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A hearty congratulations from all of us here at the Visual Thesaurus to Sameer Mishra, winner of the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee! Sameer, a 13-year-old from West Lafayette, Indiana, triumphed over his competitors by correctly spelling a very fitting word in the final round: guerdon, meaning "reward or payment." His reward was $35,000 in cash and various other prizes. The second-place finisher, Sidharth Chand of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, performed admirably on words like introuvable ("impossible to find"), but he eventually erred in spelling prosopopoeia, a personifying figure of speech. Continue reading...

Greetings from Portland, Oregon, where the American Dialect Society is holding its annual conference. On Thursday, in my capacity as chair of the society's New Words Committee, I presided over the nominating session for various categories in our Word of the Year selection. Continue reading...

A great choice for middle school readers, A Long Walk to Water by Newberry award-winner Linda Sue Park introduces two true stories set in Sudan. Continue reading...

When it first became evident that Hurricane Sandy might merge with an inland snowstorm to create a superstorm, the creative labels started pouring in. Snowicane. Snor'eastercane. Frankenstorm. But now that the storm has shut down much of the East Coast, is it time to set aside such wordplay? Continue reading...

At the American Dialect Society's annual conference in Minneapolis, we have nominated words in various categories in our Word of the Year selection. I presided over the nominating session on Thursday in my capacity as chair of the society's New Words Committee. Winners will be selected from the different categories on Friday evening, culminating in the vote for the overall Word of the Year. Here's the list of nominees. Continue reading...

On this day in 1974, The New York Times carried the historic resignation of President Richard Milhous Nixon. Learn ten words used to tell this story here.

Then see Vocabulary Begets Vocabulary: The More You Know, the More You Learn to understand why learning these words will help you absorb others as you read.

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On this day in 1947, The New York Times covered the transfer of sovereignty from Great Britain to newly independent nations India and Pakistan. Learn ten words used to tell this story here.

Then see Vocabulary Begets Vocabulary: The More You Know, the More You Learn to understand why learning these words will help you absorb others as you read.

Continue reading...

We're happy to announce a major improvement to the Vocabulary.com dictionary pages that will make them even more useful for language learners, with definitions that are better organized and easier to navigate. Continue reading...

The third month of the 2018-19 Vocabulary Bowl is in the books. Find out which schools cracked the Top 10 in their divisions. Continue reading...