Ngram Viewer

Just to demonstrate the power of a database, even when used in a less refined way, for example on a purely statistical basis, this is one of Google's relatively recent creations.

The Ngram Viewer queries a database of 5.2 million books, a subset of the 15 million digitized by Google, and quantifies the occurrences of a word or phrase over a 200-year period (from 1800 to 2000).

For example, the graph below (click to enlarge) shows the occurrences of the word "terrorism" in the same period. between 1800 and 2007, showing that the maximum, 0.002%, is found in the years shortly after 2000 (obviously), with another peak in 1980.

You can also search for phrases and multiple words or phrases separated by commas. The results are expressed as a percentage, therefore normalized according to the number of books.

Official instructions here.

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