32 33 34 35 36 Displaying 331-340 of 455 Results

  1. Behind the Dictionary

    Gleanings from the Political Word Maven
    Wed May 07 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    William Safire is surely known to Visual Thesaurus readers as the man behind "On Language," the weekly New York Times Magazine column that he has penned continuously since 1979. From 1973 to 2005 he was also a Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist for the Times, taking on the persona of a "vituperative right-wing scandalmonger," in his own self-deprecating terms. But since retiring from the Op/Ed page, his "word maven" persona is now ascendant, particularly with the latest edition of Safire's Political Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2008), a book that Newsweek has hailed as "the definitive work on the subject." Continue reading...

  2. Word Routes

    Bombology: Beyond the "Bomb Cyclone"
    Wed Jan 03 00:00:00 EST 2018
    Bomb, like its close relative boom, is an irresistible word that helps us describe an unpredictable world that can leave any of us feeling shellshocked and, lately, snowed-over. Continue reading...

  3. Dog Eared

    One Word: "Verb," by Lia Purpura
    Tue Oct 26 00:00:00 EDT 2010
    We are pleased to present another excerpt from the new anthology entitled, One Word: Contemporary Writers on the Words They Love or Loathe, published by Sarabande Books. The editor, Molly McQuade, asked 66 writers the question, "What one word means the most to you, and why?" Among the essays McQuade has collected is "Verb," by Lia Purpura. Continue reading...

  4. Behind the Dictionary

    What's "The Dictionary" Anyway?
    Fri Jul 22 00:00:00 EDT 2011
    When people talk about whether a word is "in the dictionary," have you stopped to think about what "the dictionary" actually means? In the following excerpt from her new book How to Read a Word, Elizabeth Knowles takes readers on a brief tour of the dictionary and its historical authority, informed by the likes of Voltaire and Samuel Johnson. Continue reading...

  5. Word Routes

    Temblor Shakes the East Coast (or Was it a Tremblor?)
    Wed Aug 24 00:00:00 EDT 2011
    Yesterday, the east coast of the United States was struck by a 5.8-magnitude earthquake — or, as it was frequently described in news accounts, a "temblor." Fortunately, the damage caused by the quake was limited, so instead we can contemplate the question: what the heck is a temblor? Or should the word be tremblor? Continue reading...

  6. Behind the Dictionary

    The Linguistic Impact of 9/11? "9/11" Itself
    Ten years later, "9/11" has become firmly entrenched in our lexicon.
    Mon Sep 12 00:00:00 EDT 2011
    The terrorist attacks on 9/11 happened ten years ago, and although everybody remembers what they were doing at that flashbulb moment, and many aspects of our lives were changed by those attacks, from traveling to shopping to going online, one thing stands out: the only significant impact that 9/11 has had on the English language is 9/11 itself. Continue reading...

  7. Word Routes

    The Art of the Self-Mocking Hashtag
    How the Twitter hashtag became a vehicle for self-deprecation.
    Fri Sep 23 00:00:00 EDT 2011
    It's fair to say that when it comes to online discourse we live in the Golden Age of Snark. (That's snark as in "snide commentary," not the imaginary animal of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "The Hunting of the Snark.") When every statement you make is open to sarcastic rebuttals, sometimes the best policy is to ridicule yourself before someone else has the chance. Nowhere is this more true than Twitter, where the convention of the "hashtag" has been pressed into the service of self-mockery. Continue reading...

  8. Dog Eared

    "From Elvish to Klingon": An Impressive Overview of Conlang-ology
    A new book explores the fascinating world of constructed languages.
    Fri Dec 16 00:00:00 EST 2011

    When word nerdom and sci-fi nerdom collide, what do you get? A dictionary-bot that recites definitions while performing the duties of a butler? Someday, I hope that's true. For now, the answer is From Elvish to Klingon: Exploring Invented Languages: a thorough look at invented languages (also known as conlangs, short for constructed languages) from sci-fi and elsewhere. Continue reading...

  9. Word Count

    It's a Number! It's a Word! It's Both!
    Wed Feb 29 00:00:00 EST 2012

    A friend of mine recently alerted me to an odd type of "word." See if you can guess what the following mean:

    •   l10n
    •   i18n
    •   d11n
    Continue reading...

  10. Word Routes

    On Opening Day, Remembering How Baseball Begat "Jazz"
    Wed Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2012
    Today is opening day for Major League Baseball, though the only game on the schedule is in far-off Tokyo, where the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics are beginning a two-game series. But let's cast our minds back to opening day a century ago. On April 2, 1912, in a Pacific Coast League game between the Portland Beavers and the Los Angeles Angels, a pitcher uncorked his "jazz ball" — and possibly helped set into motion a chain of events that brought the word jazz together with the music it named. Continue reading...
32 33 34 35 36 Displaying 331-340 of 455 Results
Blog Departments
Announcements Tips & Tricks
Browse by Date
2026 Articles 2025 Articles 2024 Articles 2023 Articles 2022 Articles 2021 Articles 2020 Articles 2019 Articles 2018 Articles 2017 Articles 2016 Articles 2015 Articles 2014 Articles 2013 Articles 2012 Articles 2011 Articles 2010 Articles 2009 Articles 2008 Articles 2007 Articles 2006 Articles 2005 Articles

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.