Short and spare, and following a two-and-a-half-hour oration that had brought listeners to tears, The Gettysburg Address received only polite applause when Abraham Lincoln delivered the speech. Of course, it has since come to be considered one of our country's defining statements of national values.Continue reading...
At a time when every civilized man carried a sonnet to his secret lover tucked into a back pocket, Shakespeare's sonnets out-swooned every other swoon-seeker's, and Sonnet 116 "Let me not to the marriage of true minds," has remained a favorite of lovers everywhere. For Valentine's Day, master some tricky words using our Sonnet 116 Vocabulary List.Continue reading...
The story of Steve Henderson — a software engineer bent on single-handedly fixing every use of the word comprise in Wikipedia entries where compose would be more appropriate — has captured the popular imagination. Yesterday, Southern California Public Radio invited our own Ben Zimmer to explain the difference and weigh in on the wisdom of Henderson's quest.Continue reading...
Last night, Jon Stewart announced that he will be retiring from Comedy Central's The Daily Show. We'll miss Stewart and his writing team for lots of reasons. But as dedicated vocabularians, we'll be especially sorry to see the end of Stewart's skewering of overhyped news through clever use of word blending, known as portmanteaus.Continue reading...
If you've been keeping up with the latest Vocabulary.com news, you may have noticed that we've introduced information-rich dashboards for teachers and administrators in schools that have signed up for our Educator Edition. We wanted to share that data-driven goodness with all Vocabulary.com users, and so we've rolled out new features to monitor your progress and identify where you're having trouble.Continue reading...
Quiz is a word with a background so baffling it might make you feel a bit quizzical. For Slate's Lexicon Valley podcast, I delve into the mysterious origins of quiz and its long-forgotten brother quoz.Continue reading...
We're pleased to announce that Vocabulary.com has launched a strategic partnership with Follett Corporation, which has provided students and teachers with quality educational material for more than 140 years. The initiative is part of the Follett Knowledge Fund, which is committed to supporting and developing new technology with the potential to improve student outcomes.Continue reading...