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From: gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.compression
Subject: Re: word frequency in English
Message-ID: <15809@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 12 Apr 91 20:53:01 GMT
References: <13834@adobe.UUCP> <5408@ns-mx.uiowa.edu>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 12

In article <5408@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> drenze@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Douglas Renze) writes:
>In article <13834@adobe.UUCP> mjward@adobe.COM (Michael J. Ward) writes:
>>Where can I find a list/dictionary/datafile of English words sorted by
>>relative frequency in various classes of usage. For example, is "a" the most
>>commonly used English word. followed by "the"? How about "that" compared to
>>"sesquipedalianism"?

Any reasonable English-language cryptanalysis text should cover this to
some extent.  Personally I would use the tables in Callimahos and
Friedman's "Military Cryptanalytics", Part 1, Volume 2, which has been
reprinted by Aegean Park Press in Laguna Hills, CA (and often stocked at
the Computer Literacy Bookstore in San Jose, CA).