Frederick Douglass wrote with fire in his pen, harnessing the specific and powerful language of his day to decry the abomination of slavery in his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Continue reading...
It's always exciting to see new projects teachers design to bring vocab learning to life. Last year we put together a roundup of four great projects we'd come across. Here are four more ideas we've come across recently. Continue reading...
A law firm that specializes in defending whistleblowers has started a petition on Change.org to persuade dictionaries and thesauruses to ditch their derogatory synonyms for whistleblower in favor of positive terms. Continue reading...
Just weeks after we saw miscreant used to describe Chris Christie, we see it again in Sunday's New York Times, where writer William D. Cohan used it to describe the wolf of "The Wolf of Wall Street" fame, Jordan Belfort. Continue reading...
Meryl Davis and Charlie White made history this week as the first Americans ever to win the Olympic gold medal in ice dancing. But for language watchers, an even more interesting question than who would take first place was this: What's a twizzle? Continue reading...
Follow news coverage of the Olympics, the minimum wage debate, and Ukraine from a vocabularian's perspective by learning 10 words from this week's New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post coverage. Continue reading...
Look for Vocabulary pertaining to the other kind of Olympian? Check out five new vocabulary lists from the kid-favorite Rick Riordan series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Continue reading...
Iowa super-librarian Shannon Miller recently posted on her blog about introducing Vocabulary.com to fifth and sixth graders through a webinar led by Vocabulary.com director of curriculum development Georgia Scurletis. The verdict: Students were "Having Fun And Learning Lots Of New Words." Continue reading...
Presidents' speeches — and vocabulary choices — set the tone of their eras. Here at Vocabulary.com, we're in the business of preserving them through a series of lists drawn from some of the most well-known presidential speeches. Celebrate Presidents' Day today by trolling through the collection, or, for Presidents' Day purists, learn lists consisting exclusively of Washington's or Lincoln's words. Continue reading...
Today is the federal observation of George Washington's birthday, also called Presidents' Day. Five years ago, an unfortunate typo was discovered in a quotation from Washington chiseled on the front of the New York State Supreme Courthouse. That typo still lingers today. Continue reading...