s.Split(' ').GroupBy(x => x).OrderByDescending(x => x.Count()).Select(x => x.Key).Take(10).ToList(); I'd say 13 characters isn't really a huge differentiator.

s.Split(' ').GroupBy(x => x).OrderByDescending(x => x.Count()).Select(x => x.Key).Take(10).ToList(); I'd say 13 characters isn't really a huge differentiator. They're both using exactly the same algorithm, almost exactly the same built-in library functions, and have exactly the same flexibility for programmers to add their own (C# is using extension methods which lets you add methods that look like they belong to the class, but are actually static methods defined elsewhere). There's a lot of benefits to Clojure over C#, but the ability to chain functional list operators really isn't one of them.