Writing for Slate, James S. Murphy explores the history of the flashcard, calling the Vocabulary.com app "the first significant improvement on the flashcard model of learning in 200 years." Continue reading...
We have all seen this tired loop of "instruction": distribute word list, have students look up words, ask students to use the words in original sentences. While encouraging usage is never a bad idea, it's not realistic to expect students to pivot from definition to usage without guidance. We suggest ditching (or at least delaying) the idea of originality and instead asking students to model their sentences on usage examples written by those people who are especially skilled with using words: professional writers. Continue reading...
We have all seen this tired loop of "instruction": distribute word list, have students look up words, ask students to use the words in original sentences. While encouraging usage is never a bad idea, it's not realistic to expect students to pivot from definition to usage without guidance. We suggest ditching (or at least delaying) the idea of originality and instead asking students to model their sentences on usage examples written by those people who are especially skilled with using words: professional writers. Continue reading...
If someone is complicit, they're guilty of helping someone commit a crime or misdeed. If they're complacent, they're guilty of letting something happen even if they have the power to intervene or stop it. A complaisant person, on the other hand, is only guilty of one thing: being a people pleaser. Continue reading...
Have a list of vocabulary words to learn for school? Need to learn to spell a list of words? Want to improve your reading comprehension? Not only is Vocabulary.com an excellent tool for building vocabulary, it can help you do your homework as well. Continue reading...
Did you know that with Vocabulary.com, it's quick and easy to make interactive Vocabulary Lists? You supply the words; we supply the definitions and example sentences. Or if you're pulling vocabulary out of a text, we'll build the list from soup to nuts.
Watch this short video to see how it works. Or follow step by step instructions below. Continue reading...
George Dong, the founder of the not-for-profit Education in Sight, started learning English at age 15-years with the help of an e-dictionary. Now, he uses Vocabulary.com. Continue reading...
When logophiles Henry and Catherine Petroski were first falling in love, they passed each other "word stumper" notes in lieu of flowers and candy. Want to replicate their game? Here are ten word stumpers to enjoy or share. Continue reading...
If Argentina had prevailed against Germany in yesterday's World Cup final, you couldn't really have called it an upset. Germany had dominated during the past weeks of World Cup play, but Argentina had gone in as a strong contender. It was a hard fought game decided by a single goal scored in extra time. Neither an upset nor its opposite. Which brings up an interesting vocabulary question: What would a word for the opposite of an upset be? Do we have one in English? Continue reading...
They could have called it a dustup. A run-in. Fisticuffs. A kerfuffle. (Or even the sequipedalian batrachomyomachia.) But the BBC chose to use fracas in describing the event that led to the the suspension of Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, sending many of us to our dictionaries with the question, "What does that mean?" Continue reading...