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Published online 2 July 2002 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news020701-2
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Small word network
English words are connected by just three degrees of separation.
Word association can link just about any two common words in the English language using an average of three steps, says a team of scientists in Arizona.
The semantic links between English words make the thesaurus a 'small world', much as the network of human social interactions connect us all by six degrees of separation, find Adilson Motter and colleagues at Arizona State University in Tempe1.
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