The English language has 170,000 words — why, then, are our vocabularies shrinking?

'Experts say…’ The Editor looked up from his newspaper with a sigh. ‘I keep coming across this phrase, but who actually decides whether someone is an expert or not? It’s meaningless — we need to be more precise.’

English allows for precision. It’s often described as the world’s biggest language: the Oxford English Dictionary lists more than 170,000 words currently in use, with at least 1,000 additions every year. Why, then, does it feel as if everyone’s vocabularies are shrinking?

In a very real way, they are. The algorithms that control what we see online reward predictable linguistic choices, rather than inventive ones. Then, of course, there’s AI. The generative models increasingly being used to ‘write’ are not capable of original thought: all they can do is regurgitate the training data they have been fed, with predictably bland and woolly results.

To worsen matters, each AI model also has its own irritating stylistic tics — ChatGPT famously relies on the ‘rule of three’ and ‘it’s not X, it’s Y’ constructions — which are now actually starting to shape human writing. The snake takes another bite of its own tail, becoming ever smaller.

We can’t go back in time, but there is a way of inoculating ourselves against this deadening algorithmic creep. As a nation, we not only used to read more, but more widely and with greater courage. A glance at the 1956 O-level English Literature syllabus is salutary: how many of us now would be willing to give Francis Bacon’s 1626 utopian fever-dream The New Atlantis a go?

This is the National Year of Reading, ‘a UK-wide campaign designed to inspire more people to make reading a regular part of their lives’. Children who have been turned off it by relentless exams are a focus, but most of us could do with reminding ourselves of the magic of getting lost in a world built entirely from words.

Swapping a screen for ink and paper can get around digital distractions, but it isn’t mandatory: listening to an audiobook counts, ditto reading e-books (and, of course, magazines — including digitally).

Cinema, too, can be a springboard: in an otherwise critical review of Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster The Odyssey in the London Review of Books, classicist Emily Wilson reported that the film was causing the ancient text to fly off the shelves. ‘Nolan, who studied English at University College London… is doing his best to get the general public reading again, and I am grateful,’ she wrote.

Dr Wilson’s own version of The Odyssey provoked heated debate for its rendering of Homer’s famous opening address to the Muse as ‘Tell me about a complicated man’. In fact, casually comparing translations in this way is one of the most powerful reminders of how exhilaratingly kaleidoscopic language can be — regardless of whether or not you’re an expert.

This feature originally appeared in the August 5, 2026, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.