March 9, 2026
Pretty or pointless?
Graphing how the 10k* most common English words define each other
Pretty word web stuns the crowd — but is it art or actually useful
TLDR: An interactive map links 7,931 common words by how they define each other, revealing language’s hidden scaffolding. Commenters are split between loving the visual and questioning its usefulness, with extra drama over missing basics like “the,” plus curiosity about the tools and shout-outs to WordNet alternatives.
An interactive map just turned the English language into a glowing spiderweb: 7,931 common words and 110,687 links showing how words define each other. Built by Wyatt Sell (with a little help from AI assistant Claude) on top of Open English Wordnet and Google’s 10k-word list, it lets you click a word and see which other words lean on it. Charts show which terms do the heavy lifting in definitions, and which ones are just… there.
The comments? Deliciously split. The art lovers are swooning — one user simply went with “Beautiful!” — while the skeptics rolled in asking the eternal question: okay, but what is this for? One commenter grilled the tech stack (“what software did you use?”), and another sparked a mini-mystery: why don’t “is,” “be,” or “the” show up in search? Cue theories that ultra-basic glue words were filtered out. A language nostalgist dropped a tip to browse classic Princeton WordNet via en-word.net, adding retro flavor to the discourse.
So the vibe is clear: it’s the classic vibes vs value showdown. Is this a gorgeous dictionary constellation you get lost in, or a pretty screensaver with no takeaway? Either way, everyone’s suddenly hunting for their favorite word — and wondering if “the” just rage-quit the English language.
Key Points
- •Interactive force-directed graph maps definitional links among common English words.
- •Covers 7,931 words connected by 110,687 edges using a subset of a 10,000-word list.
- •Word list derives from Google’s Trillion Word Corpus; definitions come from Open English Wordnet.
- •Users can click or search words to see how they are defined and what they help define.
- •Displays network metrics including out-degree distribution and words with high out/in and in/out ratios.