The Global Lexicostatistical Database (GLD) is a special side project of the international program «Tower of Babel / Evolution of Human Language». Its major goal is to put together and make ava­i­lable, for specialists and the general public alike, the most complete and thoroughly annotated collection of basic wordlists of the world's languages (commonly known as «Swadesh word­lists», named after the American linguist Morris Swadesh who both devised the con­cept and came up with the original wordlist that is still most frequently used today).