Oxford Frequency Bands
AI: “The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) categorizes words into frequency bands ranging from 1 to 8, with Band 8 representing the highest frequency. This logarithmic scale means that words in Band 8 occur approximately ten times more frequently than those in Band 7, and so forth. The specific frequency ranges for each band are as follows:
- Band 8: Words occurring more than 1,000 times per million words.
- Band 7: Words occurring between 100 and 1,000 times per million words.
- Band 6: Words occurring between 10 and 100 times per million words.
- Band 5: Words occurring between 1 and 10 times per million words.
- Band 4: Words occurring between 0.1 and 1 time per million words.
- Band 3: Words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 time per million words.
- Band 2: Words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 time per million words.
- Band 1: Words occurring fewer than 0.001 time per million words.
This classification helps users understand the relative commonality of words in modern English usage."