It’s been estimated that adult native speakers of English know anything from 20,000 to 35,000 words - but just 3,000 covers nearly all of your day-to-day communication. Each of the 365 words in this user-friendly onomasticon (word-hoard, for the Anglo-Saxons) has been carefully selected for its elegance and pertinence in everyday situations, and every entry contains a clear and concise outline of meaning, origin and sample usage in context, alongside fascinating word related facts and trivia.