1. By Number of Native Speakers:
* Mandarin Chinese: The most spoken language with over 1 billion native speakers.
* Hindi: Second largest with over 600 million speakers.
* English: Around 375 million native speakers, but this is surpassed by the number of people who speak it as a second language.
* Spanish: Over 500 million native speakers.
* Arabic: Around 300 million native speakers.
2. By Total Number of Speakers (Native and Non-Native):
* English: This is where English truly shines, with an estimated 1.5 billion speakers worldwide, including those who speak it as a second language.
* Mandarin Chinese: Close behind English with an estimated 1.1 billion speakers.
* Hindi: Over 600 million speakers.
* Spanish: Over 500 million speakers.
* Arabic: Around 400 million speakers.
3. By Number of Countries Where It's Spoken:
* English: Spoken in many countries as an official language or widely used.
* French: Spoken in many African countries and former colonies, as well as in Europe.
* Spanish: Spoken throughout Latin America and Spain.
* Arabic: Spoken across the Middle East and North Africa.
* Portuguese: Spoken in Brazil, Portugal, and several other countries.
Important Considerations:
* Language families: It's important to consider that some languages belong to the same family. For example, Hindi and Urdu are very closely related.
* Dialects: Within a language, there can be many dialects, making it hard to define "speakers" precisely.
Ultimately, the "top 5" most used languages depends on how you define "usage."