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Top 50 words 2003

advice is our most-viewed word of 2003, after topping the Top 20 charts for most the year. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that last year's no. 1, serendipity, with no film to promote it, drops out of 2003's top 50 entirely.

Also surprisingly, the biggest news story of the year, the war in Iraq, seems to have had little influence on the year's searches, with defy the only new entry that could speculatively be linked to it. Indeed, in these troubled times, it is heartening to see that empathy is the highest climber, up 27 places to 19.

1 advice (6) 26 benefit (35)
2 liaise (7) 27 compete (-)
3 effect (5) 28 relate (45)
4 idiom (2) 29 discreet (-)
5 regard (14) 30 respond (-)
6 comply (13) 31 procure (-)
7 paradigm (3) 32 defy (-)
8 assess (18) 33 criterion (-)
9 appreciate (17) 34 jingoism (12)
10 analyse (11) 35 retain (-)
11 affect (10) 36 enhance (-)
12 commit (21) 37 mitigate (-)
13 acquire (23) 38 oblige (-)
14 information (16) 39 use (48)
15 intend (39) 40 metaphor (28)
16 endeavour (26) 41 continue (-)
17 provide (25) 42 allege (22)
18 emphasize (42) 43 aesthetic (41)
19 empathy (46) 44 request (-)
20 pragmatic (9) 45 despite (-)
21 ubiquitous (4) 46 sceptic (-)
22 propose (47) 47 assume (-)
23 ambiguous (34) 48 competence (-)
24 irony (20) 49 subtle (-)
25 implement (40) 50 concur (-)

This list shows the 50 entries that were looked at most frequently on Cambridge Dictionaries Online in the year 2003. The numbers in brackets indicate the position of that word in 2002's top 50.



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Top 50 Words 2006
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