Most frequent word

[SteveD]

Which is the most frequently-used word in English?  Is it "and" or "the" or another?

[Quizmonster]

The, of, and, a, to...are the top five according to most lists.

[Quizmonster]

I should perhaps have added above that lists of word-frequencies are generally based on written materials. In speech, the list may be very different. I imagine, for example, that the word 'I' is much more often used in everyday conversation than it is in writing.

[Quizmonster]

Click here for one such list, in which you will see that the words 'a' and 'to' are reversed re my original list of five. No 1, though, still appears to be 'the'.

[JamesEverton]

But surely by even discussing which word you're changing the total usage of some of the words! I don't think there can be an absolute answer.

[Gef]

Well, er, you now what I mean like it could er be any of these like, you know what I mean.

[Quizmonster]

Click here for a list produced by the experts at the Oxford English Dictionary. They point out that such lists are not set in stone, as I did myself by referring to 'most lists' in my first response.
I have to say, however, that over the decades I have seen several such lists and I have never come across one that did not have 'the' as No.1. I would be sorely tempted, therefore, to say - despite James's and Gef's answers that, in writing, 'the' is the absolute answer to the question actually asked here.

[THECORBYLOON]

JamesEverton you used the most common word "the" twice as often as any other word in the reply you gave without referring to it directly. That would appear to disprove yir theory.

[Gef]

Sorry Quizmonster, I was not disagreeing with you. I was making a, possibly unjustified, comment on the standard of spoken English these days.

[Quizmonster]

Your comment was perfectly justified, Gef. I just wanted to make sure Steve realised that 'the' heads every word-frequency list I've ever seen in some seven decades. Cheers