We were thrilled to read an interview in which Drew Barrymore talks about how she "fell in love with the dictionary." Turns out, she's as into words as we are, and her favorite is the little-known "empyrean." Continue reading...
Writing about an opt-out of testing movement brewing in her children's elementary school (and elsewhere), New Yorker writer Rebecca Mead used the highly-specific invigilate which, despite the fact that it describes a practice taking place in schools around the world every minute of every day, is a word most people don't know. Continue reading...
Writing for The New York Times last week about the tricky process of translating dialect from one language to another, literary translator Anthony Shugaar used the not-often-seen interlard. Continue reading...
Unpacking arboreal, canine, and monitory reveal wit and fun(!)in a David Gates review of Lorrie Moore's latest collection of short stories, "Bark." Continue reading...
Writing for Vulture, "the first in a weekly series of six essays looking at hip-hop's recent past, thinking about its distant past, and wondering about the possibility of a future," The Roots' Questlove uses the word trivial in such a knowledgeable and cool way we had to offer up a shout-out. Continue reading...
Recently, science writer Annie Murphy wrote about "E-memory—electronic memory, the kind that's available on a computer" and "O-memory—organic memory, the old-fashioned sort that resides in the brain." Here's how that distinction can help us think about the way we learn words. Continue reading...
We're always on the lookout for lists and mentions of rare or unusual words, and the bigger the better. Thus, we read with great interest the Huffington Post piece on "Big, Beautiful Words You Need To Start Using Immediately." Continue reading...
Looking to make your writing more vivid? Start with color! Here are more than 195 words to help you paint pictures in your readers' minds. Continue reading...
Do you have burning questions about how Vocabulary.com works and how you can get the most out of it? Our new Help Center makes it easier than ever to find the answers you're looking for. Continue reading...
The school year officially ended for students at Houston's St. Vincent de Paul School, but rising sixth, seventh and eighth grade students together mastered 11,349 words in the month of June. Continue reading...