Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles from May, 2014
Word RoutesExploring the pathways of our lexicon
2014 Spelling Bee: Co-Champions Share Spotlight in a "Competition Against the Dictionary"
It was another dramatic finish at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. After the 46 semifinalists were whittled down to the dozen contestants for last night's finals, I tweeted, "12 kids enter, 1 kid leaves." Little did I know that two kids would be named co-champions in the Bee's first tie since 1962.
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Word RoutesExploring the pathways of our lexicon
2014 Spelling Bee: 46 Spellers Survive, Advancing to Semifinals
It's time once again for the Scripps National Spelling Bee! Two hundred and eighty-one young spellers gathered near Washington, D.C. and sweated through the preliminary rounds yesterday. For the second year, those rounds included not just questions about the spelling of words but also their definitions. After all was said and done, 46 survived to advance to Thursday's semifinals.
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Dept. of Word Lists
Vocabularians Collect Inspiring Words for Grads
Brought to you by the Vocabulary.com community
The list is in! With college graduation season in full swing, members of the Vocabulary.com community collectively brainstormed #gradwords last week — defined as words you would give a recent college grad to set them up for success in life and work.
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Blog Excerpts
The 2014 Spelling Bee Is Here!
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 29). As in past years, our own Ben Zimmer will be live-tweeting the competition from the @VocabularyCom Twitter account and reporting on the results here in his Word Routes column. In the meantime, catch up on our coverage of the format changes introduced last year that brought vocabulary questions into the mix: here and here.
In a Washington Post review of a recent performance by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Robert Battey used the word velleity. Once you know what it means you may find yourself dropping it into everyday speech, but for one reader, learning new words is not what the news should be all about.
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Topics:
Vocabulary
Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Memorial Day: Is It "Celebrated" or "Observed"?
Sometimes celebration is not an appropriate word
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.
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Topics:
Usage
Behind the DictionaryLexicographers Talk About Language
History in the Toolbox: The Vocabulary of Electrical Units
I am guessing that the average electrician doesn't realize how much history is knocking about in his or her toolbox. Volt, amp, ohm, watt—these electrical units are all eponyms, derived from the names of pioneers in the field. Let's have a tour.
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