It's not just how many words you know, it's how well you know them. Learn how Vocabulary.com works with you to achieve word mastery. Continue reading...
Although turkeys were domesticated by Native Americans, turkey itself is not a Native American word. In this excerpt from a new book The Language of Food, linguist and Stanford University professor Dan Jurafsky charts the complicated path the word turkey followed into English, then serves up a slice of etymological pecan pie. Continue reading...
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. So many of us learned that outrageous mouthful of a word at an early age, when it was truly a verbal milestone to be able to pronounce it without getting tongue-tied. And just saying the word is an invitation to start singing the song from the classic 1964 Disney movie Mary Poppins. But how did the word come to be? When I heard the news that one of the Mary Poppins songwriters passed away last month, I set about to answer that question, taking me down many unexpected alleyways of 20th-century popular culture. Continue reading...
Wow! What a response my last column received. Any time The Washington Post excerpts your work, you know you're on to something. My thoughts on teaching vocabulary out of literary context struck a chord with many readers, and I thought it would be beneficial for all if I answered a few questions and shared a few further thoughts this month. Continue reading...
Perpetual runners-up toppled recent winners in the last month of 2019. Where does your school stack up on the Vocab Bowl leaderboards? Check out the latest highlights and shoutouts. Continue reading...
In the wake of all the gleeful bashing of "phablet" (an ungainly blend of "phone" and "tablet"), we're opening up the floor. What words get your goat? "Moist"? "Slacks"? How about "nostril"? Continue reading...
From this past Thursday's New York Times: "In case you haven't noticed, some of the most amusing and captivating writing in the city is being produced in the service of cheese." Check out our Vocabulary List "Words for Cheese" drawn from this cheese writing, and an earlier Vocabulary.com blog post "Cheese Words" for a quick primer on cheese vocabulary (and cheese itself). Continue reading...