biostudies-literatureUnknown12Caetano-Anolles GNational Institute of Food and AgricultureCommunication is an undisputed central activity of life that requires an evolving molecular language. It conveys meaning through messages and vocabularies. Here, I explore the existence of a growing vocabulary in the molecules and molecular functions of the microbial world. There are clear correspondences between the lexicon, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of language organization and the module, structure, function, and fitness paradigms of molecular biology. These correspondences are constrained by universal laws and engineering principles. Macromolecular structure, for example, follows quantitative linguistic patterns arising from statistical laws that are likely universal, including the Zipf's law, a special case of the scale-free distribution, the Heaps' law describing sublinear grFrontiers in microbiology655990https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC8292947biostudies-literatureThe Compressed Vocabulary of Microbial Life.PMC8292947Caetano-Anolles GfalseThe Compressed Vocabulary of Microbial Life.Communication is an undisputed central activity of life that requires an evolving molecular language. It conveys meaning through messages and vocabularies. Here, I explore the existence of a growing vocabulary in the molecules and molecular functions of the microbial world. There are clear correspondences between the lexicon, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of language organization and the module, structure, function, and fitness paradigms of molecular biology. These correspondences are constrained by universal laws and engineering principles. Macromolecular structure, for example, follows quantitative linguistic patterns arising from statistical laws that are likely universal, including the Zipf's law, a special case of the scale-free distribution, the Heaps' law describing sublinear gr2021-01-01T00:00:00Z20212025-04-04T13:23:07.087Z2022-02-10T23:38:13.401ZS-EPMC82929473430582710.3389/fmicb.2021.655990