Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles from 2014
Dept. of Word Lists
Walter Dean Myers Merged the Vocabularies of Literature and the Street
Remembering the children's author with his words
Award-winning children's writer Walter Dean Myers's described the two "very distinct voices" in his head in his teen years as the vocabulary of "the street" and "the vocabulary of literature." Two vocabulary lists from his novels show how carefully he merged the two in his writing.
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Hillary Clinton put her foot in her mouth recently when she made some comments that made it sound like she and her family were inches from the poorhouse and perhaps down to their last mouthful of gruel. She tried to explain this gaffe by saying those comments were inartful. Huh?
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Just in time for the 4th of July, our own Ben Zimmer investigates how the term "Yank" started off as a term of disparagement but was reclaimed as an expression of patriotic pride in settings from world wars to the World Cup.
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Dept. of Word Lists
Declare Your Independence...From Dictionary Look Ups
Check out 30 words that help make sense of our nation's founding document
This Independence Day, go back to the holiday's roots with this list of Declaration of Independence Vocabulary. Or follow us on twitter, where we'll be tweeting some great words from the list throughout the holiday weekend.
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Announcements
Vocabulary.com Garners Two Prestigious Library Honors
The American Library Association's AASL and MARS sections recognize our Dictionary and teaching tools
At the American Library Association annual conference this week, Vocabulary.com was selected for two significant honors. We are proud to announce them here and to extend our heartfelt thanks to the reference and school librarians who nominated and reviewed Vocabulary.com.
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Visiting ISTE? We'll be there and would love a chance to chat with you about vocabulary learning, what you're doing in your classroom or school, and how we can help. Come by Booth #2855 to get a conversation started.
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Vocabulary Shout-Out
Hard to Believe: "Innovation" Wasn't Always a Good Thing
When "make it new" meant "make it worse"
It's always interesting to learn about a word whose connotation has changed over time, especially when the change was radical. This is the story of innovation, and it turns out it's also the story of disruption, innovation's frequent pair. So what's next?
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