Usage categories

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Linku assigns words to broad usage categories based on annual surveys from 2022 onwards. These are a more granular, more frequently updated replacement for the book presence categories.[1]

nimi.li, a fork of Linku, uses the term marginal to refer to words that are below these categories and thus deemed not notable for the dictionary project.

Table of categories

In the following tables, a bold line represents the cutoff for the categories that are selected by default. Numbers are rounded to the nearest percentage point (0.5% rounds to 1%).

2023
Category Users
n = 868
Core [90%, 100%]
Widespread [70%, 90%)
Common [50%, 70%)
Uncommon [20%, 50%)
Rare [10%, 20%)
Obscure[a][b] [2%, 10%)
2022
Category Users
n = 345
Core [90%, 100%]
Widespread [70%, 90%)
Common [50%, 70%)
Uncommon [20%, 50%)
Rare [10%, 20%)
Obscure [1%, 10%)

Survey results

Notes

  1. In the 2023 results post, the obscure category is split into a high end [5%, 10%) and low end [2%, 5%) purely for readability.
  2. New words below 2% usage are considered not notable for inclusion in the dictionary. Words below this threshold that are already included are planned to be moved into a separate sandbox resource. As of the publication of the 2023 results, this is yet to be done.

References

  1. kala Asi (7 August 2023). wile sona nimi. Archived from the original on 18 October 2023. YouTube. Retrieved 18 October 2023.