Veelgebruikte

Veelgebruikte is a Dutch adjective meaning "frequently used" or "well-used." In linguistics and lexicography, the term is used to describe words, phrases, or tools that recur often within a text or corpus. The word is formed as a compound of veel (much, many) and gebruikte (used), and functions attributively, as in veelgebruikte woorden.

In corpus linguistics and lexicography, veelgebruikte items are studied to understand functional word classes, collocations, and language patterns. High-frequency items typically include function words, articles, pronouns, and prepositions, while content words vary by domain. Frequency lists label these items as veelgebruikte or high-frequency, and they inform stopword lists used in text processing and search algorithms.

The concept also appears in pedagogy, where veelgebruikte vocabulary is prioritized in introductory language courses to support comprehension and fluency. In contrast, mindergebruikte items form the long tail of vocabulary that may require targeted study.

Variations include the related adjective veelgebruikt (widely used) and phrases such as veelgebruikte termen. The term is used both descriptively in linguistic research and descriptively in media or technical writing to characterize repetition or common practice.

See also: frequency analysis, stop words, corpus linguistics, Dutch lexicography, frequency dictionaries.