The third most frequent word in the English language is used in a lot of different ways. ‘OF‘ is most often in a prepositional phrase, but it is also used in many other types of phrases. Below we list the ranked frequency found in the iWeb corpus.
1 OF (IO) 328813259
2 OF (II22) 11680309 (complex 2 part prepositional phrases)
1 OUT OF 6044503
2 BECAUSE OF 2052897
You want me to stay because of the way you feel about me.
3 INSTEAD OF 1611729
Why didn’t we send a man in space instead of a monkey?
4 OUTSIDE OF 647355
You can’t touch me outside of the grounds.
5 AHEAD OF 517797
6 AS OF 432508
7 OFF OF 325384
8 IRRESPECTIVE OF 37121
3 OF (II33) 4159625 (3 part)
1 IN TERMS OF 828078
2 IN FRONT OF 732056
3 ON TOP OF 552921
4 ON BEHALF OF 264836
5 IN NEED OF 133064
6 IN CHARGE OF 132316
7 IN FAVOR OF 130396
8 IN SUPPORT OF 122177
9 IN SPITE OF 111360
10 IN CASE OF 106279
11 IN SEARCH OF 94036
12 IN LIGHT OF 86185
13 IN EXCESS OF 84313
14 IN PLACE OF 83740
15 BY WAY OF 81362
16 IN RESPECT OF 79866
17 BY MEANS OF 79139
18 IN FAVOUR OF 78004
19 IN LIEU OF 55056
20 ON ACCOUNT OF 44167
21 IN VIEW OF 28122
22 IN POSSESSION OF 28032
23 FOR FEAR OF 26876
24 BY REASON OF 25176
25 IN PURSUIT OF 24766
26 IN AID OF 8850
27 IN RECEIPT OF 8420
28 IN DEFENCE OF 5422
29 IN DEFIANCE OF 4834
30 IN BACK OF 4024
31 IN FACE OF 2554
32 IN QUEST OF 1661
4 OF COURSE (RR21) 2297404 (adverb)
5 OF (RR22) 515052
1 KIND OF 503757
2 SORT OF 279419
9 OF (II44) 104920
1 ON THE PART OF 74342
2 IN THE LIGHT OF 28236
11 OF (RR42) 64669
ALL OF A SUDDEN 63713
12 OF (RG22) 40209
1 UPWARDS OF 35959
2 UPWARD OF 3720
14 OF (JJ32) 29982 (adjective)
1 MATTER OF FACT 37665
2 OUT OF DATE 26861
15 OF (RR53) 14785
1 A HELL OF A LOT 9092
2 A HECK OF A LOT 5454
16 OF (II42) 9375
1 OUT OF TOUCH WITH 7235
2 OUT OF LINE WITH 1988
17 OF (CS22) 4430 (instead of) conjunction followed by non-finite clauses
18 OF (NP1) 2555 Used in proper names
19 OF (RG44)
IN THE ORDER OF 1577
21 OF (NN132) 143 (noun)
MATTER OF FACT