Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles from 2013
Tasty MorselsGood stuff from Vocabulary.com
Students: The New York Times Wants Your Vocabulary Videos!
Explain words in 15 seconds or less to win
Did you ever think your 15 minutes (or at least 15 seconds) of fame would come via a vocabulary video? Now, here's your chance, with a vocabulary-in-video context sponsored by The New York Times Learning Network.
Continue reading...
Tasty MorselsGood stuff from Vocabulary.com
The Student Perspective: Vocabulary.com "Has Your Back"
College life website says Vocabulary.com beats flashcards on "many levels"
"Keeping track of all those flashcards is such a hassle, but Vocabulary.com is hassle free," writes college sophomore Lili Borland in a review of Vocabulary.com for the student-run college admissions blog, The Prospect.
Continue reading...
Blog Excerpts
NaNoWriMo Has Begun!
It's time once again for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). As the website explains, it's "for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved." Visit the NaNoWriMo website to learn more.
Blog Excerpts
Back by Popular Demand: "Hallow, What's This?"
How "All-Hallows-Eve" morphed into the word we know today
Two years ago on Halloween, resident linguist Neal Whitman explored the origin of the word Halloween. Just in time for the candy and costumes, we're revisiting his questions: how and why did eve turn into e'en? For that matter, what is a hallow? Why did the all get dropped?
Continue reading...
Vocabulary Shout-Out
David Foster Wallace on "Sedulous" Proofreading
Via Quotenik, a growing library of rich and verified quotes
In a 1994 course syllabus, writer David Foster Wallace encouraged his students to be sedulous in their proofreading.
Continue reading...
Dept. of Word Lists
A "Malign Influence" in Iraq: Ten Words in the News You Need to Know
International Warnings, Domestic In-fighting, and Twitter Add Pictures
When a bipartisan group of senators calls Iran's "influence" over Iraq "malign," is that just their way of saying "bad influence" without sounding like a parent begging a teen to find new friends? Learn malign and nine other words in the news here.
Continue reading...
Mansplaining — a fella explaining something, unnecessarily and often incorrectly, with oodles of condescension — is as old as the hills. The word itself has been around since about 2009, but it's blossomed since, providing a potent weapon in women's arsenal against overbearing dudes.
Continue reading...
Sign up now (it’s free!)
Whether you’re a teacher or a learner,
Vocabulary.com can put you or your class
on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.