The word 'OK' is believed to be the most universally recognized word in the world.

Shakespeare invented over 1,700 words still used in English today, including 'bedroom,' 'lonely,' and 'generous.'

Dogs can learn over 1,000 words and gestures, similar to the vocabulary of a young child.

The grammar of most languages encodes social hierarchy — languages like Korean have distinct speech levels for different relationships.

The English language adds about 1,000 new words every year.

The average educated English speaker knows about 40,000–50,000 words but uses only 5,000–10,000 in everyday speech.

The alphabet is a Greek innovation — the Greeks added vowels to the Phoenician consonant alphabet around 800 BC.

Some languages have words for concepts with no equivalent in English — the Japanese 'komorebi' means sunlight filtering through leaves.

Apes can learn sign language.