists.

Among nouns, person is ranked at No 2, with man at No. 7 and woman at No 14.

Child appears at No 12.

Government appears at No 20 while war, at No 49, trumps peace, which did not make the top 100.

The list of top 25 nouns: time, person, year, way, day, thing, man, world, life, hand, part, child, eye, woman, place, work, week, case, point, government, company, number, group, problem, fact.