Rapper Eminem has a larger vocabulary than legendary songwriter Bob Dylan, or anyone else in music for that matter, according to a new study by Musixmatch that examined the lyrics of more than 90 best-selling musicians.
The Oscar and Grammy Award-winning rapper has used 8,818 words in claiming the No. 1 spot in the study that looked at
entertainers in 25 genres, according to Entertainment Weekly. In fact, rappers held down the top four spots, according to the study.
Jay Z placed a distance second to Eminem, using 6,899 words, followed by the late Tupac Shakur with 6,569 words and Kanye West with 5,069 words. Dylan claims the No. 5 spot with 4,883 words.
The study stated that to keep its survey from tilting simply to those who released more songs than anyone else, it came up with standards that helped level the playing field.
"To prevent the analysis from being skewed purely by the number of songs released, the vocabularies are compared across the 100 densest songs (by total number of words)
that they have released," wrote Musixmatch.
"Only six of these musicians have released less than 100 songs, so it is a good threshold. Also, 100 songs comprise eight to 10 albums of music, which would span at least five to 10 years of work. This should give a fair idea of the overall vocabulary of these musicians," Musixmatch continued.
The Black Eyed Peas were the highest ranking "wordy" group, using 4,539 words to come in sixth place. Celine Dion was the top ranked female in the study, coming in 10th place using 3,954 words, edging out 11th-place Gloria Estefan with 3,419 words.
"I had not expected a pop sensation like (Dion) to rank high since they rely on simplicity to get their message across," Musixmatch noted. "It lays bare my ignorance of her music. Also, she is the only one who ranks in the top 15 by vocabulary size as well as the total certified album sales."
The Detroit News noted that artists like Bruce Springsteen, Chicago, Def Leppard, Journey, the Beach Boys, and The Doors refused to give Musixmatch permission to do an analysis on their lyrics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.