VOCABULARY.COM BLOG

The 85th Scripps National Spelling Bee kicked off yesterday, with 278 spellers getting whittled down to 50 semifinalists who will compete in the nationally televised action on Thursday. A precocious six-year-old didn't make the cut, but an old friend of ours, Nicholas Rushlow of Pickerington, Ohio, will be back in the thick of it for his fifth consecutive year. Continue reading...

It's time once again for the Scripps National Spelling Bee! The preliminaries are today, and the nationally televised semifinals and finals are tomorrow (May 31). Vocabulary.com lexicographer Ben Zimmer will be live-tweeting the competition tomorrow on the Twitter feed of our sister site, the Visual Thesaurus, as well as reporting on the results here in his Word Routes column. In the meantime, read Ben's observations on tricky spelling here and here, and try playing your own spelling bee game on Vocabulary.com. Here's how!

Learn Ten Words from Today's Times - May 30, 2012.

Then see Vocabulary Begets Vocabulary: The More You Know, the More You Learn to understand why learning these words will help you absorb even more as you read.

Vocabulary.com will join the New York Times Learning Network in a summer reading kickoff on Thursday June 7. Together with a host of terrific organizations, we will be tweeting the hashtag #SummerReading to all our Twitter followers, and letting the world know: The Summer Reading (and consequent vocabulary absorption) Season is here. Join us by tweeting your summer reading plans as well! Continue reading...

On the last Monday in May, Memorial Day is celebrated in the United States. But wait: is celebrated the right word? Would it be more appropriate to say Memorial Day is observed? Wendalyn Nichols, an experienced editor and lexicographer, guides us through this usage quandary. Continue reading...

Learn Ten Words from Today's Times - May 23, 2012.

Then see Vocabulary Begets Vocabulary: The More You Know, the More You Learn to understand why learning these words will help you absorb even more as you read.

Observe Memorial Day this year by learning Memorial Day Vocabulary: Words to highlight our respect for the sacrifice our servicemen and women have made and are making.

As we announced last week, we’ve made some changes to our achievements and added new levels to spur you on as you play the Challenge. Today, we're going to give a quick achievements tour, to encourage you to keep a look out for them as you play. Continue reading...