Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles from 2013
Lately I've been noticing the phrase as such everywhere. It's not just a recency illusion; according to corpus data, it really is on the rise. And with that rise comes a shift in function and a corresponding effort to halt that shift.
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Dept. of Word Lists
Oscar Wilde: Quoted More Often Than Jesus?
He remains popular among Vocabulary List makers as well!
Tomorrow is the birthday of beloved Irish playwright, novelist, and poet Oscar Wilde, born in 1854. Celebrate his life and writing with three vocabulary lists from "The Importance of Being Earnest," and an infographic detailing his quotability factor.
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As Americans celebrate Columbus Day, it's worth reflecting on the complicated cultural and linguistic legacy that Christopher Columbus left behind. There's a single word that aptly illustrates this legacy and all of its contradictions: Indians, the mistaken name that Columbus gave to the native peoples of the Americas.
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Vocabulary Shout-Out
Thanks, Donna Tartt, for Weaving in "Inwrought"
A bold and creepy usage of an uncommon word
In the first sentences of her new, highly-acclaimed novel The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt uses the uncommon inwrought to conjure a mood of creepy fairy tale isolation.
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Dept. of Word Lists
"Looming" "Catastrophe"? Ten Words in the News that You Need to Know
Get confident with vocabulary from headline news!
As the U.S. enters a second week of government shutdown, learn all about even more "catastrophic" events "looming" on the horizon.
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The Chicago Manual of Style Online has a monthly Q&A called Shop Talk, and this month Ben Zimmer, executive producer of the Visual Thesaurus and Vocabulary.com, is featured. In the interview, Ben talks about the way that technology is shaping language and how sites like the Visual Thesaurus and Vocabulary.com can engage with "digital natives."
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Today marks the 164th anniversary of the death of Edgar Allan Poe. Best known for his spooky tales of the macabre, his anniversary appropriately coincides with a month-long preparation for Halloween. Celebrate by learning Poe's favorite words.
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